"Oliver Twist" (1838) is one of the best loved and darkest of Dickens' novels and presents some of the most memorable of Dickens' great characters, from the rascal antics of street urchin the Artful Dodger, the manipulative seediness of Fagin and the threatening brutality of Bill Sykes, to the kindness of prostitute Nancy and the innocence of Oliver, who escapes the horrors of the workhouse where he dares to ask for more, only to find himself taken in by a den of thieves in London's underworld. "Oliver Twist" is Dickens' first social tract and a significant development in his growth as a writer keen to appeal to the widest audience while discussing the most serious of subjects. Shocking for its time, it is a masterful expose of the inadequa cy of the British Poor Laws and the evils that corrupted the childhood innocence in Victorian society...Based on the world-famous "Nonesuch Press" edition of 1937, the text is taken from the 1867 Chapman and Hall edition, which became known as the Ch arles Dickens edition, and was the last edition to be corrected by the author himself. "The Nonesuch" edition contains illustrations selected by Dickens himself, by artists including Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'), George Cruikshank, John Leech, Rober t Seymour and George Cattermole. The new "Nonesuch Dickens" reproduces the original elegance of these beautiful editions. Books are printed on natural cream shade high quality stock, are quarter bound in bonded leather with cloth sides, include a rib bon marker and feature special printed endpapers. Each book is wrapped in a protective, clear acetate jacket.