You can read all of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist at The Circumlocution Office. Use the chapter list below to access a particular chapter.

Chapter 1. TREATS OF THE PLACE WHERE OLIVER TWIST WAS BORN AND OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING HIS BIRTH.

He was badged and ticketed, and fell into his place at once – a parish child – the orphan of a workhouse – the humble, half-starved drudge – to be cuffed and buffeted through the world – despised by all, and pitied by none.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 1.

Chapter 2. TREATS OF OLIVER TWIST’S GROWTH, EDUCATION, AND BOARD.

Please, sir, I want some more.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 2.

Chapter 3. RELATES HOW OLIVER TWIST WAS VERY NEAR GETTING A PLACE WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A SINECURE.

Chapter 4. OLIVER, BEING OFFERED ANOTHER PLACE, MAKES HIS FIRST ENTRY INTO PUBLIC LIFE.

Chapter 5. OLIVER MINGLES WITH NEW ASSOCIATES. GOING TO A FUNERAL FOR THE FIRST TIME, HE FORMS AN UNFAVOURABLE NOTION OF HIS MASTER’S BUSINESS.

Chapter 6. OLIVER, BEING GOADED BY THE TAUNTS OF NOAH, ROUSES INTO ACTION, AND RATHER ASTONISHES HIM.

It was a nice sickly season just at this time. In commercial phrase, coffins were looking up.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 6.

Chapter 7. OLIVER CONTINUES REFRACTORY.

Chapter 8. OLIVER WALKS TO LONDON. HE ENCOUNTERS ON THE ROAD A STRANGE SORT OF YOUNG GENTLEMAN.

Chapter 9. CONTAINING FURTHER PARTICULARS CONCERNING THE PLEASANT OLD GENTLEMAN, AND HIS HOPEFUL PUPILS.

What a fine thing capital punishment is! Dead men never repent; dead men never bring awkward stories to light.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 9.

Chapter 10. OLIVER BECOMES BETTER ACQUAINTED WITH THE CHARACTERS OF HIS NEW ASSOCIATES; AND PURCHASES EXPERIENCE AT A HIGH PRICE. BEING A SHORT, BUT VERY IMPORTANT CHAPTER, IN THIS HISTORY.

There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 10.

Chapter 11. TREATS OF MR. FANG THE POLICE MAGISTRATE; AND FURNISHES A SLIGHT SPECIMEN OF HIS MODE OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE.

Chapter 12. IN WHICH OLIVER IS TAKEN BETTER CARE OF THAN HE EVER WAS BEFORE. AND IN WHICH THE NARRATIVE REVERTS TO THE MERRY OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS YOUTHFUL FRIENDS.

Chapter 13. SOME NEW ACQUAINTANCES ARE INTRODUCED TO THE INTELLIGENT READER, CONNECTED WITH WHOM VARIOUS PLEASANT MATTERS ARE RELATED, APPERTAINING TO THIS HISTORY.

Chapter 14. COMPRISING FURTHER PARTICULARS OF OLIVER’S STAY AT MR. BROWNLOW’S, WITH THE REMARKABLE PREDICTION WHICH ONE MR. GRIMWIG UTTERED CONCERNING HIM, WHEN HE WENT OUT ON AN ERRAND.

Chapter 15. SHOWING HOW VERY FOND OF OLIVER TWIST, THE MERRY OLD JEW AND MISS NANCY WERE.

Chapter 16. RELATES WHAT BECAME OF OLIVER TWIST, AFTER HE HAD BEEN CLAIMED BY NANCY.

Chapter 17. OLIVER’S DESTINY CONTINUING UNPROPITIOUS, BRINGS A GREAT MAN TO LONDON TO INJURE HIS REPUTATION.

Chapter 18. HOW OLIVER PASSED HIS TIME IN THE IMPROVING SOCIETY OF HIS REPUTABLE FRIENDS.

Chapter 19. IN WHICH A NOTABLE PLAN IS DISCUSSED AND DETERMINED ON.

Chapter 20. WHEREIN OLIVER IS DELIVERED OVER TO MR. WILLIAM SIKES.

Chapter 21. THE EXPEDITION.

The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep, with filth and mire; a thick steam, perpetually rising from the reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog, which seemed to rest upon the chimney-tops, hung heavily above.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 21.

Chapter 22. THE BURGLARY.

Chapter 23. WHICH CONTAINS THE SUBSTANCE OF A PLEASANT CONVERSATION BETWEEN MR. BUMBLE AND A LADY; AND SHOWS THAT EVEN A BEADLE MAY BE SUSCEPTIBLE ON SOME POINTS.

The great principle of out-of-door relief is, to give the paupers exactly what they don’t want; and then they get tired of coming.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 23.

Chapter 24. TREATS ON A VERY POOR SUBJECT. BUT IS A SHORT ONE, AND MAY BE FOUND OF IMPORTANCE IN THIS HISTORY.

Chapter 25. WHEREIN THIS HISTORY REVERTS TO MR. FAGIN AND COMPANY.

Chapter 26. IN WHICH A MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER APPEARS UPON THE SCENE; AND MANY THINGS, INSEPARABLE FROM THIS HISTORY, ARE DONE AND PERFORMED.

An eye for everything that was done, and an ear for everything that was said.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 26.

Chapter 27. ATONES FOR THE UNPOLITENESS OF A FORMER CHAPTER; WHICH DESERTED A LADY, MOST UNCEREMONIOUSLY.

Chapter 28. LOOKS AFTER OLIVER, AND PROCEEDS WITH HIS ADVENTURES.

Death, fires, and burglary, make all men equals.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 28.

Chapter 29. HAS AN INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE INMATES OF THE HOUSE, TO WHICH OLIVER RESORTED.

Chapter 30. RELATES WHAT OLIVER’S NEW VISITORS THOUGHT OF HIM.

Chapter 31. INVOLVES A CRITICAL POSITION.

Chapter 32. OF THE HAPPY LIFE OLIVER BEGAN TO LEAD WITH HIS KIND FRIENDS.

Chapter 33. WHEREIN THE HAPPINESS OF OLIVER AND HIS FRIENDS, EXPERIENCES A SUDDEN CHECK.

Chapter 34. CONTAINS SOME INTRODUCTORY PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN WHO NOW ARRIVES UPON THE SCENE; AND A NEW ADVENTURE WHICH HAPPENED TO OLIVER.

Chapter 35. CONTAINING THE UNSATISFACTORY RESULT OF OLIVER’S ADVENTURE; AND A CONVERSATION OF SOME IMPORTANCE BETWEEN HARRY MAYLIE AND ROSE.

Chapter 36. IS A VERY SHORT ONE, AND MAY APPEAR OF NO GREAT IMPORTANCE IN ITS PLACE, BUT IT SHOULD BE READ NOTWITHSTANDING, AS A SEQUEL TO THE LAST, AND A KEY TO ONE THAT WILL FOLLOW WHEN ITS TIME ARRIVES.

Chapter 37. IN WHICH THE READER MAY PERCEIVE A CONTRAST, NOT UNCOMMON IN MATRIMONIAL CASES.

Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 37.

Chapter 38. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT PASSED BETWEEN MR. AND MRS. BUMBLE, AND MR. MONKS, AT THEIR NOCTURNAL INTERVIEW.

Chapter 39. INTRODUCES SOME RESPECTABLE CHARACTERS WITH WHOM THE READER IS ALREADY ACQUAINTED, AND SHOWS HOW MONKS AND THE JEW LAID THEIR WORTHY HEADS TOGETHER.

Chapter 40. A STRANGE INTERVIEW, WHICH IS A SEQUEL TO THE LAST CHAMBER.

Every Sunday night, from eleven until the clock strikes twelve, I will walk on London Bridge if I am alive.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 40.

Chapter 41. CONTAINING FRESH DISCOVERIES, AND SHOWING THAT SUPRISES, LIKE MISFORTUNES, SELDOM COME ALONE.

Chapter 42. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE OF OLIVER’S, EXHIBITING DECIDED MARKS OF GENIUS, BECOMES A PUBLIC CHARACTER IN THE METROPOLIS.

Chapter 43. WHEREIN IS SHOWN HOW THE ARTFUL DODGER GOT INTO TROUBLE.

Chapter 44. THE TIME ARRIVES FOR NANCY TO REDEEM HER PLEDGE TO ROSE MAYLIE. SHE FAILS.

Chapter 45. NOAH CLAYPOLE IS EMPLOYED BY FAGIN ON A SECRET MISSION.

I never gave yet, for any job of work where there wasn’t valuable consideration to be gained.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 45.

Chapter 46. THE APPOINTMENT KEPT.

I am chained to my old life. I loathe and hate it now, but I cannot leave it.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 46.

Chapter 47. FATAL CONSEQUENCES.

It was a ghastly figure to look upon. The murderer staggering backward to the wall, and shutting out the sight with his hand, seized a heavy club and struck her down.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 47.

Chapter 48. THE FLIGHT OF SIKES.

Chapter 49. MONKS AND MR. BROWNLOW AT LENGTH MEET. THEIR CONVERSATION, AND THE INTELLIGENCE THAT INTERRUPTS IT.

Chapter 50. THE PURSUIT AND ESCAPE.

Every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage; all these ornament the banks of Folly Ditch.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 50.

Chapter 51. AFFORDING AN EXPLANATION OF MORE MYSTERIES THAN ONE, AND COMPREHENDING A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE WITH NO WORD OF SETTLEMENT OR PIN-MONEY.

Chapter 52. FAGIN’S LAST NIGHT ALIVE.

Everything told of life and animation, but one dark cluster of objects in the centre of all – the black stage, the cross-beam, the rope, and all the hideous apparatus of death.

Oliver Twist. Chapter 52.

Chapter 53. AND LAST.