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Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
This insightful narrative is considered a symbol of Dickens maturity as an author.
Pip is an orphaned young boy who lives in the marshes of Kent with his older sister and her husband. One night as he is looking at his parents gravestones in the cemetery an escaped convict jumps out from behind a headstone and grabs him. He orders Pip to bring him food and a file for his leg irons, and Pip fearfully obeys. The man is captured soon after, and surprisingly he lies to protect Pip, claiming to have stolen the items.
One day Pip’s uncle, Pumblechook, takes him to play at Satis House, owned by the rich Miss Havisham. There he meets the beautiful, young Estella, who acts cold and aloof. Pip quickly falls in love with her and dreams of one day becoming rich and successful so that he can marry her. He continues to visit the Satis House, but his dreams are crushed when he learns that Miss Havisham is preparing him to become a common laborer for the family business. He reluctantly apprentices under his brother-in-law, Joe, the village blacksmith. But one day Pip receives unexpected news from a lawyer: an anonymous benefactor has given him a large sum of money, and he must go to London to receive an education on becoming a gentleman. Pip goes, thinking that this will allow him to achieve his dream of marrying Estella. Things do not so easily fall into place for Pip though, and the story follows him through the years, and all the stages of his great expectations.
Published in the weekly magazine All the Year Round between 1860 and 1861, Great Expectations, like much of Dickens’s work, is considered to be semi-autobiographical. The story is told in the point of view of the protagonist from the age of seven, to his late adulthood. Dickens also wrote two different endings for the novel, revising the first after being told that the first was too unhappy. This book’s initial lack of popularity sharply contrasts with the status it holds today, now it is often referred to as one of Dickens’s best works.
Title: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher: Penguin Classics
ISBN: 0141439564
Review written by: Jennifer Kneisley
Reviewer's Rating:9.5
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
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