Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback series of Clothbound Classics, designed by award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these elegant and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colored cloth with foil stamped into the design. The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse only to be inducted into a gang of thieves, shocked readers when it was first published. Dickens' tale of the innocence of childhood threatened by evil depicts the dark criminal underworld of a London filled with vivid and unforgettable characters - the arch-villain Fagin, the crafty Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes, and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic romance, Newgate novel, and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new type of novel, harshly critical of a brutal society and imbued with an inexplicable sense of threat and mystery.