Great Expectations is Charles Dickens's thirteenth novel. It is his
second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the
first person. Great Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a
coming-of-age novel, and it is a classic work of Victorian
literature. It depicts the growth and personal development of an
orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in serial form in
Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December
1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published
the novel in three volumes.
Dickens originally intended Great Expectations to be twice as
long, but constraints imposed by the management of All the Year
Round limited the novel's length. Collected and dense, with a
conciseness unusual for Dickens, the novel represents Dickens's
peak and maturity as an author. According to G. K. Chesterton,
Dickens penned Great Expectations in "the afternoon of his] life
and fame." It was the penultimate novel Dickens completed,
preceding Our Mutual Friend.
It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early to
mid-1800s. From the outset, the reader is "treated" by the
terrifying encounter between Pip, the protagonist, and the escaped
convict, Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is a graphic book, full
of extreme imagery, poverty, prison ships, "the hulks," barriers
and chains, and fights to the death. It therefore combines intrigue
and unexpected twists of autobiographical detail in different
tones. Regardless of its narrative technique, the novel reflects
the events of the time, Dickens's concerns, and the relationship
between society and man.
The novel has received mixed reviews from critics: Thomas Carlyle
speaks of "All that Pip's nonsense," while George Bernard Shaw
praised the novel as "All of one piece and Consistently truthfull."
Dickens felt Great Expectations was his best work, calling it "a
very fine idea," and was very sensitive to compliments from his
friends: "Bulwer, who has been, as I think you know,
extraordinarily taken by the book."
Great Expectations has a colourful cast that has entered popular
culture: the capricious Miss Havisham, the cold and beautiful
Estella, Joe the kind and generous blacksmith, the dry and
sycophantic Uncle Pumblechook, Mr Jaggers, Wemmick with his dual
personality, and the eloquent and wise friend, Herbert Pocket.
Throughout the narrative, typical Dickensian themes emerge: wealth
and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good
over evil. Great Expectations has become very popular and is now
taught as a classic in many English classes. It has been translated
into many languages and adapted many times in film and other media.
General
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