In the figure of the half-starved Oliver in the workhouse asking for 'more', Dickens created the nineteenth century's most famous image of protest against cruelty. Yet Oliver Twist develops from a topical satire on the inhumanity of the New Poor Law into something greater. What unfolds is a powerful and violent struggle between Good and Evil, as Oliver becomes ensnared in the labyrinth of London and the nightmare world of Fagin. With its macabre humour, its starkly rendered contrasts, and above all the unforgettable depiction of Fagin, Oliver Twist is the most compelling of Dickens's early novels. This edition of the carefully revised text of 1846 includes Dickens's Preface of 1841, the fullest early revelation of his artistic conceptions, and all of Cruikshank's illustrations. Comprehensive annotation is supported by appendices on the 1834 New Poor Law; the Newgate School of Fiction controversy; Dickens and Cruikshank; and .the language of thieves.