====== Victorian Era ======

Strictly speaking, the Victorian era began in 1837 an
d ended with Queen
Victoria's death in 1901.
The great scientific progress and the industrial revolut
ion, which took
place in the Victorian era, led to an enormous expansi
on of production.
There were huge social costs: the dehumanisation of w
ork, child labour,
pollution, and the growth of cities where poverty, fi
lth and disease
flourished. Child labour and poverty were also a featu
re of rural life, where
farm work involved long hours, very low pay and exposu
re to all weathers.
During the Victorian era the population of the UK grew
rapidly. Migration
in both directions was a feature of Victorian life. M
any Britons left the UK
for America or the colonies in search of a better life.
The Irish poor formed
a large number of these migrants, especially after the
Irish potato famine.
Within the UK as a whole, people moved from the countr
yside into the
new industrial cities to find work.
== Oliver Twist ==
Oliver Twist is the second novel by English author C
harles Dickens. The
story is about an orphan, Oliver Twist, who endures a
miserable existence
in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker.
He escapes and
travels to London where he meets the Artful Dodger, leader
of a gang of
juvenile pickpockets. Naïvely unaware of their unlawfu
l activities, Oliver is
led to the lair of their elderly criminal trainer Fagin
.