The Artful Dodger picking a pocket to the amazement of Oliver Twist (far right); illustration by George Cruikshank for Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1837–39).
Oliver Twist, fictional character, a young orphan who is the hero of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist (1837–39), a novel that illustrates how poverty nurtures crime.
This article was most recently revised and updated by John M. Cunningham.