![]() | Imagined Orphans With his dirty, tattered clothes and hollowed-out face, Oliver Twist is the enduring symbol of the young indigent spilling out of orphanages and haunting the streets of late-nineteenth-century London. Although poor children were often portrayed as real-life Oliver Twists--either orphaned or abandoned by unworthy parents--they in fact frequently maintained contact and were eventually reunited with their families. LYDIA MURDOCH is an assistant professor of history at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. |
![hidden image for function call](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/1x1.png)