Oliver taken to Fagin's den

Oliver Twist, having walked for seven days from his native town, arrives in Barnet at dawn, hungry, footsore, and utterly alone. He is sitting on a doorstep when a strange boy of about his own age, snub-nosed and dressed in a man's coat that reaches nearly to his heels, crosses the street and addresses him with the slang greeting, "Hullo, my covey! What's the row?" This boy, who introduces himself as Jack Dawkins but is better known as the Artful Dodger, quickly learns that Oliver is hungry, tired, and heading for London with no money and no lodgings. The Dodger offers him food and the promise of a free night's shelter with a "'spectable old gentleman" who will provide for him without asking for payment. Oliver, desperate and trusting, accepts.

The Journey to Saffron Hill

The Dodger purchases a meal of ham and bread, which he ingeniously stuffs into a hollowed-out loaf, and leads Oliver to a small public-house where they share a pot of beer. Throughout the meal, the Dodger eyes Oliver with great attention. He explains that the old gentleman who will take Oliver in is his own patron and protector, and that he himself is known among his intimates as the Artful Dodger. Oliver, though somewhat uneasy about the Dodger's dissolute manner of speaking, resolves to cultivate the old gentleman's good opinion. The Dodger insists they must not enter London before nightfall, so it is nearly eleven o'clock when they reach the turnpike at Islington. From there, the Dodger leads Oliver through a rapid, winding route: across the Angel into St. John's Road, down the small street terminating at Sadler's Wells Theatre, through Exmouth Street and Coppice Row, down the little court by the side of the workhouse, across the classic ground of Hockley-in-the-Hole, into Little Saffron Hill, and finally into Saffron Hill the Great.

The Descent into the Den

As they pass through these narrow, muddy streets, Oliver is struck by the filth and wretchedness of the place. The air is impregnated with filthy odours; the only shops that seem to prosper are the public-houses, where the lowest orders of Irish are wrangling; and from several doorways, great ill-looking fellows emerge cautiously. Oliver is just considering whether he had better run away when the Dodger, catching him by the arm, pushes open the door of a house near Field Lane and draws him into the passage. A voice from below answers the Dodger's whistle with the watchword "Plummy and slam," and a man's face peeps out from where a balustrade has been broken away. The man asks who the second person is, and the Dodger replies, "A new pal," adding that he comes from "Greenland." The man then asks if Fagin is upstairs, and upon receiving an affirmative answer, he tells them to go up. Oliver, groping his way with one hand and firmly grasped by the Dodger with the other, ascends the dark and broken stairs with difficulty.

The First Encounter with Fagin

The Dodger throws open the door of a back-room and draws Oliver in after him. The walls and ceiling are perfectly black with age and dirt. A deal table stands before the fire, upon which are a candle stuck in a ginger-beer bottle, pewter pots, a loaf and butter, and a plate. In a frying-pan secured to the mantelshelf by a string, some sausages are cooking. Standing over them with a toasting-fork in his hand is a very old, shrivelled Jew, whose villainous-looking and repulsive face is obscured by a quantity of matted red hair. He is dressed in a greasy flannel gown, with his throat bare, and seems to be dividing his attention between the frying-pan and a clothes-horse over which a great number of silk handkerchiefs are hanging. Several rough beds made of old sacks are huddled side by side on the floor. Seated round the table are four or five boys, none older than the Dodger, smoking long clay pipes and drinking spirits with the air of middle-aged men. The Dodger whispers a few words to the Jew, and then all the boys crowd about Oliver, grinning at him. The Jew himself, toasting-fork in hand, also grins. The Dodger introduces Oliver by name, and the Jew, making a low obeisance, takes him by the hand and hopes he shall have the honour of his intimate acquaintance. The boys shake both his hands very hard, especially the one in which he holds his little bundle. One boy is very anxious to hang up his cap for him, and another puts his hands in his pockets, as if to spare Oliver the trouble of emptying them himself. These civilities are only checked by a liberal exercise of the Jew's toasting-fork on the heads and shoulders of the affectionate youths.

The First Night and Its Consequences

The Jew, Fagin, welcomes Oliver warmly, telling him that the handkerchiefs hanging about have just been looked out ready for the wash. After supper, Fagin mixes Oliver a glass of hot gin-and-water, telling him he must drink it off directly because another gentleman wants the tumbler. Oliver does as he is desired, and immediately afterwards he feels himself gently lifted onto one of the sacks and sinks into a deep sleep. This first night in Fagin's den marks Oliver's entry into a world of crime from which he will struggle to escape. The next morning, Oliver wakes to find Fagin examining a hidden box of watches and jewels, and the old man's violent reaction when he realizes Oliver has seen him reveals the dangerous secret at the heart of the gang. Oliver is soon drawn into the boys' training games, learning to pick pockets in play, and is eventually sent out on a real pickpocketing expedition that leads to his arrest and his rescue by Mr. Brownlow. The journey from Barnet to Fagin's den is thus the threshold that separates Oliver's life of parish drudgery from his entanglement with London's criminal underworld.