Works Cited......13

Introduction 

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) , an English writer and social critic, was famous for his serial publication of The Pickwick Papers(1837) when he was just 25 years old. His novella A Christmas Carol(1843) continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Great Expectations(1861) evokes images of early Victorian London. A Tale of Two Cities(1859) is his best-known work of historical fiction. He had more than twenty works during his whole life and was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. Most of his works are still famous now.  

Oliver Twist is Charles Dickens’ second novel and it’s first published as a serial. The story is about an orphan-Oliver Twist who started his life in a workhouse. Because of the request for another bowl of porridge, he was sold to a man as an apprenticeship with an undertaker. He fled from the coffin shop and walked to London on his own as he could never bear the insult any more. On the way to London, he was almost dead for hungry, but was luckily saved by a warm-hearted old lady. While in London, he fell into the robber den unfortunately, but he got his heritage with the help of Nancy and Mr.Brownlow after going through a serious of difficulties .论文网

Relatively to the other works of Dickens, Oliver Twist is not of great value, but it is of great importance. That’s the reason why I choose this novel for my research. 

Oliver Twist is a classical novel and many scholars have made researches on it. Foreign scholar Gilbert Keith Chesterton had made a research on Charles Dickens’ works and published Appreciations and Criticisms of the works of Charles Dickens in 1911. In the book, Mr.Gilbert made a brief introduction of Sikes, Nancy and Oliver about their characters and social meaning. Published many years ago, the analysis of the characters is not very detailed and the understanding of value at that time is a little different from nowadays’, however, it is still an important book for us to take a look. What’s more, many universities still do research on Oliver Twist now.The famous university of California have many outstanding professors do research and hold seminar to talk about it every year.