Who Were The Real Oliver Twists?

Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist exposed a brutal but commonplace system of child exploitation to Victorian readers. Conditions in workhouses, factories, and child criminal gangs posed lethal and daily hazards to children born to poverty. Several much-needed reforms took place in the aftermath of Oliver Twist ’s publication. But what were the circumstances of childhood poverty in Victorian London and other English cities? And who were the real Oliver Twists? This book explores how nineteenth centur