Orphan of the Mist

Author: (British) Charles Dickens and Gu Yijun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Oliver Twist is Dickens' second novel. At the age of only twenty-five, the young novelist resolved to follow the example of the British realist painter William Hogarth (1697–1764), bravely confronting life and authentically depicting the miserable life in London's slums at the time. It has been defined by scholars in China and the former Soviet Union as the "founder and greatest representative of critical realism in British literature." Oliver Twist is a great social novel and holds an important place in the history of world literature. The novel primarily reflects the life at the lowest strata of British society shortly after the passage of the Poor Law. Nancy is an unfortunate girl who fell into the thieves' den in her childhood and has become the mistress of the second-in-command, Bill Sikes. However, she retains a sense of morality. When she encounters Oliver Twist, an orphan raised in a workhouse since childhood, she sees her own past innocence reflected in his innocent and pure nature, and a wave of sympathy arises within her. Despite obeying Sikes' orders to kidnap Oliver and return him to the thieves' den, she ultimately risks her life to rescue Oliver.