Textual notes and critical essays accompany the tale of a poor orphan's adventures in the criminal underworld of mid-nineteenth century London This Norton Critical Edition of a Dickens favorite reprints the 1846 text, the last edition of the novel substantially revised by Dickens and the one that most clearly reflects his authorial intentions. Preface ix The Text of Oliver Twist The Author's Preface to the Third Edition (1841) 3(6) Cover Illustration by George Cruikshank (Part I, January 1846) 9(2) Title Page for the 1846 One-Volume Edition 11(2) The Contents of Oliver Twist 13(4) Oliver Twist (The Edition of 1846) 17(345) Illustration: Oliver asking for more (Cruikshank) 28(84) Illustration: Oliver's reception by Fagin and the boys (Cruikshank) 112(250) Backgrounds and Sources A Map of the London of Oliver Twist (1828) 362(3) The Poor Law Debate 365(7) The Poor Law Riots 372(2) Letters About Oliver Twist (1837-64) 374(5) Charles Dickens To Richard Bentley, January 24, 1837 374(1) To Richard Bentley, May 8, 1837 375(1) To Thomas Beard, May 17, 1837 375(1) To Thomas Haines, June 3, 1837 376(1) To George Cruikshank, October 13, 1837 376(1) To John Forster, Mid-December 1837 377(1) To Richard Bentley, October 3, 1838 377(1) To John Forster, October 6 or 13, 1838 377(1) To Eliza Davis, July 10, 1963 378(1) To Eliza David, November 16, 1864 378(1) Table of Installments and Chapter-Division in Different Editions of Oliver Twist 379(2) An Appeal to Fallen Women 381(3) Charles Dickens Sikes and Nancy 384(15) Charles Dickens Early Reviews From The Examiner, September 10, 1837 399(2) John Forster From the Spectator, November 24, 1838 401(1) Anonymous From The Literary Gazette, November 24, 1838 402(1) Anonymous From Monthly Review, January 1839 403(2) Anonymous From Quarterly Review, 1839 405(3) Richard Ford On Oliver Twist (1839-40) 408(2) William Makepeace Thackeray Charles Dickens and His Works (April 1840) 410(5) Anonymous Literary Recipes (August 1841) 415(4) Anonymous Criticism On Oliver Twist and Cruikshank 419(2) Henry James Oliver Twist 421(5) George Gissing The Young Dickens 426(6) Graham Greene Oliver Twist 432(16) J. Hillis Miller Dickens and the Jews 448(6) Harry Stone Dickens and Murder 454(7) Philip Collins Oliver Twist: ``Things as they really are'' 461(8) John Bayley The Newgate Novel and the Moral Argument, 1837-40 469(9) Keith Hollingsworth Who Is Fagin? 478(17) Steven Marcus The Social and Political Issues 495(5) Monroe Engel Oliver Twist: Laughter and the Rhetoric of Attack 500(8) James R. Kincaid On Reading Oliver Twist 508(7) Michael Slater Oliver Twist and Charity 515(10) Dennis Walder The Text and Plan of Oliver Twist 525(12) Burton M. Wheeler Oliver Twist and Christian Scripture 537(15) Janet Larson The Creation of Oliver Twist 552(5) Fred Kaplan ``The Old Story'' and Inside Stories: Modish Fiction and Fictional Modes in Oliver Twist 557(17) Robert Tracy Oliver Twist and the Police 574(6) David Miller The Purloined Handkerchief 580(13) John O. Jordan The Loves of Oliver Twist 593(16) Garry Wills A Chronology 609(2) Charles Dickens Selected Bibliography 611