This is a new edition, Adeptio's Vintage Edition, of Charles Dickens's Adventures of Oliver Twist (or, The Parish Boy's Progress), originally published in 1897 by Chapman & Hall, Ld., of London, with illustrations by George Cruikshank.
Part of Adeptio's Unforgettable Classic Series, this is not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Adeptio Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. The eBook edition was designed in an elegant style and set to take full advantage of the readers' devices.
Oliver Twist is Dickens's second novel, and is considered one of Dickens's masterpieces and helped establish Dickens's reputation throughout the world.
About the Author:
Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812-June 9, 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He was the second of eight children of Elizabeth Dickens (née Barrow; 1789 1863) and John Dickens (1785-1851). He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Dickens's works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today.
Born in England, in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Still a child, he lived in a back-attic in the house of an agent for the Insolvent Court, Archibald Russell. To pay for his board and to help his family, Dickens was forced to leave school and work ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs, near the present Charing Cross railway station, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on pots of boot blacking. The strenuous and often harsh working conditions made a lasting impression on Dickens and later influenced his fiction and essays, becoming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labor conditions, the rigors of which he believed were unfairly borne by the poor. He later wrote that he wondered "how I could have been so easily cast away at such an age."
Dickens has been praised by many of his fellow writers-from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell, G. K. Chesterton, and Tom Wolfe-for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterizations, and social criticism.
Charles Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of "The Pickwick Papers." Within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humor, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, initially published in monthly or weekly installments; this format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback.
Despite his lack of formal education, Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, published over a dozen major novels and novellas, a large number of short stories- including a number of Christmas-themed stories-a handful of plays, several nonfiction books and articles, lectured, and performed readings extensively between 1836 and 1870. He died on June 9, 1870 in Kent, England.
Dickens's impressive works include masterpieces such as A Christmas Carol, Dombey and Son; Christmas Stories; Sketches of Young Couples, Young Ladies, Young Gentlemen; Adventures of Oliver Twist (or, The Parish Boy's Progress), and A Tale of Two Cities (A Story of the French Revolution)-all published by Adeptio Editions.
