&quot;Oliver Twist&quot; is Charles Dickens&#39; second novel and, like many of his books, it was first published in monthly instalments. Its first instalment came out in 1837, and its final chapters was published in 1839.<br /><br />The first chapters of Dickens&rsquo;s first &ldquo;true&rdquo; novel, &quot;Oliver Twist&quot;, which he began to write concurrently with <i>the picaresque adventures of Mr. Pickwick</i>, form a hard-hitting satire on the inhuman cruelties of the New Poor Laws of 1834. These dictated that society&rsquo;s jobless and desperate should be virtually imprisoned in harsh institutions known as workhouses. Into one of these a little bastard boy is born&mdash;the lowest of the low, christened &ldquo;Oliver Twist&rdquo; by a pompous parish official, Mr. Bumble the beadle. Yet Oliver is in fact a gentleman by blood, with a fortune awaiting him, for his story is also a romance of origins, a battered child&rsquo;s wish fulfilment.<br /><br />&quot;Oliver Twist&quot; is a gritty, realistic novel that is full of Dickens&#39; trademark satire on class and whatnot. Even if you haven&#39;t read it, you&#39;ve probably seen one of the dozen or so movies based on it.