Oliver Twist is the second novel by the english writer Charles Dickens. It was first published as a serial between 1837 and 1839. The story is about a young orphan, Oliver Twist, who gets involved in a tumultuous series of misadventures leading him to the huge and not welcoming city of London. He will be unwillingly involved in shady dealings of a gang of criminals and he will have to fight for his own survival. This book is a masterpiece of literature and a brilliant example of XIX century social novel. It is steeped by a deep black sense of humour concerning thorny issues such as child labor and life in a metropolis devastated by a violent industrialization which destroys every human value.This novel has inspired many film adaptations, one by David Lean (1948), one by Carol Reed (1968), and the most recent by the Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski (2005).