Summary Oliver Twist’s mother dies shortly after giving birth to him in a workhouse. At nine years old he goes to live with an undertaker where he is cruelly treated. He then runs away to London, where he becomes involved with a gang of child thieves, controlled by the evil Fagin. After a street robbery goes wrong, Oliver is cared for by the kindly Mr Brownlow but he soon ends up back in the grips of Fagin and his accomplice Bill Sikes. Oliver is shot while breaking into the Maylie’s house and later recovers there, once again free of Fagin. However, Fagin and the mysterious Mr Monks plot to recapture him. Nancy, Sikes’s girlfriend, hears of the plot and tells Rose Maylie. On hearing of her deception, Sikes murders Nancy. We learn that Oliver is actually Monk’s half brother and entitled to a fortune from his father’s will, which was destroyed, and that Monks has been trying to turn Oliver into a criminal to discredit him. The truth comes out in the end and the characters get what they deserve. Sikes is killed, Fagin is hanged, and Oliver eventually finds long-lasting happiness. Chapters 1–3: The story begins in the workhouse where a boy is born. His mother dies soon after the birth and the child is named Oliver Twist. The first nine years of his life are spent in the terrible conditions of cold and hunger that prevailed in the workhouse. Then one day Oliver asks for some more food at dinner time and the enraged Mr Bumble pays for Oliver to be taken away by a local undertaker, Mr Sowerberry. Oliver suffers further mistreatment at the hands of Noah Claypole, an employee, and Mrs Sowerberry. After suffering physical and mental abuse, he decides to run away to London. Chapters 4–6: Oliver sets off on foot for London. On the way he meets a strange boy, Jack Dawkins, who befriends him and offers him a place to stay in London. Dawkins leads Oliver to a house of unimaginable filth, and introduces him to an ugly old man, Fagin. At first, Fagin and the boys who live with him seem very kind to Oliver. One day, Oliver asks if he can go to ‘work’ with the other boys and it is then that he realises they are all thieves. Jack Dawkins and Charley Bates steal a handkerchief from an old man, Mr Brownlow. The man raises the alarm, and in the confusion Oliver is apprehended by a policeman. Mr Brownlow takes pity on Oliver and takes him to his house. Fagin and his evil friend Bill Sikes are informed of this development and make plans to get Oliver back, with the help of Bill’s girlfriend, Nancy. Chapters 7–9: Oliver is very content in Mr Brownlow’s house, which is very clean and comfortable. One day, Oliver offers to take some books and some money to a bookshop for Mr Brownlow. On the way to the shop, Oliver is captured by Bill Sikes and Nancy and taken back to Fagin’s house. Fagin tells Oliver that he has to work for him. Sikes and Fagin plan a robbery in a country house, and they choose Oliver as the boy they need to enter thehouse through a small window. Oliver enters the house, but a noise wakes up the household, and Oliver is shot. Sikes grabs him and runs away, but then drops him in a field. Chapters 10–12: Oliver wakes up and decides to enter the house again. A doctor is called to attend to Oliver’s wound. The owners of the house, Rose Maylie and her aunt, Mrs Maylie, nurse Oliver through a fever. He recovers and enjoys several months of happiness. Then, one night when he is half asleep, he thinks he sees Fagin and another man at his window and screams. Meanwhile, back in the workhouse, Mr Bumble receives a visitor, Mr Monks. Monks questions Bumble about Oliver, and wants to see a woman who knows something about Oliver’s mother. Bumble arranges a meeting and an old woman gives Monks a locket that belonged to Oliver’s mother. Monks then throws this into the river. Chapters 13–17: Nancy overhears a conversation between Fagin and Monks concerning Oliver. She decides to tell Rose Maylie, who is now in a London hotel with Oliver. She informs Rose that Monks believes Oliver to be his brother and is planning terrible things for him. Nancy arranges to meet Rose on London Bridge on Sunday night. There she tells Brownlow and Rose where they can find Monks, and what he looks like. Noah Claypole, who is hiding nearby, overhears the conversation and runs to tell Fagin. Claypole then recounts his story to Bill Sikes, who in a mad rage, batters Nancy to death with a heavy stick. Chapters 18–21: Sikes decides to leave London, but returns with plans to escape to France. Meanwhile, Monks is brought to Brownlow’s house. Brownlow tells Monks what he believes happened in the past. Monks’s father separated from his wife, and fell in love with a beautiful young girl, Agnes. He planned to marry her, but died suddenly. Agnes died soon afterwards in the workhouse, after giving birth to Oliver, making Oliver Monks’s half brother. Monks’s father left a will giving half of his property to Oliver, a will that Monks’s mother then destroyed. Brownlow accuses Monks of throwing away a locket, proof of Oliver’s parentage, and of paying Fagin to turn Oliver into a thief. Monks admits to everything. Sikes later dies by accidentally hanging himself, Fagin is sentenced to death and hanged, and Oliver lives happily as Brownlow’s adopted son.
