"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens is a novel published serially from 1837 to 1839. The story follows an orphan who escapes from a workhouse to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin. As Oliver navigates the dangerous underworld, mysterious forces work to keep him from discovering the secrets of his parentage. This social novel exposes the cruel treatment of orphans and the sordid lives of criminals in mid-19th century England, satirizing child labor and the exploitation of street children.