Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens is one of the most recognized and loved stories of all time. The popularity of the novel and its author has made the book a frequent object of literary criticism. Although the work has received mostly praise, some critics attack the novel. Since its publication, Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist has evolved from being criticized as a social commentary and work of art, to a literary and artistic composition. Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth, England. Spending much of his childhood in London and Kent, Charles led a privileged life until 1824. It was then, when Charles was twelve, that his father, mother and brothers were sent to debtors' prison. Although Dickens escaped the same fate as his family, he was forced to support himself by working in a shoe polish factory. The horrific conditions of the factory haunted Dickens for the rest of his life. Dickens's childhood experiences with the English legal system and in factories made him a lifelong advocate for the poor. His novels are filled with oppressed figures such as impoverished and abused orphans. He had a deep sympathy for childhood suffering and a strong desire for social reform which touches his work at almost every level. These themes strongly influence Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens). Dickens left the factory, studied on his own, and in 1827 found work as a law clerk. After learning shorthand, he began working as a reporter in the courts and in Parliament. The great detail and precise description that characterize Dickens's style in his novels are credited to his experience as a reporter. After finding success as a reporter, Dickens concentrated on writing novels. He wrote a best-selling collection of funny stories called The Pickwick Papers about orphans. With his second novel, Oliver Twist, Dickens retained some of the humor and the title character of an orphan, but wrote a book with a more complex plot and a grittier look at the horrors of London. The list of Dickens's literary successes continues with Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Master Humphrey's Clock (including Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge 1840-1841), A Christmas Carol (1843), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), Dombey and Son (1848), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Times for These Times (1854), Little Dorrit (1857), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861), Our Mutual Friend (1865), and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished 1870) (Dickens iv).