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Oliver Twist Chapter 29 Summary

"Has an Introductory Account of the Inmates of the House to Which Oliver Resorted"

  • The chapter opens in the breakfast room of the house where Oliver ended up. The two ladies are sitting and eating their breakfast, and are described for the first time: the older lady is very upright and elegant, and the young lady is around sixteen or seventeen, and very lovely.
  • They ask Giles how long Brittles has been gone, and Giles answers that he’d been gone for an hour or more.
  • They joke about how Brittles "always was a slow boy" (29.10)—it’s a joke because Brittles started out working there when he was a boy. Now he’s over 30, and they still call him a boy.
  • Finally a coach pulls up, and a plump, friendly gentleman hops out and starts asking Mrs. Maylie and Rose how they’re doing, after the fright of the night before.
  • Rose says that they’re fine, but that he should go and look after the "poor creature up stairs" (29.19).
  • Mr. Losberne (who’s the local doctor) heads on upstairs. We don’t get to see what goes on up there, but only see Mrs. Maylie and Rose downstairs, waiting for a long time, and looking anxious.
  • Finally the doctor comes back and asks if they’d seen the thief.
  • They say no, and Giles (realizing that the doctor’s about to tell them that it’s only a boy, and that he probably should have mentioned that earlier), says that he was going to tell them all about it, but that Mr. Losberne had arrived just then and interrupted.
  • The doctor says that it is necessary that they see the thief.