Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist never actually specified where its story took place.
It was merely a small city, like countless towns large and small. The novel's protagonist, Oliver, spent the first half of his life in a workhouse, until he escaped from the coffin-maker's shop and walked for seven days and seven nights to London.
From the coffin-maker's perspective, an epidemic like measles truly was a wonderful season, because coffins had become a hot commodity.
While helping arrange funerals, Oliver saw all manner of human behavior. Some said nothing, their faces resolute in the face of mourning. There were also young nephews and nieces who were grief-stricken at the funeral, yet chatted and laughed at ease during the banquet afterward, as if nothing had happened that could possibly trouble them.
There were wives whose husbands had just died, yet instead of grieving, they worried whether their mourning clothes fitted properly and enhanced their charm. There were also husbands whose sorrow faded into composure after a cup of tea.
What had Oliver learned under the influence of these "good people" as examples? At the very least, Dickens would not have dared assert that he had learned to meekly endure adversity. Oliver left the coffin-maker's shop because of a fight. A minute earlier, he had still been obedient, gentle, and dejected, but Noah's vicious slander of his dead mother turned him into a furious beast. Not only Noah, who was sturdily built, but two other adults as well—though they were women—were exhausted before they managed to drag Oliver into the coal cellar. Afterward, the mistress burst into tears.
Pomona looked through the window at the gates of the former orphanage. Children often possessed astonishing potential. Credence had it too, except his destructive power far surpassed Oliver's. He had nearly turned Manhattan