Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
62 chapters·20h 29m listening·Also in Romanian
3.80from 893,418 ratingson Goodreads
A boy in a churchyard on the marshes is seized by an escaped convict and told to bring him a file and food. Years later, an anonymous benefactor makes Pip a gentleman in London, and he assumes he knows who it is and what it means. Dickens's most tightly argued novel about money, shame and the people one is ashamed of.
About the book
Published in serial form from 1860 to 1861, Great Expectations is narrated by Pip, who looks back on his development from a blacksmith’s household in the Kent marshes to a very different life in London. A frightening childhood meeting, visits to the decaying Satis House and his fascination with Estella all influence the ambitions he forms. Charles Dickens uses Pip’s changing circumstances to examine class, shame, money and self-invention. The novel’s mysteries are closely tied to Pip’s assumptions about wealth and gentility, while figures from his childhood continue to test the distance between social advancement and personal worth.
Characters
Pip — Protagonist
An orphan raised in the marshes whose unexpected prospects awaken powerful ambitions about class and love.
Estella — Miss Havisham’s ward
A beautiful, emotionally guarded girl raised at Satis House and central to Pip’s hopes for his future.
Miss Havisham — Wealthy recluse
A wealthy woman living amid the remains of a stopped wedding day, with Estella as her ward.
Joe Gargery — Blacksmith
Pip’s kind brother-in-law and father figure, whose loyalty is untouched by differences in status.
Abel Magwitch — Escaped convict
A frightening escaped prisoner whom the young Pip encounters alone in the Kent marshes.
Jaggers — Lawyer
A formidable London lawyer who informs Pip of his expectations and manages his financial affairs.
Herbert Pocket — Pip’s friend
Pip’s cheerful London friend, who helps him learn the habits expected of a gentleman.
About the author
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the defining English novelist of the Victorian age and, in his own lifetime, its most famous writer. When his father was imprisoned for debt the twelve-year-old Dickens was sent to work in a blacking factory, and the experience runs under everything he wrote about childhood, poverty and institutions that fail the people in them. Publishing in monthly instalments, he wrote for an audience that read each part as it appeared, which is part of why his books are built of cliffhangers and crowds of minor characters nobody forgets. His novels include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol.