Oliver Twist, or
The Parish Boy's Progress, is the second novel by
Charles Dickens, and was first published as a
serial 1837–9. The story is of the orphan
Oliver Twist, who starts his life in a
workhouse and is then sold into an apprenticeship with an
undertaker. He escapes from there and travels to London where he meets the
Artful Dodger, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets, which is led by the elderly criminal
Fagin.