Great Expectations

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Lore & Background

The novel follows three stages of Pip's expectations. In the first stage, seven-year-old orphan Pip, living with his hot-tempered older sister and her kindly blacksmith husband Joe Gargery on the Kent marshes, encounters escaped convict Abel Magwitch on Christmas Eve 1812. Pip steals a file and food for the convict. Later, Pip visits the reclusive Miss Havisham at Satis House and falls in love with her adopted daughter Estella, who is aloof and hostile. Pip becomes an apprentice blacksmith to Joe. Four years into his apprenticeship, lawyer Mr. Jaggers informs Pip that an anonymous patron has provided money for him to become a gentleman. Presuming Miss Havisham is his benefactress, Pip visits her before leaving for London. In the second stage, Pip moves into Barnard's Inn with Herbert Pocket, the son of his tutor Matthew Pocket. Pip meets fellow pupils Bentley Drummle and Startop, builds up debts, and learns that Estella has been sent to Richmond to be introduced into society. A week after his 23rd birthday, Pip discovers his true benefactor is the convict Abel Magwitch, who has become wealthy in New South Wales but cannot return to England on pain of death. In the third stage, Pip stops taking Magwitch's money and devises a plan with Herbert to help him escape. Magwitch reveals that the other escaped convict he fought was Compeyson, the fraudster who deserted Miss Havisham. Pip confronts Miss Havisham, who admits she misled him. Estella coldly tells Pip she plans to marry Drummle. Pip is tricked by an anonymous letter and seized by Orlick, who intends to murder him, but Herbert and Startop save him. Magwitch is captured after fighting Compeyson in the river; Compeyson's body is found later. Magwitch dies in prison, and Pip loses his fortune. After working eleven years in Egypt, Pip returns to England and meets the widowed Estella in the ruins of Satis House.

Reader's Guide

Great Expectations was widely praised upon publication. Dickens's contemporary Thomas Carlyle disparaged it as 'that Pip nonsense' but reacted to each fresh instalment with 'roars of laughter'. Later, George Bernard Shaw praised the novel, describing it as 'all of one piece and consistently truthful'. Dickens himself called the plot 'a very fine, new and grotesque idea'. The novel remains popular with readers and literary critics; in 2003 it ranked 17th in the BBC's The Big Read poll. It has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media. Its themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. The novel is full of extreme imagery—poverty, prison ships, chains, and fights to the death—and features a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture, including the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe Gargery, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith.

Did You Know?

• Great Expectations is Dickens's thirteenth novel and his penultimate completed novel.
• It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person.
• The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861.
• Dickens called the plot 'a very fine, new and grotesque idea'.
• In 2003, the novel ranked 17th in the BBC's The Big Read poll.