Chapter 40
Nancy tells Rose 'I must go back...because--how can I tell you such things before a lady like you?--among the men I have told you of, there is one...whom I cannot leave.'
Read in Books4Free →Nancy's Loyalty to Sikes
From Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Nancy's refusal to abandon Sikes despite his cruelty was defended by Dickens in his 1841 preface as psychologically true, and remains a touchstone passage in discussions of domestic abuse in literature.
Author's Preface (1841)
Dickens defends Nancy's contradictory devotion as 'TRUE.'
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