《雾都孤儿》是百灵鸟英文经典系列的其中一本，以雾都伦敦为背景，讲述了一个孤儿悲惨的身世及遭遇，主人公奥立弗在孤儿院长大，经历学徒生涯，艰苦逃难，误入贼窝，又被迫与狠毒的凶徒为伍，历尽无数辛酸，最后在善良人的帮助下，查明身世并获得了幸福。小说描写了善与恶、美与丑、正义与邪恶的斗争，赞扬了人们天性中的正直和善良，也揭露抨击了当时英国慈善机构的虚伪和治安警察的专横。同时，作品又带有浓厚的浪漫主义情调，充满着人道主义情怀。
查尔斯•狄更斯（Charles Dickens，1812—1870），十九世纪英国现实主义作家。他主要描写生活在英国社会底层人的生活，揭露上层社会和资产阶级的虚伪、贪婪，深刻反映了当时英国复杂的社会现实，同时也以理想主义和浪漫主义情怀讴歌了人性的真善美。他以十四部巨著的突出成就开创了现实主义新时期，被后世尊为批判现实主义杰出的代表、讽刺巨匠、语言大师，代表作有《双城记》《大卫•科波菲尔》《小杜丽》《远大前程》《雾都孤儿》《艰难时世》《荒凉山庄》等。
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I 001
CHAPTER II 005
CHAPTER III 020
CHAPTER IV 032
CHAPTER V 042
CHAPTER VI 057
CHAPTER VII 064
CHAPTER 073
CHAPTER IX 085
CHAPTER X 094
CHAPTER I
Treats of the place where Oliver Twist was born; and
of the circumstances attending his birth
Among other public buildings in a certain town, which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, there is one anciently common to most towns, great or small—to wit, a workhouse and in this workhouse was born, on a day and date which I need not trouble myself to repeat, inasmuch as it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this stage of the business at all events, the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.
For a long time after it was ushered into this world of sorrow and trouble, by the parish surgeon, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether the child would survive to bear any name at all: in which case it is somewhat more than probable that these memoirs would never have appeared; or if they had, that being comprised within a couple of pages, they would have possessed the inestimable merit of being the most concise and faithful specimen of biography extant in the literature of any age or country.
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