Oliver Twist, Chapter 52 summary
Chapter 52 of 53 · 13 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 52, Fagin receives a death sentence and spends his remaining hours in terror, while crowds eagerly await his execution. Mr. Brownlow brings Oliver to question him about Monks’s papers; Fagin reveals their hiding place but mistakes Oliver for a possible means of escape and resists their departure.
What happens
- The jury finds Fagin guilty, the crowd celebrates, and the judge sentences him to death.
- Alone in his cell, Fagin recalls other condemned men and becomes increasingly terrified of hanging.
- He rejects religious visitors, and his distress becomes so extreme that two attendants watch him together.
- Mr. Brownlow and Oliver enter Newgate while workers prepare the scaffold.
- Fagin tells Oliver where Monks’s papers are hidden, but ignores his plea to kneel and pray.
- Attendants separate Fagin from Oliver; the visitors emerge at dawn to find a lively crowd around the scaffold.

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In this chapter
What to notice
Oliver responds to Fagin’s terror with pity and prayer. His response contrasts with the crowd’s eagerness to see Fagin die.
Quick check
Where does Fagin say Monks’s papers are hidden?

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