Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

In Oliver Twist, Oliver is born in a poor house. He's later sold to an undertaker, from whom he runs away. Oliver then has a series of adventures with the Artful Dodger, the criminal mastermind Fagin, and a woman who turns out to be his aunt. Oliver spends part of his childhood in a workhouse for the poor, where one day he goes up to a cook and says his famous lines, "Please, sir, may I have some more?" After he meets the Artful Dodger and the evil Fagin, he unwittingly joins their gang and becomes a pickpocket. Oliver is arrested, reprieved, kidnapped, and forced to break into the house of a woman who turns out to be his aunt. He inherits a decent sum of money and thereafter lives a respectable life.