In Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Fagin is the leader and father figure to a gang of young thieves. He employs them to steal on his behalf but does nothing to improve their squalid lives. In the end, Oliver is saved by compassionate mother figures. For the story of another greedy bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true value of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
