NEW YORK CITY,
May, 1906.
*Contents*
*THE STORY OF OLIVER TWIST:*
I. Oliver Begins Life in a Hard Way
II. Oliver Falls from Bad to Worse
III. Oliver Makes his Way into Good Society
IV. The End of Evil Days
*THE STORY OF SMIKE AND HIS TEACHER:*
I. How Nicholas Nickleby Came to Dotheboys Hall
II. How Smike Went Away from Dotheboys Hall
*THE STORY OF LITTLE NELL:*
I. In the Old Curiosity Shop
II. Out in the Wide World
III. At the End of the Journey
*THE STORY OF PAUL AND FLORENCE DOMBEY:*
I. The House of Dombey and Son
II. How Florence Came into her Own
*THE STORY OF PIP AS TOLD BY HIMSELF:*
I. How Pip Helped the Convict
II. Pip and Estella
III. How Pip Fell Heir to Great Expectations
*THE STORY OF LITTLE DORRIT:*
I. The Child of the Marshalsea
II. How the Prison Gates were Opened
*THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD:*
I. My Earliest Recollections
II. I Fall into Disgrace
III. School. Steerforth and Traddles
IV. I Begin Life on my Own Account
*THE STORY OF OLIVER TWIST*
*I. OLIVER BEGINS LIFE IN A HARD WAY*
Some years ago when the poorhouses of England were in a bad state and
the poor people housed within them were often ill-treated, a little waif
began his life under the roof of one of the worst of them. His mother
had wandered there, weak, wretched and without friends, it seemed, for
she gave no clue to her identity; and after her little boy was born she
had only strength enough to kiss him once before she breathed her last.
As no one knew anything about her, the child became a charge upon the
parish. He was sent with other orphans and homeless little ones to be
cared for by an elderly woman named Mrs. Mann, who received from the
parish officers but a scant allowance for the needs of the children, to
whom she gave, in the shape of food and attention, a still shorter
return.
And so the first years of this child's life were devoted mainly to the
struggle to keep body and soul together. He won the fight by the
narrowest of margins, and his ninth birthday found him a pale, thin lad,
somewhat short in stature and decidedly small in girth. But nature had
placed a good sturdy spirit in his breast. It had plenty of room to
expand, thanks to the spare diet, else he might not have had any ninth
birthday at all.
On this momentous day he received a visitor, in the person of Mr.
Bumble, the fat and pompous beadle of the workhouse, who came to see
Mrs. Mann in all the glory of his cocked hat and brass buttons.
"Good morning, ma'am," said the beadle, taking out a leathern
pocket-book. "The child that was half baptized Oliver Twist is nine
year old to-day."
"Bless him!" interposed Mrs. Mann, inflaming her left eye with the
corner of her apron.
"And notwithstanding a offered reward of ten pound, which was afterwards
increased to twenty pound; notwithstanding the most superlative, and, I
may say, supernat'ral exertions on the part of this parish," said
Bumble, "we have never been able to discover who is his father, or what
was his mother's settlement, name, or con-dition."
Mrs. Mann raised her hands in astonishment; but added, after a moment's
reflection, "How comes he to have any name at all, then?"