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Oliver Twist · Chapters

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Chapter companions for Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

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  1. Chapter 1

    Treats of the Place Where Oliver Twist Was Born and of the Circumstances Attending His Birth

    Oliver Twist is born in a workhouse to a young woman who dies shortly after childbirth. The parish surgeon and a drunken nurse attend the birth. The mother is revealed to be unmarried, and Oliver is left as a parish orphan, destined for a life of hardship.

  2. Chapter 2

    II: Treats of Oliver Twist’s Growth, Education, and Board

    Oliver Twist spends his first nine years in a parish workhouse farm under the neglectful care of Mrs. Mann, who starves the children for profit. On his ninth birthday, after being punished for hunger, he is brought before the workhouse board, where he famously asks for more gruel. The board, horrified, offers a reward for anyone to take Oliver as an apprentice, and he is eventually sent back to the main workhouse.

  3. Chapter 3

    Relates How Oliver Twist Was Very Near Getting a Place Which Would Not Have Been a Sinecure

    After asking for more food, Oliver is imprisoned in a dark room for a week, subjected to cold baths and public floggings. The parish board attempts to apprentice him to Mr. Gamfield, a brutal chimney sweep, but the magistrates refuse to approve the indentures after seeing Oliver's terror. Oliver is returned to the workhouse, and the board re-advertises him.

  4. Chapter 4

    IV: Oliver, Being Offered Another Place, Makes His First Entry Into Public Life

    Oliver is apprenticed to Mr. Sowerberry, the undertaker, after the workhouse board considers sending him to sea. He is taken by Mr. Bumble to the undertaker's shop, where he meets Mr. and Mrs. Sowerberry. Despite Oliver's emotional plea of loneliness, he is treated harshly and given a meager meal of dog scraps before being sent to sleep among the coffins.

  5. Chapter 5

    Oliver Mingles with New Associates. Going to a Funeral for the First Time, He Forms an Unfavourable Notion of His Master’s Business

    Oliver begins his apprenticeship with Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker, feeling isolated and fearful in the gloomy shop. He meets Noah Claypole, a charity-boy who bullies him mercilessly. Oliver endures poor treatment from the Sowerberry household and accompanies his master to a funeral in a squalid tenement, where he witnesses the grief of a man whose wife died of starvation.

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  1. Chapter 6Oliver, Being Goaded by the Taunts of Noah, Rouses Into Action, and Rather Astonishes Him
  2. Chapter 7VII: Oliver Continues Refractory
  3. Chapter 8Oliver Walks to London. He Encounters on the Road a Strange Sort of Young Gentleman
  4. Chapter 9IX: Containing Further Particulars Concerning the Pleasant Old Gentleman, and His Hopeful Pupils
  5. Chapter 10Oliver Becomes Better Acquainted with the Characters of His New Associates; and Purchases Experience at a High Price. Being a Short, but Very Important Chapter, in This History
  6. Chapter 11XII: In Which Oliver Is Taken Better Care of Than He Ever Was Before. And in Which the Narrative Reverts to the Merry Old Gentleman and His Youthful Friends
  7. Chapter 12XIII: Some New Acquaintances Are Introduced to the Intelligent Reader, Connected with Whom Various Pleasant Matters Are Related, Appertaining to This History
  8. Chapter 13XIV: Comprising Further Particulars of Oliver’s Stay at Mr. Brownlow’s, with the Remarkable Prediction Which One Mr. Grimwig Uttered Concerning Him, When He Went Out on an Errand
  9. Chapter 14XV: Showing How Very Fond of Oliver Twist the Merry Old Jew and Miss Nancy Were
  10. Chapter 15XVI: Relates What Became of Oliver Twist, After He Had Been Claimed by Nancy
  11. Chapter 16Oliver’s Destiny Continuing Unpropitious, Brings a Great Man to London to Injure His Reputation
  12. Chapter 17How Oliver Passed His Time in the Improving Society of His Reputable Friends
  13. Chapter 18XIX: In Which a Notable Plan Is Discussed and Determined On
  14. Chapter 19XX: Wherein Oliver Is Delivered Over to Mr. William Sikes
  15. Chapter 20XXI: The Expedition
  16. Chapter 21The Burglary
  17. Chapter 22Which Contains the Substance of a Pleasant Conversation Between Mr. Bumble and a Lady; and Shows That Even a Beadle May Be Susceptible on Some Points
  18. Chapter 23Treats on a Very Poor Subject. But Is a Short One, and May Be Found of Importance in This History
  19. Chapter 24Wherein This History Reverts to Mr. Fagin and Company
  20. Chapter 25Chapter XXVI: In Which a Mysterious Character Appears Upon the Scene; and Many Things, Inseparable from This History, Are Done and Performed
  21. Chapter 26Chapter XXVII: Atones for the Unpoliteness of a Former Chapter; Which Deserted a Lady, Most Unceremoniously
  22. Chapter 27XXVIII: Looks After Oliver, and Proceeds with His Adventures
  23. Chapter 28XXIX: Has an Introductory Account of the Inmates of the House, to Which Oliver Resorted
  24. Chapter 29XXX: Relates What Oliver's New Visitors Thought of Him
  25. Chapter 30Involves a Critical Position
  26. Chapter 31Of the Happy Life Oliver Began to Lead with His Kind Friends
  27. Chapter 32Wherein the Happiness of Oliver and His Friends Experiences a Sudden Check
  28. Chapter 33XXXIV: Contains Some Introductory Particulars Relative to a Young Gentleman Who Now Arrives Upon the Scene; and a New Adventure Which Happened to Oliver
  29. Chapter 34XXXV: Containing the Unsatisfactory Result of Oliver’s Adventure; and a Conversation of Some Importance Between Harry Maylie and Rose
  30. Chapter 35Chapter XXXVI: Is a Very Short One, and May Appear of No Great Importance in Its Place, but It Should Be Read Notwithstanding, as a Sequel to the Last, and a Key to One That Will Follow When Its Time Arrives
  31. Chapter 36XXXVII: In Which the Reader May Perceive a Contrast, Not Uncommon in Matrimonial Cases
  32. Chapter 37XXXVIII: Containing an Account of What Passed Between Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, and Mr. Monks, at Their Nocturnal Interview
  33. Chapter 38Chapter XXXIX: Introduces Some Respectable Characters with Whom the Reader Is Already Acquainted, and Shows How Monks and the Jew Laid Their Worthy Heads Together
  34. Chapter 39A Strange Interview, Which Is a Sequel to the Last Chapter
  35. Chapter 40XLI: Containing Fresh Discoveries, and Showing That Surprises, Like Misfortunes, Seldom Come Alone
  36. Chapter 41An Old Acquaintance of Oliver’s, Exhibiting Decided Marks of Genius, Becomes a Public Character in the Metropolis
  37. Chapter 42Wherein Is Shown How the Artful Dodger Got Into Trouble
  38. Chapter 43The Time Arrives for Nancy to Redeem Her Pledge to Rose Maylie. She Fails
  39. Chapter 44Noah Claypole Is Employed by Fagin on a Secret Mission
  40. Chapter 45XLVI: The Appointment Kept
  41. Chapter 46Fatal Consequences
  42. Chapter 47XLVIII: The Flight of Sikes
  43. Chapter 48Monks and Mr. Brownlow at Length Meet. Their Conversation, and the Intelligence That Interrupts It
  44. Chapter 49The Pursuit and Escape
  45. Chapter 50Affording an Explanation of More Mysteries Than One, and Comprehending a Proposal of Marriage with No Word of Settlement or Pin-Money
  46. Chapter 51Fagin's Last Night Alive
  47. Chapter 52LIII: And Last
  48. Chapter 53Endnotes