Editing Great Expectations

{{Short description|1860–1861 novel by Charles Dickens}}
{{about|the Charles Dickens novel}}
{{Redirect|Satis House|the real mansion in Rochester|King's School, Rochester#Satis House}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox book  <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name              = Great Expectations
| image             = Greatexpectations vol1.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           = Title page of Vol. I of first edition, July 1861
| author            = [[Charles Dickens]]
| cover_artist      = 
| orig_lang_code    = en
|set_in=[[Kent]] and [[London]], early to mid-19th century
| country           = England
| language          = English
| genre             = [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]], [[Bildungsroman]]
| publisher         = [[Chapman & Hall]]
| published         = Serialised 1860&ndash;61; book form 1861
| media_type        = Print
| oclc              = 1269308353
| dewey             = 823.83
| congress          = PR4560 .A1
| pages             = 544 (first edition 1861)
| preceded_by       = [[A Tale of Two Cities]]
| followed_by       = [[Our Mutual Friend]]
| wikisource        = Great Expectations
}}

'''''Great Expectations''''' is the thirteenth novel by English author [[Charles Dickens]] and his penultimate completed novel. The novel is a [[bildungsroman]] and depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed [[Pip (Great Expectations)|Pip]]. It is Dickens' second novel, after ''[[David Copperfield]]'', to be fully narrated in the first person.<ref group="N">''[[Bleak House]]'' alternates between a third-person narrator and a first-person narrator, Esther Summerson, but the former is predominant.</ref> The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical ''[[All the Year Round]]'', from 1 December 1860 to August 1861.<ref>{{cite web|title=Was Dickens Really Paid By the Word?|url=http://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/by-the-word.html|work=University of California Santa Cruz: The Dickens Project|publisher=Regents of the University of California|access-date=15 February 2013|archive-date=14 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130914031233/http://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/by-the-word.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In October 1861, [[Chapman & Hall]] published the novel in three volumes.<ref name=Dickens1861VolI>{{Cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles|year=1861 |title=Great Expectations |publisher=Chapman & Hall |place=London |edition=First |volume=I  |url=https://archive.org/details/greatexpectation01dick |access-date=6 January 2017 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name=Dickens1861VolII>{{Cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles |year=1861 |title=Great Expectations |publisher=Chapman & Hall |place=London |edition=First |volume=II |url=https://archive.org/details/greatexpectation02dick |access-date=6 January 2017 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name=Dickens1861VolIII>{{Cite book |last=Dickens |first=Charles|year=1861 |title= Great Expectations |publisher=Chapman & Hall |place=London |edition=First |volume=III |url=https://archive.org/details/greatexpectation03dick |access-date=6 January 2017 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref>

The novel is set in [[Kent]] and London in the early to mid-19th century<ref name="setting">{{cite web |url=http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/great-expectations/at-a-glance.html |title=Great Expectations by Charles Dickens |publisher=Cliffsnotes |access-date=30 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028220511/http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/great-expectations/at-a-glance.html |archive-date=28 October 2012}}</ref> and contains some of Dickens's most celebrated scenes, starting in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict [[Abel Magwitch]]. ''Great Expectations'' is full of extreme imagery—poverty, prison ships and chains, and fights to the death—and has a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric [[Miss Havisham]], the beautiful but cold [[Estella (Great Expectations)|Estella]], and Joe Gargery, the unsophisticated and kind [[blacksmith]]. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. ''Great Expectations'', which is popular with both readers and literary critics,<ref name="s263" /><ref name=HillisMiller /> has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.

The novel was very widely praised.<ref name="s263" /> Although Dickens's contemporary [[Thomas Carlyle]] referred to it disparagingly as "that Pip nonsense", he nevertheless reacted to each fresh instalment with "roars of laughter".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Cummings |editor-first=Mark |title=The Carlyle Encyclopedia |location=Cranbury, New Jersey |publisher=Associated University Presses |year=2004 |page=122}}</ref> Later, [[George Bernard Shaw]] praised the novel, describing it as "all of one piece and consistently truthful".<ref>{{cite book |author=Shaw, George Bernard |title=Charles Dickens |series=Bloom's Modern Critical Views |editor=Bloom, Harold |location=New York |publisher=Infobase Publishings |year=2006 |page=60}}</ref> During the serial publication, Dickens was pleased with public response to ''Great Expectations'' and its sales;<ref name=Boyle /> when the plot first formed in his mind, he called it "a very fine, new and grotesque idea".<ref name=Hollington>{{cite web |url=http://oracle-reunion.pagesperso-orange.fr/documents/307.html |title=The Grotesque and Tragicomedy in Dickens' ''Great Expectations'' |access-date=13 May 2015 |author=Hollington, Michael |work=Dickens and the Grotesque |year=1984 |location=London |publisher=Croom Helm |edition=Revised |archive-date=24 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141224221533/http://oracle-reunion.pagesperso-orange.fr/documents/307.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 21st century, the novel retains good standing among literary critics<ref name=Ciabattari2015 /> and in 2003 it was ranked 17th on the [[BBC]]'s [[The Big Read]] poll.<ref name=BigRead2003 />

==Plot summary==
The book includes three "stages" of Pip's expectations.

===First stage===
Philip "Pip" Pirrip is a seven-year-old orphan who lives with his hot-tempered older sister and her kindly blacksmith husband Joe Gargery on the coastal marshes of [[Kent]]. On Christmas Eve 1812,<ref>{{harvnb|Jerome Meckier|1992|pp=157–197}}.</ref> Pip visits the graves of his parents and siblings. There, he unexpectedly encounters an escaped convict who threatens to kill him if he does not bring back food and tools. Pip steals a file from among Joe's tools and a pie and brandy meant for Christmas dinner, which he delivers to the convict.

That evening, Pip's sister is about to look for the missing pie when soldiers arrive and ask Joe to mend some shackles. Joe and Pip accompany them into the marshes to recapture the convict, who is fighting with another escaped convict. The first convict confesses to stealing food, clearing Pip.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=127}}, Chapters 1–5</ref>

[[File:"Well, Pip, you know, . . . . you yourself see me put 'em in my 'at" (ch. 13).jpeg|thumb|Pip is ashamed of Joe at Satis House, by [[Fraser family of artists|Francis Arthur Fraser]]]]
A few years later, [[Miss Havisham]], a wealthy and reclusive spinster who lives in dilapidated Satis House wearing her old wedding dress after having been jilted at the altar, asks Mr Pumblechook, a relative of the Gargerys, to find a boy to visit her. Pip visits Miss Havisham and falls in love with Estella, her adopted daughter. Estella is aloof and hostile to Pip, which Miss Havisham encourages. During one visit, another boy picks a fist fight with Pip, where Pip easily gains the upper hand. Estella watches and allows Pip to kiss her afterwards. Pip visits Miss Havisham regularly until he is old enough to learn a trade.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=127–128}}, Chapters 6–12</ref>

Joe accompanies Pip during the last visit to Miss Havisham, and she gives Pip money to become an apprentice blacksmith. Joe's surly assistant, Dolge Orlick, is envious of Pip and dislikes Mrs. Joe. Orlick also complains when Joe says he needs to take Pip somewhere midday, thinking this is another sign of favoritism, of which Joe assures him he can quit work for the day. When Pip and Joe are away from the house, Joe's wife is brutally attacked, leaving her unable to speak or do her work. When Pip sees a leg iron, the weapon used in the attack, he becomes worried, believing it was the same leg iron he helped liberate the convict from. Now bedridden, Mrs. Joe cannot be as "rampaging" towards Pip as before the attack. Pip's former schoolmate Biddy joins the household to help with her care.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=128}}, Chapters 13–17</ref>
[[Image:Breakhisheart.jpg|thumb|left|Miss Havisham with Estella and Pip. Art by [[H. M. Brock]]]]

Four years into Pip's apprenticeship, Mr Jaggers, a lawyer, informs him that he has been provided money from an anonymous patron, allowing him to become a gentleman. Presuming Miss Havisham is his benefactress, Pip visits her before leaving for London.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=128–129}}, Chapters 18–19</ref>

===Second stage===
Pip's first experience with urban England is a shock, for London is not the "soft white city" Pip imagined, but a place of heavy litter and filth. Pip moves into [[Barnard's Inn]] with Herbert Pocket, the son of his tutor, Matthew Pocket, who is Miss Havisham's cousin. Pip realizes Herbert is the boy he fought with years ago. Herbert tells Pip how Miss Havisham was defrauded and deserted by her fiancé. Pip meets fellow pupils, Bentley Drummle, a brute of a man from a wealthy noble family, and Startop, who is a more agreeable colleague. Jaggers disburses the money Pip needs.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=128–129}}, Chapters 20–24</ref> During a visit, Pip meets Jaggers's housekeeper, Molly, a former convict.

When Joe visits Pip at Barnard's Inn, Pip is ashamed to be seen with him. Joe relays a message from Miss Havisham that Estella will be visiting her. Pip returns there to meet Estella and is encouraged by Miss Havisham, but avoids visiting Joe. He is disquieted to see Orlick now in service to Miss Havisham. He mentions his misgivings to Jaggers, who promises Orlick's dismissal. In London, Pip and Herbert exchange their romantic secrets: Pip adores Estella, and Herbert is engaged to Clara. Pip meets Estella when she is sent to [[Municipal Borough of Richmond (Surrey)|Richmond]] to be introduced into society.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=129–130}}, Chapters 25–33</ref>

Pip and Herbert build up debts. Mrs Joe dies and Pip returns to his village for her funeral. Pip's income is fixed at £500 ({{Inflation|UK|500|1826|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-3}}) per annum when he comes of age at 21. With the help of Jaggers' clerk, [[John Wemmick]], Pip plans to help advance Herbert's prospects by anonymously securing him a position with the shipbroker, Clarriker's. Pip takes Estella to Satis House, where she and Miss Havisham quarrel over Estella's coldness. In London, Drummle outrages Pip by proposing a toast to Estella. Later, at an Assembly Ball in Richmond, Pip witnesses Estella meeting Drummle and warns her about him; she replies that she has no qualms about entrapping him.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=130}}, Chapters 34–38</ref>

A week after his 23rd birthday, Pip learns that his benefactor is the convict he encountered in the churchyard, Abel Magwitch. He had been [[Penal transportation|transported]] to [[New South Wales]] after being captured. He has become wealthy after gaining his freedom there, but he cannot return to England on pain of death. However, he returns to see Pip, who was the motivation for all his success.

===Third stage===
A shocked Pip stops taking Magwitch's money, but devises a plan with Herbert to help him escape from England.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=130–131}}, Chapters 39–41</ref> Magwitch shares his past with Pip, and reveals that the escaped convict whom he fought in the churchyard was [[Compeyson]], the fraudster who had deserted Miss Havisham.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=131}}, Chapter 42</ref>
 
Pip returns to Satis House to visit Estella and meets Drummle, who has also come to see her and now has Orlick as his servant. Pip confronts Miss Havisham for misleading him about his benefactor, but she says she did it to annoy her relatives. Pip declares his love to Estella, who coldly tells him she plans to marry Drummle. A heartbroken Pip returns to London, where Wemmick warns him that Compeyson is looking for him.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=131–132}}, Chapters 43–47</ref>

At Jaggers's house at dinner, Wemmick tells Pip how Jaggers acquired his maidservant, Molly, rescuing her from the gallows when she was accused of murder.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=131–132}}, Chapter 48</ref> A remorseful Miss Havisham tells Pip how she raised Estella to be unfeeling and heartless ever since Jaggers brought her in as an infant with no information on her parentage. She also tells Pip that Estella is now married. She gives Pip money to pay for Herbert's position at Clarriker's and asks for his forgiveness. As Pip is about to leave, Miss Havisham's dress catches fire, and Pip injures himself in an unsuccessful attempt to save her. Realising that Estella is the daughter of Molly and Magwitch, Pip is discouraged by Jaggers from acting on his suspicions.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=132}}, Chapters 49–51</ref>

[[File:Pip-magwitch.jpeg|thumb|right|Magwitch makes himself known to Pip]]
A few days before Magwitch's planned escape, Pip is tricked by an anonymous letter into going to a sluice-house near his old home, where he is seized by Orlick, who intends to murder him and freely admits to injuring Pip's sister. As Pip is about to be struck with a hammer, Herbert and Startop arrive and save him. The three pick up Magwitch to row him to the steamboat for Hamburg, but they are met by a police boat carrying Compeyson, who has offered to identify Magwitch. Magwitch seizes Compeyson, and they fight in the river. Seriously injured, Magwitch is taken by the police. Compeyson's body is found later.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=132}}, Chapters 52–54</ref>

Aware that Magwitch's fortune will go to the Crown after his trial, Pip visits a dying Magwitch in the prison hospital and tells him that his daughter Estella is alive. Herbert, who is preparing to move to [[Cairo]], Egypt, to manage Clarriker's office, offers Pip a position there. After Herbert's departure, Pip falls ill in his room and faces arrest for debt. However, Joe nurses Pip back to health and pays off the debt. After recovering, Pip then returns to propose to Biddy, only to find that she has married Joe. Pip apologises to Joe, vows to repay him, and leaves for Cairo. There, he moves in with Herbert and Clara, eventually advancing to become third in the company. Only then does Herbert learn that Pip paid for his position in the firm.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pages=132–133}}, Chapters 55–58</ref>

After working for eleven years in Egypt, Pip returns to England and visits Joe, Biddy, and their son, Pip Jr. Then, in the ruins of Satis House, he meets the widowed Estella, who asks Pip to forgive her, assuring him that her misfortune and her abusive marriage to Drummle until his death have opened her heart. As Pip takes Estella's hand, and they leave the moonlit ruins, he sees "no shadow of another parting from her".<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|page=133}}, Chapter 59</ref>

==Characters==

===Pip and his family===
* [[Pip (Great Expectations)|Philip Pirrip]], nicknamed Pip, an orphan and the protagonist and narrator of ''Great Expectations''. In his childhood, Pip dreamed of becoming a blacksmith like his kind brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. At Satis House, aged about 8, he meets and falls in love with Estella, and tells Biddy that he wants to become a gentleman. As a result of [[Abel Magwitch|Magwitch]]'s anonymous patronage, Pip lives in London after learning the blacksmith trade, and becomes a gentleman. Pip assumes his benefactor is Miss Havisham; the discovery that his true benefactor is a convict shocks him. Pip, at the end of the story, is united with Estella.  
* Joe Gargery, Pip's brother-in-law, and his first father figure. He is a blacksmith who is always kind to Pip and the only person with whom Pip is always honest. Joe is disappointed when Pip decides to leave his home to live in London to become a gentleman rather than be a blacksmith in business with Joe. He is a strong man who bears the shortcomings of those closest to him.
* Mrs Joe Gargery, Pip's hot-tempered adult sister is more than 20 years older than Pip. She brings him up after their parents' death. She does the work of the household but too often loses her temper and beats her family. Orlick, her husband's journeyman, attacks her during a botched burglary, and she is left disabled until her death.
* Mr Pumblechook, Joe Gargery's uncle, an [[wikt:officious|officious]] [[bachelor]] and corn merchant. While not knowing how to deal with a growing boy, he tells Mrs Joe, as she is known, how noble she is to bring up Pip. As the person who first connected Pip to Miss Havisham, he claims to have been the original architect of Pip's expectations. Pip dislikes Mr Pumblechook for his pompous, unfounded claims. When Pip stands up to him in a public place, after those expectations are dashed, Mr Pumblechook turns those listening to the conversation against Pip.

===Miss Havisham and her family===
* [[Miss Havisham]], a wealthy [[spinster]] who takes Pip on as a companion for herself and her adopted daughter, Estella. Havisham is a wealthy, eccentric woman who has worn her wedding dress and one shoe since the day that she was jilted at the altar by her fiancé. Her house is unchanged as well. She hates all men, and plots to wreak a twisted revenge by teaching Estella to torment and spurn men, including Pip, who loves her. Miss Havisham is later overcome with remorse for ruining both Estella's and Pip's chances for happiness. Shortly after confessing her plotting to Pip and begging for his forgiveness, she is badly burned when her dress accidentally catches fire. In a later chapter Pip learns from Joe that she is dead.
* [[Estella (Great Expectations)|Estella]], Miss Havisham's adopted daughter, whom Pip pursues. She is a beautiful girl and grows more beautiful after her schooling in France. Estella represents the life of wealth and culture for which Pip strives. Since Miss Havisham has sabotaged Estella's ability to love, Estella cannot return Pip's passion. She warns Pip of this repeatedly, but he will not or cannot believe her. Estella does not know that she is the daughter of Molly, Jaggers's housekeeper, and the convict Abel Magwitch, given up for adoption to Miss Havisham after her mother was arrested for murder. In marrying Bentley Drummle, she rebels against Miss Havisham's plan to have her break a husband's heart, as Drummle is not interested in Estella but simply in the Havisham fortune.
* Matthew Pocket, Miss Havisham's cousin. He is the patriarch of the Pocket family, but unlike her other relatives, he is not greedy for Havisham's wealth. Matthew Pocket tutors young gentlemen, such as Bentley Drummle, Startop, Pip and his own son Herbert.
* Herbert Pocket, the son of Matthew Pocket, who was invited like Pip to visit Miss Havisham, but she did not take to him. Pip first meets Herbert as a "pale young gentleman" who challenges Pip to a fistfight at Miss Havisham's house when both are children. He later becomes Pip's friend, tutoring him in the "gentlemanly" arts and sharing his rooms with Pip in London.
* Camilla, one of the sisters of Matthew Pocket, and therefore a cousin of Miss Havisham, she is an obsequious, detestable woman who is intent on pleasing Miss Havisham to get her money.
*Cousin Raymond, a relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money. He is married to Camilla.
* Georgiana, a relative of Miss Havisham who is only interested in her money. She is one of the many relatives who hang around Miss Havisham "like flies" for her wealth.
* Sarah Pocket, the sister of Matthew Pocket, relative of Miss Havisham. She is often at Satis House. She is described as "a dry, brown corrugated old woman, with a small face that might have been made out of walnut shells, and a large mouth like a cat's without the whiskers".

===From Pip's youth===
* [[Abel Magwitch]], the convict, who escapes from a prison ship, whom Pip treats kindly, and who becomes Pip's benefactor. Magwitch uses the aliases "Provis" and "Mr. Campbell" when he returns to England from exile in Australia. He is a lesser actor in crime with Compeyson, but gains a longer sentence in an apparent application of justice by social class.
* Mr and Mrs Hubble, simple folk who think they are more important than they really are. They live in Pip's village.
* Mr Wopsle, clerk of the church in Pip's village. He later gives up the church work and moves to London to pursue his ambition to be an actor, adopting the stage name "Mr Waldengarver". He sees the other convict in the audience of one of his performances, attended also by Pip.
* Biddy, Wopsle's second cousin and near Pip's age; she teaches in the evening school at her grandmother's home in Pip's village. Pip wants to learn more, so he asks her to teach him all she can. After helping Mrs Joe after the attack, Biddy opens her own school. A kind and intelligent but poor young woman, she is, like Pip and Estella, an orphan. She acts as Estella's foil. Orlick was attracted to her, but she did not want his attentions. Pip ignores her affections for him as he pursues Estella. Recovering from his own illness after the failed attempt to get Magwitch out of England, Pip returns to claim Biddy as his bride, arriving in the village just after she marries Joe Gargery. Biddy and Joe later have two children, one named after Pip. In the ending to the novel discarded by Dickens but revived by students of the novel's development, Estella mistakes the boy as Pip's child.

===Mr Jaggers and his circle===
[[File:The Aged P., by Sol Eytinge, Jr..jpg|thumb|Mr Wemmick and "The Aged P"., illustration by [[Sol Eytinge Jr.]]]]
* Mr Jaggers, prominent London lawyer who represents the interests of diverse clients, both criminal and civil. He represents Pip's benefactor and Miss Havisham as well. By the end of the story, his law practice links many of the characters.
* [[John Wemmick]], Jaggers's clerk, who is Pip's chief go-between with Jaggers and looks after Pip in London. Wemmick lives with his father, "The Aged Parent", in a small replica of a castle, complete with a drawbridge and moat, in [[Walworth]].
* Molly, Mr Jaggers's [[maidservant]] whom Jaggers saved from the [[gallows]] for murder. She is revealed to be Magwitch's estranged wife and Estella's mother.

===Antagonists===
* [[Compeyson]], a convict who escapes the prison ship after Magwitch, who beats him up ashore. He is Magwitch's enemy. A professional swindler, he was engaged to marry Miss Havisham, but he was in league with her half-brother, [[Arthur Havisham]], to defraud Miss Havisham of part of her fortune. Later he sets up Magwitch to take the fall for another swindle. He works with the police when he learns Abel Magwitch is in London, fearing Magwitch after their first escapes years earlier. When the police boat encounters the one carrying Magwitch, the two grapple, and Compeyson drowns in the [[River Thames|Thames]].
* [[Arthur Havisham]], younger half brother of Miss Havisham, who plots with Compeyson to swindle her.
* Dolge Orlick, [[journeyman]] blacksmith at Joe Gargery's [[forge]]. Strong, rude and sullen, he is as churlish as Joe is gentle and kind. He ends up in a fistfight with Joe over Mrs Gargery's taunting, and Joe easily defeats him. This sets in motion an escalating chain of events that leads him secretly to assault Mrs Gargery and to try to kill her brother Pip. The police ultimately arrest him for housebreaking into Uncle Pumblechook's, where he is later jailed.
* Bentley Drummle, a coarse, unintelligent young man from a wealthy noble family being "the next [[heir]] but one to a [[baronetcy]]".<ref>{{cite book |title=Great Expectations – York Notes |publisher=York Notes |url=https://www.yorknotes.com/gcse/english-literature/great-expectations-gcse-2017/study/characters/01070200_minor-characters |access-date=3 September 2019 |quote=Drummle is a fellow student at Matthew Pocket's whom Pip first meets in Chapter 23 not long after his arrival in London. Mrs Pocket is distracted by Drummle's being ‘the next heir but one to a baronetcy’ (Ch. 23, p. 186) |archive-date=3 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903025234/https://www.yorknotes.com/gcse/english-literature/great-expectations-gcse-2017/study/characters/01070200_minor-characters |url-status=live }}</ref> Pip meets him at Mr Pocket's house, as Drummle is also to be trained in gentlemanly skills. Drummle is hostile to Pip and everyone else. He is a rival for Estella's attentions and eventually marries her and is said to abuse her. He dies from an accident following his mistreatment of a horse.

===Other characters===
* Clara Barley, a very poor girl living with her [[gout]]-ridden father. She marries Herbert Pocket near the novel's end. She dislikes Pip at first because of his spendthrift ways. After she marries Herbert, they invite Pip to live with them.
* Miss Skiffins occasionally visits Wemmick's house and wears green gloves. She changes those green gloves for white ones when she marries Wemmick.
* Startop, like Bentley Drummle, is Pip's fellow student, but unlike Drummle, he is kind. He assists Pip and Herbert in their efforts to help Magwitch escape.

==The creative process==
[[File:Charles Dickens - Project Gutenberg eText 13103.jpg|thumb|[[Charles Dickens]], c. 1860]]
As Dickens began writing ''Great Expectations'', he undertook a series of hugely popular and remunerative reading tours. His domestic life had, however, disintegrated in the late 1850s and he had separated from his wife, [[Catherine Dickens]], and was having a secret affair with the much younger [[Ellen Ternan]]. It has been suggested that the icy teasing of the character Estella is based on Ellen Ternan's reluctance to become Dickens's mistress.<ref>{{cite book |title=Great Expectations |chapter=Introduction |page=12 |author=Dickens, Charles |publisher=Penguin English Library |year=1984 }}</ref>

===Beginning===
In his ''Book of Memoranda'', begun in 1855, Dickens wrote names for possible characters: Magwitch, Provis, Clarriker, Compey, Pumblechook, Orlick, Gargery, Wopsle, Skiffins, some of which became familiar in ''Great Expectations''. There is also a reference to a "knowing man", a possible sketch of Bentley Drummle.<ref name="s259">{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|p=259}}</ref> Another evokes a house full of "Toadies and Humbugs", foreshadowing the visitors to Satis House in chapter 11.<ref name="s259" /><ref>[[Fred Kaplan (biographer)|Fred Kaplan]], ed. ''Dickens' Book of Memoranda'', 1981.</ref> [[Margaret Cardwell]] discovered the "premonition" of ''Great Expectations'' from a 25 September 1855 [[Letters of Charles Dickens|letter from Dickens]] to W. H. Wills, in which Dickens speaks of recycling an "odd idea" from the Christmas special "[[A House to Let]]" and "the pivot round which my next book shall revolve".<ref name="Wilkie letters">Charles Dickens, letters, Letter to [[Wilkie Collins]], 6 September 1858.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=xiv}}</ref> The "odd idea" concerns an individual who "retires to an old lonely house…resolved to shut out the world and hold no communion with it".<ref name="Wilkie letters"/>

In an 8 August 1860 letter to [[Thomas Carlyle]], Dickens reported his agitation whenever he prepared a new book.<ref name="s259" /> A month later, in a letter to [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]], Dickens announced that he just had a new idea.<ref>Charles Dickens, Letters, Letter to [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]], mid-September 1860 (?).</ref>

===Publication in ''All the Year Round''===
[[File:Publicité pour Great Expectations dans All the Year Round.jpeg|thumb|left|Advertisement for ''Great Expectations'' in ''[[All the Year Round]]'']]
Dickens was pleased with the idea, calling it "such a very fine, new and grotesque idea" in a letter to Forster.<ref name=Hollington /> He planned to write "a little piece", a "grotesque tragi-comic conception", about a young hero who befriends an escaped convict, who then makes a fortune in Australia and anonymously bequeaths his property to the hero. In the end, the hero loses the money because it is forfeited to the Crown. In his biography of Dickens, Forster wrote that in the early idea "was the germ of Pip and Magwitch, which at first he intended to make the groundwork of a tale in the old twenty-number form".<ref name="Forster9.3">{{harvnb|John Forster|1872–1874|p=9.3}}</ref> Dickens presented the relationship between Pip and Magwitch pivotal to ''Great Expectations'' but without Miss Havisham, Estella, or other characters he later created.

As the idea and Dickens's ambition grew, he began writing. However, in September, the weekly ''All the Year Round'' saw its sales fall, and its flagship publication, ''A Day's Ride'' by [[Charles Lever]], lost favour with the public. Dickens "called a council of war", and believed that to save the situation, "the one thing to be done was for [him] to strike in".<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to John Forster, 4 October 1860.</ref> The "very fine, new and grotesque idea" became the magazine's new support: weeklies, five hundred pages, just over one year (1860–1861), thirty-six episodes, starting 1 December. The magazine continued to publish Lever's novel until its completion on 23 March 1861,<ref name="s260"/> but it became secondary to ''Great Expectations''. Immediately, sales resumed, and critics responded positively, as exemplified by ''[[The Times]]''{{'}}s praise: "''Great Expectations'' is not, indeed, [Dickens's] best work, but it is to be ranked among his happiest".<ref>{{cite news |last=Dallas |first=E. S. |title=Great Expectations |url=http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/viewArticle.arc?pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1861-10-17-06 |access-date=25 January 2013 |work=[[The Times]] |date=17 October 1861 |page=6 |url-access=subscription }}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Dickens, whose health was not the best, felt "The planning from week to week was unimaginably difficult" but persevered.<ref name="s260">{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|p=260}}</ref> He thought he had found "a good name", decided to use the first person "throughout", and thought the beginning was "excessively droll": "I have put a child and a good-natured foolish man, in relations that seem to me very funny".<ref name="Dickens1860">Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to John Forster, beginning October 1860.</ref> Four weekly episodes were "ground off the wheel" in October 1860,<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to Wilkie Collins, 14 October 1860.</ref> and apart from one reference to the "bondage" of his heavy task,<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to [[Edmund Yates]], 24 February 1861.</ref> the months passed without the anguished cries that usually accompanied the writing of his novels.<ref name="s260"/> He did not even use the ''Number Plans'' or ''Mems'';<ref group="N">Nineteen double sheets folded in half: on the left, names, incidents, and expressions; on the right, sections of the current chapter.</ref> he had only a few notes on the characters' ages, the tide ranges for chapter 54, and the draft of an ending. In late December, Dickens wrote to [[Mary Louisa Boyle|Mary Boyle]] that "''Great Expectations'' [is] a very great success and universally liked".<ref name=Boyle>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to Mary Boyle, 28 December 1860.</ref>

[[File:Dickensjunior-1874.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|[[Charles Dickens Jr.]] (in 1874), possibly the model for Herbert Pocket]]
Dickens gave six readings from 14 March to 18 April 1861, and in May, Dickens took a few days' holiday in [[Dover]]. On the eve of his departure, he took some friends and family members for a trip by boat from [[Blackwall, London|Blackwall]] to [[Southend-on-Sea]]. Ostensibly for pleasure, the mini-cruise was actually a working session for Dickens to examine banks of the river in preparation for the chapter devoted to Magwitch's attempt to escape.<ref name="Forster9.3"/> Dickens then revised Herbert Pocket's appearance, no doubt, asserts Margaret Cardwell, to look more like his son [[Charles Dickens Jr.|Charley]].<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=xxvii–xxx}}</ref> On 11 June 1861, Dickens wrote to Macready that ''Great Expectations'' had been completed and on 15 June, asked the editor to prepare the novel for publication.<ref name="s260" />

===Revised ending===
Following comments by [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton|Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] that the ending was too sad, Dickens rewrote it prior to publication. The ending set aside by Dickens has Pip, who is still single, briefly see Estella in London; after becoming Bentley Drummle's widow, she has remarried.<ref name="s260"/><ref>{{cite web|website=listverse.com|url=http://listverse.com/2013/01/14/deleted-book-chapters/|date=14 January 2013|title=10 Deleted Chapters that Transformed Famous Books|author=Symon, Evan V.|access-date=1 September 2014|archive-date=5 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905233130/http://listverse.com/2013/01/14/deleted-book-chapters/|url-status=live}}</ref> It appealed to Dickens due to its originality: "[the] winding up will be away from all such things as they conventionally go".<ref name="s260" /><ref>Charles Dickens, Letters, Letter to John Forster, April 1861.</ref> Dickens revised the ending for publication so that Pip meets Estella in the ruins of Satis House, she is a widow and he is single. His changes at the conclusion of the novel did not quite end either with the final weekly part or the first bound edition, because Dickens further changed the last sentence in the amended 1868 version from "I could see the shadow of no parting from her"<ref name="s260" /> to "I saw no shadow of another parting from her".<ref name="Dickens412">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=412}}</ref> As Pip uses [[litotes]], "no shadow of another parting", it is ambiguous whether Pip and Estella marry or Pip remains single. [[Angus Calder]], writing for an edition in the [[Penguin Classics|Penguin English Library]], believed the less definite phrasing of the amended 1868 version perhaps hinted at a buried meaning: 'at this happy moment, I did not see the shadow of our subsequent parting looming over us.'<ref>Great Expectations, Penguin, 1965, p. 496</ref>

In a letter to Forster, Dickens explained his decision to alter the draft ending: "You will be surprised to hear that I have changed the end of ''Great Expectations'' from and after Pip's return to Joe's&nbsp;... Bulwer, who has been, as I think you know, extraordinarily taken with the book, strongly urged it upon me, after reading the proofs, and supported his views with such good reasons that I have resolved to make the change. I have put in as pretty a little piece of writing as I could, and I have no doubt the story will be more acceptable through the alteration".<ref name = Brinton>{{cite web|url=http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/publications/bookmarks/dickens/D12.pdf|title=Dickens Bookmarks 12 – Great Expectations|author=Ian Brinton|access-date=25 January 2013|archive-date=4 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104214453/http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/publications/bookmarks/dickens/D12.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Charles Dickens, Letters, Letter to John Forster, 25 June 1861.</ref>

This discussion between Dickens, Bulwer-Lytton and Forster has provided the basis for much discussion on Dickens's underlying views for this famous novel. Earle Davis, in his 1963 study of Dickens, wrote that "it would be an inadequate moral point to deny Pip any reward after he had shown a growth of character," and that "Eleven years might change Estella too".<ref>{{harvnb|Earle Davis|1963|pp=261–262}}<!--[https://archive.org/details/flintflame00earl <!-- quote=an inadequate. -->]. Retrieved 27 January 2013.--></ref> John Forster felt that the original ending was "more consistent" and "more natural"<ref>{{harvnb|John Forster|1872–1874|p=9. 3}}</ref><ref name="s261"/> but noted the new ending's popularity.<ref name="d262">{{harvnb|Earle Davis|1963|p=262}}</ref> [[George Gissing]] called that revision "a strange thing, indeed, to befall Dickens" and felt that ''Great Expectations'' would have been perfect had Dickens not altered the ending in deference to Bulwer-Lytton.<ref group="N">George Gissing wrote: "''Great Expectations'' (1861) would be nearly perfect in its mechanism but for the unhappy deference to Lord Lytton's judgment, which caused the end to be altered. Dickens meant to have left Pip a lonely man, and of course rightly so; by the irony of fate he was induced to spoil his work through a brother novelist's desire for a happy ending, a strange thing, indeed, to befall Dickens."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|George Gissing|1925|p=19}}, chapter III, ''The Story-Teller''</ref>

In contrast, John Hillis-Miller stated that Dickens's personality was so assertive that Bulwer-Lytton had little influence, and welcomed the revision: "The mists of infatuation have cleared away, [Estella and Pip] can be joined".<ref>{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|p=278}}</ref> Earl Davis notes that G. B. Shaw published the novel in 1937 for ''The Limited Editions Club'' with the first ending and that ''The Rinehart Edition'' of 1979 presents both endings.<ref name="d262"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Dickens and Earle Davis|title=Great Expectations|location=New York|publisher=Holt Rinehart & Winston|year=1979|isbn=978-0030779008|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/greatexpectation0000dick_a6u1}}</ref><ref>For a more detailed look into the revision of the ending, see Calum Kerr, ''From Magwitch to Miss Havisham: Narrative Interaction and Mythic Structure in Charles Dickens’'' Great Expectations, {{cite web|url=http://salempress.com/store/pdfs/expectations_critical_insights.pdf|title=''Great Expectations'', Critical Insights|access-date=27 January 2013|archive-date=21 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221222536/http://salempress.com/Store/pdfs/expectations_critical_insights.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[George Orwell]] wrote, "Psychologically the latter part of ''Great Expectations'' is about the best thing Dickens ever did," but, like John Forster and several early 20th century writers, including [[George Bernard Shaw]], felt that the original ending was more consistent with the draft, as well as the natural working out of the tale.<ref name=Orwell>{{cite book |url=http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd |author=Orwell, George |title=Inside the Whale and Other Essays |year=1940 |publisher=Victor Gollancz |location=London |access-date=7 December 2012 |archive-date=13 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213211629/http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/dickens/english/e_chd |url-status=live }}</ref> Modern literary criticism is split over the matter.

==Publication history==

===In periodicals===
Dickens and [[William Henry Wills (journalist)|Wills]] co-owned ''[[All the Year Round]]'', one 75%, the other 25%. Since Dickens was his own publisher, he did not require a contract for his own works.<ref>{{harvnb|Robert L. Patten|1978|p=271}}</ref> Although intended for weekly publication, ''Great Expectations'' was divided into nine monthly sections, with new pagination for each.<ref name="s261">{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|p=261}}</ref> ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' published the novel from 24 November 1860 to 5 August 1861 in the US and ''All the Year Round'' published it from 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861 in the UK. ''Harper's'' paid £1,000 ({{Inflation|UK|1000|1860|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=£}}) for publication rights. Dickens welcomed a contract with ''[[Tauchnitz publishers|Tauchnitz]]'' 4 January 1861 for publication in English for the European continent.

Publications in ''Harper's Weekly'' were accompanied by forty illustrations by John McLenan;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/mclenan/index.html|title=Illustrations de McLenan|access-date=2 August 2012|archive-date=2 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802184535/https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/mclenan/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> however, this is the only Dickens work published in ''All the Year Round'' without illustrations.

===Editions===
Robert L Patten identifies four American editions in 1861 and sees the proliferation of publications in Europe and across the Atlantic as "extraordinary testimony" to ''Great Expectations''{{'}}s popularity.<ref>{{harvnb|Robert L. Patten|1978|pp=288–293}}</ref> Chapman and Hall published the first edition in three volumes in 1861,<ref name=Dickens1861VolI /><ref name=Dickens1861VolII /><ref name=Dickens1861VolIII /> five subsequent reprints between 6 July and 30 October, and a one-volume edition in 1862. The "bargain" edition was published in 1862, the Library Edition in 1864, and the Charles Dickens edition in 1868. To this list, Paul Schlicke adds "two meticulous scholarly editions", one Clarendon Press published in 1993 with an introduction by Margaret Cardwell<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993}}</ref> and another with an introduction by Edgar Rosenberg, published by Norton in 1999.<ref name="s261" /> The novel was published with one ending (visible in the four online editions listed in the External links at the end of this article). In some 20th century editions, the novel ends as originally published in 1867, and in an afterword, the ending Dickens did not publish, along with a brief story of how a friend persuaded him to a happier ending for Pip, is presented to the reader (for example, 1987 audio edition by Recorded Books<ref>{{cite book |author1=Dickens, Charles |author2=Muller, Frank |author2-link=Frank Muller |year=1987 |author1-link=Charles Dickens |title=Great Expectations |publisher=Recorded Books |location=New York |isbn=1-4025-4950-4}}</ref>).

In 1862, Marcus Stone,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/artist.aspx?artist=marcus-stone|title=Image Gallery for Marcus Stone|publisher=ArtMagick|access-date=28 January 2013|archive-date=18 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218073057/http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/artist.aspx?artist=marcus-stone|url-status=dead}}</ref> son of Dickens's old friend, the painter Frank Stone, was invited to create eight woodcuts for the Library Edition. According to Paul Schlicke, these illustrations are mediocre yet were included in the Charles Dickens edition, and Stone created illustrations for Dickens's subsequent novel, ''Our Mutual Friend''.<ref name="s261" /> Later, Henry Mathew Brock also illustrated ''Great Expectations'' and a 1935 edition of ''[[A Christmas Carol]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bookstallsf.com/dickens.html|title=Various editions of ''A Christmas Carol''|publisher=The Bookstall|access-date=28 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702064454/http://www.bookstallsf.com/dickens.html|archive-date=2 July 2012}}</ref> along with other artists, such as John McLenan,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/mclenan/ge.html|title=Illustrations by John McLenan for ''Great Expectations''|access-date=4 September 2012|archive-date=11 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111041408/http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/mclenan/ge.html|url-status=live}}</ref> F. A. Fraser,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/fraser/index.html|title=Illustrations by FA Fraser for ''Great Expectations''|access-date=4 September 2012|archive-date=28 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128232448/https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/fraser/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and Harry Furniss.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/furniss/index.html|title=Illustrations by Harry Furniss for ''Great Expectations''|access-date=4 September 2012|archive-date=29 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729062320/https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/furniss/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===First edition publication schedule===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Part
!Date
!Chapters
|-
| 1–5
| 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 December 1860
| 1–8
|-
| 6–9
| 5, 12, 19, 26 January 1861
| 9–15
|-
| 10–12
| 2, 9, 23 February 1861
| 16–21
|-
| 13–17
| 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 March 1861
| 22–29
|-
| 18–21
| 6, 13, 20, 27 April 1861
| 30–37
|-
| 22–25
| 4, 11, 18, 25 May 1861
| 38–42
|-
| 26–30
| 1, 8 15, 22, 29 June 1861
| 43–52
|-
| 31–34
| 6, 13, 20, 27 July 1861
| 53–57
|-
| 35
| 3 August 1861
| 58–59
|}

==Reception==
Robert L. Patten estimates that ''All the Year Round'' sold 100,000 copies of ''Great Expectations'' each week, and Mudie, the largest circulating library, which purchased about 1,400 copies, stated that at least 30 people read each copy.<ref>{{harvnb|Robert L. Patten|1978|p=292}}</ref> Aside from the dramatic plot, the Dickensian humour also appealed to readers. Dickens wrote to Forster in October 1860 that "You will not have to complain of the want of humour as in the ''[[Tale of Two Cities]]'',"<ref>Charles Dickens, Letters, Lettere to John Forster, beginning October 1860</ref> an opinion Forster supports, finding that "Dickens's humour, not less than his creative power, was at its best in this book".<ref name="Forster9.3"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Forster|first=John|title=The Life of Charles Dickens|url=http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Forster-9.html#III|access-date=30 January 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204173239/http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Forster-9.html#III|archive-date=4 February 2013}}</ref> Moreover, according to Paul Schlicke, readers found the best of Dickens's older and newer writing styles.<ref name="s263">{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|p=263}}</ref>

Overall, ''Great Expectations'' was widely praised,<ref name="s263" /> although not all reviews were favourable, however; [[Margaret Oliphant]]'s review, published May 1862 in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]'', vilified the novel. Critics in the 19th and 20th centuries hailed it as one of Dickens's greatest successes although often for conflicting reasons: G. K. Chesterton admired the novel's optimism; Edmund Wilson its pessimism; Humphry House in 1941 emphasized its social context. In 1974, Jerome H. Buckley saw it as a ''[[Bildungsroman]]'', writing a chapter on Dickens and two of his major protagonists ([[David Copperfield (character)|David Copperfield]] and [[Pip (Great Expectations)|Pip]]) in his 1974 book on the Bildungsroman in Victorian writing.<ref>{{harvnb|Jerome Hamilton Buckley|1974}}</ref> John Hillis Miller wrote in 1958 that Pip is the archetype of all Dickensian heroes.<ref name=HillisMiller>{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|pp=249–278 }}</ref> In 1970, [[Q. D. Leavis]] suggested "How We Must Read ''Great Expectations''".<ref>{{harvnb|F. R. & Q. D. Leavis|1970}}</ref> In 1984, Peter Brooks, in the wake of [[Jacques Derrida]], offered a deconstructionist reading.<ref>{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.signosemio.com/derrida/deconstruction-et-differance.asp|title=Lucie Guillemette and Josiane Cossette, ''Deconstruction and difference'', Trois-Rivières, Université du Québec|access-date=2 August 2012|archive-date=5 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121205232254/http://www.signosemio.com/derrida/deconstruction-et-differance.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> The most profound analyst, according to Paul Schlicke, is probably [[Julian Moynahan]], who, in a 1964 essay surveying the hero's guilt, made Orlick "Pip's double, alter ego and dark mirror image". Schlicke also names Anny Sadrin's extensive 1988 study as the "most distinguished".<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|p=264}}</ref>

In 2015, the [[BBC]] polled book critics outside the UK about novels by British authors; they ranked ''Great Expectations'' fourth on the list of the 100 Greatest British Novels.<ref name=Ciabattari2015>{{cite news |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels |work=BBC Culture |title=The 100 greatest British novels |date=7 December 2015 |access-date=8 December 2015 |first=Jane |last=Ciabattari |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208170427/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151204-the-100-greatest-british-novels |url-status=live }}</ref> Earlier, in its 2003 poll [[The Big Read]] concerning the reading taste of the British public, ''Great Expectations'' was voted 17th out of the top 100 novels chosen by survey participants.<ref name=BigRead2003>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |title=The Big Read |publisher=BBC |date=April 2003 |access-date=21 December 2013 |archive-date=31 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031065136/http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Background==
''Great Expectations''{{'}}s single most obvious literary predecessor is Dickens's earlier first-person protagonist-narrated ''[[David Copperfield]]''. The two novels trace the psychological and moral development of a young boy to maturity, his transition from a rural environment to the London metropolis, the vicissitudes of his emotional development, and the exhibition of his hopes and youthful dreams and their metamorphosis, through a rich and complex first person narrative.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|pp=261–262}}</ref> Dickens was conscious of this similarity and, before undertaking his new manuscript, reread ''David Copperfield'' to avoid repetition.<ref name="Dickens1860"/>

The two books both detail homecoming. Although ''David Copperfield'' is based on some of Dickens's personal experiences, ''Great Expectations'' provides, according to Paul Schlicke, "the more spiritual and intimate autobiography".<ref name="s262">{{harvnb|Paul Schlicke|1999|p=262}}</ref> Details of where the novel is set are not given, but according to [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]], Dickens based Satis House on [[Restoration House]], which was near to where he lived in [[Rochester, Kent]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Forster-8.html |title=John Forster, "The Life of Charles Dickens" (8) |publisher=www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp |accessdate=2009-12-06 }}</ref> "Satis House" was the house where Rochester MP, Sir [[Richard Watts]], entertained [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kings-school-rochester.co.uk/en/history.html |title=King's School Rochester |publisher=www.kings-school-rochester.co.uk |accessdate=2009-12-06 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090927144103/http://www.kings-school-rochester.co.uk/en/history.html |archivedate=27 September 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Furthermore, no a specific time period is given, but it is indicated in general terms by reference older coaches, the title "His Majesty" in reference to [[George III]] (1738 – 1820), and to the old [[London Bridge]] that existed prior to the 1824–1831 reconstruction.<ref name="victorianweb.org">{{cite web|last=Allingham|first=Philip V.|title=The Genres of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations – Positioning the Novel (1)|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/pva101.html|publisher=The Victorian Web|access-date=26 April 2013|date=9 March 2001|archive-date=21 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130721011457/http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/pva101.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:The Vines, Rochester, with Restoration House. Charles Dickens and Rochester (1880) (14581569870).jpg|thumb|Satis House as depicted in ''Great Expectations'']]
[[File:Restoration House, Rochester.jpg|thumb|[[Restoration House]] from The Vines]]

The theme of homecoming reflects events in Dickens's life, several years prior to the publication of ''Great Expectations''. In 1856, he bought [[Gad's Hill Place]] in [[Higham, Kent|Higham]], Kent, which he had dreamed of living in as a child, and moved there from faraway London two years later. In 1858, in a painful marriage breakdown, he separated from Catherine Dickens, his wife of twenty-three years. The separation alienated him from some of his closest friends, such as [[Mark Lemon]]. He quarrelled with [[Bradbury and Evans]], who had published his novels for fifteen years. In early September 1860, in a field behind Gad's Hill, Dickens burned almost all of his correspondence, sparing only letters on business matters.<ref>Charles Dickens, Letters, Letter to Wills, 4 September 1860</ref><ref>Gladys Storey, ''Dickens and Daughter'', London, Frederick Muller Ltd, 1939, pp.106–107</ref> He stopped publishing the weekly ''[[Household Words]]'' at the summit of its popularity and replaced it with ''All the Year Round''.<ref name="s262" />

''[[The Uncommercial Traveller]]'', short stories, and other texts Dickens began publishing in his new weekly in 1859 reflect his nostalgia, as seen in "Dullborough Town" and "Nurses' Stories". According to Paul Schlicke, "it is hardly surprising that the novel Dickens wrote at this time was a return to roots, set in the part of England in which he grew up, and in which he had recently resettled".<ref name="s262" />

Margaret Cardwell draws attention to Chops the Dwarf from Dickens's 1858 Christmas story "Going into Society", who, as the future Pip does, entertains the illusion of inheriting a fortune and becomes disappointed upon achieving his social ambitions.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens1993|p=xiv}}</ref> In another vein, Harry Stone thinks that Gothic and magical aspects of ''Great Expectations'' were partly inspired by [[Charles Mathews]]'s ''At Home'', which was presented in detail in ''Household Words'' and its monthly supplement ''Household Narrative''. Stone also asserts that ''The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices'', written in collaboration with Wilkie Collins after their walking tour of [[Cumberland]] during September 1857 and published in ''Household Words'' from 3 to 31 October of the same year, presents certain strange locations and a passionate love, foreshadowing ''Great Expectations''.<ref>{{harvnb|Harry Stone|1979|pp=279–297}}</ref>

Beyond its biographical and literary aspects, ''Great Expectations'' appears, according to Robin Gilmour, as "a representative fable of the age".<ref name="Gilmour123">{{harvnb|Robin Gilmour|1981|p=123}}</ref> Dickens was aware that the novel "speaks" to a generation applying, at most, the principle of "self help" which was believed to have increased the order of daily life. That the hero Pip aspires to improve, not through snobbery, but through the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] conviction of education, social refinement, and materialism, was seen as a noble and worthy goal. However, by tracing the origins of Pip's "great expectations" to crime, deceit and even banishment to the colonies, Dickens unfavourably compares the new generation to the previous one of Joe Gargery, which Dickens portrays as less sophisticated but especially rooted in sound values, presenting an oblique criticism of his time.<ref name="Gilmour123"/>

==Structure==
The narrative structure of ''Great Expectations'' is influenced by the fact that it was first published as weekly episodes in a periodical. This required short chapters, centred on a single subject, and an almost mathematical structure.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|1999|p=158}}</ref>

===Chronology===
Pip's story is told in three stages: his childhood and early youth in Kent, where he dreams of rising above his humble station; his time in London after receiving "great expectations"; and then finally his disillusionment on discovering the source of his fortune, followed by his slow realisation of the vanity of his false values.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|1999|p=153}}</ref> These three stages are further divided into twelve parts of equal length. This symmetry contributes to the impression of completion, which has often been commented on. George Gissing, for example, when comparing Joe Gargery and Dan'l Peggotty (from ''[[David Copperfield]]''), preferred the former, because he is a stronger character, who lives "in a world, not of [[melodrama]], but of everyday cause and effect".<ref>Cited by {{harvnb|Paul Davis|1999|p=158}}</ref> G. B. Shaw also commented on the novel's structure, describing it as "compactly perfect", and [[Algernon Swinburne]] stated, "The defects in it are as nearly imperceptible as spots on the sun or shadow on a sunlit sea".<ref>Cited by David Trotter, Introduction to ''Great Expectations'', London, Penguin Books, 1996, p.vii</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Michael Cordell|1990|pp=34, 24|id=Michael_Cordell.2C_.C3.A9d.1990}}</ref> A contributing factor is "the briskness of the narrative tone".<ref>Cited in ''Dickens and the Twentieth Century'', Gross, John and Pearson, Gabriel, eds, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962, p.199-211.</ref>

===Narrative flow===
Further, beyond the chronological sequences and the weaving of several storylines into a tight plot, the sentimental setting and morality of the characters also create a pattern.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=15}}</ref> The narrative structure of ''Great Expectations'' has two main elements: firstly that of "foster parents", Miss Havisham, Magwitch, and Joe, and secondly that of "young people", Estella, Pip and Biddy. There is a further organizing element that can be labelled "Dangerous Lovers", which includes Compeyson, Bentley Drummle and Orlick. Pip is the centre of this web of love, rejection and hatred. Dickens contrasts this "dangerous love" with the relationship of Biddy and Joe, which grows from friendship to marriage.

This is "the general frame of the novel". The term "love" is generic, applying it to both Pip's true love for Estella and the feelings Estella has for Drummle, which are based on a desire for social advancement. Similarly, Estella rejects Magwitch because of her contempt for everything that appears below what she believes to be her social status.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=16}}</ref>

''Great Expectations'' has an unhappy ending, since most characters suffer physically, psychologically or both, or die—often violently—while suffering. Happy resolutions remain elusive, while hate thrives. The only happy ending is Biddy and Joe's marriage and the birth of their two children, since the final reconciliations, except that between Pip and Magwitch, do not alter the general order. Though Pip extirpates the web of hatred, the first unpublished ending denies him happiness while Dickens's revised second ending, in the published novel, leaves his future uncertain.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=17}}</ref>

=== Orlick as Pip's double ===
Julian Moynahan argues that the reader can better understand Pip's personality through analysing his relationship with Orlick, the criminal laborer who works at Joe Gargery's forge, than by looking at his relationship with Magwitch.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Julian |last=Moynahan |title=The Hero's Guilt: The Case of ''Great Expectations'' |location=London |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |journal=Essays in Criticism |year=1960 |volume=10 |pages=73–87 }}</ref>

[[File:Ch. 34 Pip, Biddy, followed by Orlick.jpeg|thumb|Pip and Biddy followed by Orlick (chapter 17), by [[John McLenan]]]]
Following Moynahan, [[David Trotter (academic)|David Trotter]]<ref name="Dickens_ix-x">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=ix–x}}</ref> notes that Orlick is Pip's shadow. Co-workers in the forge, both find themselves at Miss Havisham's, where Pip enters and joins the company, while Orlick, attending the door, stays out. Pip considers Biddy a sister; Orlick has other plans for her; Pip is connected to Magwitch, Orlick to Magwitch's nemesis, Compeyson. Orlick also aspires to "great expectations" and resents Pip's ascension from the forge and the swamp to the glamour of Satis House, from which Orlick is excluded, along with London's dazzling society. Orlick is the cumbersome shadow Pip cannot remove.<ref name="Dickens_ix-x"/>

Then comes Pip's punishment, with Orlick's savage attack on Mrs Gargery. Thereafter Orlick vanishes, only to reappear in chapter 53 in a symbolic act, when he lures Pip into a locked, abandoned building in the marshes. Orlick has a score to settle before going on to the ultimate act, murder. However, Pip hampers Orlick, because of his privileged status, while Orlick remains a slave of his condition, solely responsible for Mrs Gargery's fate.<ref name="Dickens_ix-x"/><ref name="Dickens_x">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=x}}</ref>

Dickens also uses Pip's upper class counterpart, Bentley Drummle, "the double of a double", according to Trotter, in a similar way.<ref name="Dickens_x"/> Like Orlick, Drummle is powerful, swarthy, unintelligible, hot-blooded, and lounges and lurks, biding his time. Estella rejects Pip for this rude, uncouth but well-born man, and ends Pip's hope. Finally the lives of both Orlick and Drummle end violently.<ref name="Dickens_x"/>

==Point of view==
[[File:Let me sit listening as I would, with dread.jpeg|thumb|upright=0.8|Pip before Magwitch's return, by John McLenan]]
Although the novel is written in first person, the reader knows—as an essential prerequisite—that ''Great Expectations'' is not an autobiography but a novel, a work of fiction with plot and characters, featuring a narrator-protagonist. In addition, Sylvère Monod notes that the treatment of the autobiography differs from ''David Copperfield'', as ''Great Expectations'' does not draw from events in Dickens's life; "at most some traces of a broad psychological and moral introspection can be found".<ref>{{harvnb|Sylvère Monod|1953|p=443}}</ref>

However, according to Paul Pickerel's analysis, Pip—as both narrator and protagonist—recounts with hindsight the story of the young boy he was, who did not know the world beyond a narrow geographic and familial environment. The novel's direction emerges from the confrontation between the two periods of time. At first, the novel presents a mistreated orphan, repeating situations from ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' and ''David Copperfield'', but the trope is quickly overtaken. The theme manifests itself when Pip discovers the existence of a world beyond the marsh, the forge and the future Joe envisioned for him, the decisive moment when Miss Havisham and Estella enter his life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pickerel |first=Paul |title=Dickens: A Collection of Critical Essays |editor-last=Price |editor-first=Martin |location=Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey |publisher=Prentice Hall |page=160 |year=1967}}</ref> This is a red herring, as the decay of Satis House and the strange lady within signals the fragility of an impasse. At this point, the reader knows more than the protagonist, creating [[dramatic irony]] that confers a superiority that the narrator shares.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pickerel |first=Paul |title=Dickens: A Collection of Critical Essays |editor-last=Price |editor-first=Martin |location=Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey |publisher=Prentice Hall |page=158}}</ref>

It is not until Magwitch's return, a plot twist that unites loosely connected plot elements and sets them into motion, that the protagonist's point of view joins those of the narrator and the reader.<ref>{{cite book |author=Pickerel, Paul |title=Dickens: A Collection of Critical Essays |editor=Price, Martin |location=Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey |publisher=Prentice Hall |page=161}}</ref> In this context of progressive revelation, the sensational events at the novel's end serve to test the protagonist's point of view. Thus proceeds, in the words of A. E. Dyson, "The Immolations of Pip".<ref>{{harvnb|A. E. Dyson|1970|p=1}}</ref>

== Style ==
Some of the narrative devices that Dickens uses are [[caricature]], comic speech mannerisms, intrigue, [[Gothic fiction|Gothic]] atmosphere, and a central character who gradually changes. Earl Davis notes the close network of the structure and balance of contrasts, and praises the first-person narration for providing a simplicity that is appropriate for the story while avoiding [[melodrama]]. Davis sees the symbolism attached to "great expectations"{{vague|date=November 2019}} as reinforcing the novel's impact.<ref>{{harvnb|Earle Davis|1963|pp=262–263}}</ref>

=== Characterisation ===

==== Character ''leitmotiv'' ====
[[File:Mr Wopsle as Hamlet, by Harry Furniss.jpeg|thumb|Mr Wopsle as Hamlet, by [[Harry Furniss]]]]
Characters then become themes in themselves, almost a [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]] ''[[leitmotiv]]'', whose attitudes are repeated at each of their appearances as a musical phrase signaling their entry.<ref name="Suhamy21">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=21}}</ref> For example, Jaggers constantly chews the same fingernail and washes his hands with scented soap, Orlick lurches his huge body, and Matthew Pocket always pulls at his hair. Seen by the narrator, their attitude is mechanical, like that of an automaton: in the general scheme, the gesture betrays the uneasiness of the unaccomplished or exasperated man, his betrayed hope, his unsatisfied life.<ref name="Suhamy21"/> In this set, every character is orbited by "satellite" characters. Wemmick is Jaggers's copy at work, but has placed in Walworth a secret garden, a castle with a family of an elderly father and a middle-aged fiancée, where he happily devours buttered bread.<ref name="Suhamy6">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=6}} (Romantisme)</ref> Wopsle plays the role of a poor Pip, kind of unsuccessful, but with his distraction, finally plays ''Hamlet'' in London, and Pumblechook does not hesitate to be the instrument of Pip's fortunes, then the mentor of his resurrection.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=23}}</ref>

==== Narrative technique ====
For Pip's redemption to be credible, Trotter writes, the words of the main character must sound right.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=vii}}</ref> Christopher Ricks adds that Pip's frankness induces empathy, dramatics are avoided,<ref>Christopher Ricks, "''Great Expectations''", ''Dickens and the Twentieth Century'', ed. John Gross and Gabriel Pearson, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962, pp. 199–211.</ref> and his good actions are more eloquent than words. Dickens's subtle narrative technique is also shown when he has Pip confess that he arranged Herbert's partnership with Clarriker, has Miss Havisham finally see the true character of her cousin Matthew Pocket, and has Pocket refuse the money she offers him.<ref name="Dickens-viii">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=viii}}</ref> To this end, the narrative method subtly changes until, during the perilous journey down the Thames to remove Magwitch in chapter 54, the narrative point-of-view shifts from first person to the omniscient point of view. For the first time, Ricks writes, the "I" ceases to be Pip's thoughts and switches to the other characters, the focus, at once, turns outward, and this is mirrored in the imagery of the black waters tormented waves and eddies, which heaves with an anguish that encompasses the entire universe, the passengers, the docks, the river, the night.<ref name="Dickens-viii"/>

=== Romantic and symbolic realism ===
According to Paul Davis, while more realistic than its [[David Copperfield|autobiographical predecessor]] written when novels like [[George Eliot]]'s ''[[Adam Bede]]'' were in vogue, ''Great Expectations'' is in many ways a poetic work built around recurring symbolic images: the desolation of the marshes; the twilight; the chains of the house, the past, the painful memory; the fire; the hands that manipulate and control; the distant stars of desire; the river connecting past, present and future.<ref>{{harvnb|Paul Davis|1999|p=158}}, columns 1 and 2.</ref>

==Genre==
''Great Expectations'' contains a variety of literary genres, including the bildungsroman, gothic novel, crime novel, as well as comedy, [[melodrama]] and satire; and it belongs—like ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' and the novels of [[Walter Scott]]—to the romance rather than [[Realism (arts)|realist]] tradition of the novel.<ref name="OpenUni">{{cite web|url=http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/literature/approaching-literature-reading-great-expectations/content-section-4.2|title=''Great Expectations'' and realism|date=4 July 2013|work=Approaching literature: Reading Great Expectations|publisher=The Open University|access-date=11 December 2015|archive-date=4 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151204010652/http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/literature/approaching-literature-reading-great-expectations/content-section-4.2|url-status=live}}</ref>

===''Bildungsroman''===
Complex and multifaceted, ''Great Expectations'' is a Victorian ''[[bildungsroman]]'', or initiatory tale, which focuses on a protagonist who matures over the course of the novel. ''Great Expectations'' describes Pip's initial frustration upon leaving home, followed by a long and difficult period that is punctuated with conflicts between his desires and the values of established order. During this time he re-evaluates his life and re-enters society on new foundations.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

However, the novel differs from the two preceding pseudo-autobiographies, ''David Copperfield'' and ''[[Bleak House]]'' (1852), (though the latter is only partially narrated in first-person), in that it also partakes of several sub-genres popular in Dickens's time.<ref name="Davis 134-5">{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pp=134–135}}</ref><ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

===Comic novel===
''Great Expectations'' contains many comic scenes and eccentric personalities, integral parts to both the plot and the theme. Among the notable comic episodes are Pip's Christmas dinner in chapter 4, Wopsle's ''Hamlet'' performance in chapter 31, and Wemmick's marriage in chapter 55. Many of the characters have eccentricities: Jaggers with his punctilious lawyerly ways; the contrariness of his clerk, Wemmick, at work advising Pip to invest in "portable property", while in private living in a cottage converted into a castle; and the reclusive Miss Havisham in her decaying mansion, wearing her tattered bridal robes.<ref name="Davis 134">{{harvnb|Paul Davis|2007|pp=129, 134}}</ref>

===Crime fiction===
[[File:"Molly, let them see both your wrists. Show them. Come!".jpeg|thumb|Jaggers asking Molly to show her scarred wrists, by John McLenan]]
''Great Expectations'' incorporates elements of the new genre of [[crime fiction]], which Dickens had already used in ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (1837), and which was being developed by his friends [[Wilkie Collins]] and [[William Harrison Ainsworth]]. With its scenes of convicts, [[prison ship]]s, and episodes of bloody violence, Dickens creates characters worthy of the [[Newgate novel|Newgate school of fiction]].<ref>{{citation|author=Keith Hollingsworth|title=The Newgate Novel, 1830–1847, Bulwer, Ainsworth, Dickens & Thackeray|location=Detroit|publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=1963}}</ref>

===Gothic novel===
''Great Expectations'' contains elements of the [[Gothic novel|Gothic genre]], especially Miss Havisham, the bride frozen in time, and the ruined Satis House filled with weeds and spiders.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/> Other characters linked to this genre include the aristocratic Bentley Drummle, because of his extreme cruelty; Pip himself, who spends his youth chasing a frozen beauty; the monstrous Orlick, who systematically attempts to murder his employers. Then there is the fight to the death between Compeyson and Magwitch, and the fire that ends up killing Miss Havisham, scenes dominated by horror, suspense, and the sensational.<ref name="Davis 134-5"/>

=== Silver-fork novel ===
Elements of the [[Fashionable novel|silver-fork novel]] are found in the character of Miss Havisham and her world, as well as Pip's illusions. This genre, which flourished in the 1820s and 1830s,<ref>{{cite book |first=Alison |last=Adburgham |title=Silver Fork Society: Fashionable Life and Literature from 1814 to 1840 |location=London |publisher=Constable |year=1983 |isbn=978-0094636705}}</ref> presents the flashy elegance and aesthetic frivolities found in high society. In some respects, Dickens conceived ''Great Expectations'' as an anti silver fork novel, attacking [[Charles Lever]]'s novel ''A Day's Ride'', publication of which began January 1860, in ''[[Household Words]]''.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/lever/bio.html |title=Charles Lever (1806–1872): Anglo-Irish Novelist, Physician, and Diplomat |first=Philip V |last=Allingham |access-date=25 August 2012 |archive-date=6 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006170306/http://victorianweb.org/authors/lever/bio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This can be seen in the way that Dickens satirises the pretensions and morals of Miss Havisham and her sycophants, including the Pockets (except Matthew), and Uncle Pumblechook.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

=== Historical novel ===
[[File:George III Third Guinea 73244.jpg|left|thumb|[[George III]] [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]], a gold coin worth 21 shillings, the coin illustrated here is a third Guinea equal to 7 shillings.]]
Though ''Great Expectations'' is not obviously a historical novel, Dickens does emphasise differences between the time that the novel is set ({{Circa|1812}}–46) and when it was written (1860–1).

''Great Expectations'' begins around 1812 (the year of Dickens's birth), continues until around 1830–1835, and then jumps to around 1840–1845, during which the [[Great Western Railway]] was built.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/> Though readers today will not notice this, Dickens uses various things to emphasise the differences between 1861 and this earlier period. Among these details—that contemporary readers would have recognised—are the one pound note (in chapter 10) that the [[Country Bankers Act 1826|Bank Notes Act 1826]] had removed from circulation;<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encyclopedia-of-money.blogspot.com/2010/01/banking-acts-of-1826-england.html |title=Banking Acts of 1826 (England) |access-date=25 May 2018 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Money}}</ref> likewise, the death penalty for deported felons who returned to Britain was abolished in 1835. The [[gallows]] erected in the swamps, designed to display a rotting corpse, had disappeared by 1832, and [[George III]], the monarch mentioned at the beginning, died in 1820, when Pip would have been seven or eight.

Miss Havisham paid Joe 25 guineas, gold coins, when Pip was to begin his apprenticeship (in chapter 13); guinea coins were slowly going out of circulation after the [[Guinea (coin)#George III|last new ones]] were struck with the face of George III in 1799. This also marks the historical period, as the one pound note was the official currency at the time of the novel's publication. Dickens placed the epilogue 11 years after Magwitch's death, which seems to be the time limit of the reported facts. Collectively, the details suggest that Dickens identified with the main character. If Pip is around 23 toward the middle of the novel and 34 at its end, he is roughly modeled after his creator who turned 34 in 1846.<ref name="victorianweb.org"/>

==Themes==
The title's "Expectations" refers to "a legacy to come",<ref>{{Citation|author=John Berseth|chapter=Introduction|title=Great Expectations|location=Dover (USA)|publisher=Dover Publications, Inc.|year=2001|isbn=978-0-486-41586-4|page=1}}</ref> and thus immediately announces that money, or more specifically wealth plays an important part in the novel.<ref name=HillisMiller /> Some other major themes are crime, social class, including both gentility, and social alienation, imperialism and ambition. The novel is also concerned with questions relating to conscience and moral regeneration, as well as redemption through love.

=== Pip's name ===
Dickens famously created comic and telling names for his characters,<ref>Elizabeth Hope Gordon, "The Naming of Characters in the Books of Charles Dickens". ''University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature, and Criticism'', January 1917. pp. 1–35.</ref> but in ''Great Expectations'' he goes further. The first sentence of the novel establishes that Pip's proper name is Philip Pirrip—the wording of his father's gravestone—which "my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip". The name Philip Pirrip (or Pirrip) is never again used in the novel. In Chapter 18, when he receives his expectation from an anonymous benefactor, the first condition attached to it is "that you always bear the name of Pip".

In Chapter 22, when Pip establishes his friendship with Herbert Pocket, he attempts to introduce himself as Philip. Herbert immediately rejects the name: {{" '}}I don't take to Philip,' said he, smiling, 'for it sounds like a moral boy out of the spelling-book{{' "}} and decides to refer to Pip exclusively as Handel: {{" '}}Would you mind Handel for a familiar name? There's a charming piece of music by Handel, called the ''[[The Harmonious Blacksmith|Harmonious Blacksmith]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>". The only other place he is referred to as Philip is in Chapter 44, when he receives a letter addressed to "Philip Pip" from his friend Wemmick, which says "DON'T GO HOME".

=== Pip as social outcast ===
[[File:"And may I--May I--?".jpeg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|Mr Pumblechook: "And may I—''May'' I—?", by John McLenan]]
A central theme here is of people living as social outcasts. The novel's opening setting emphasises this: the orphaned Pip lives in an isolated foggy environment next to a graveyard, dangerous swamps, and [[prison ship]]s. Furthermore, "I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion and morality".<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=31}}</ref>

Pip feels excluded by society and this leads to his aggressive attitude towards it, as he tries to win his place within it through any means. Various other characters behave similarly—that is, the oppressed become the oppressors. Jaggers dominates Wemmick, who in turn dominates Jaggers's clients. Likewise, Magwitch uses Pip as an instrument of vengeance, as Miss Havisham uses Estella.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=342}}</ref>

However, Pip has hope despite his sense of exclusion<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=2}}</ref> because he is convinced that [[divine providence]] owes him a place in society and that marriage to Estella is his destiny. Therefore, when fortune comes his way, Pip shows no surprise, because he believes that his value as a human being and his inherent nobility have been recognized. Thus, Pip accepts Pumblechook's flattery without blinking: "That boy is no common boy"<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=141}}</ref> and the "May I? ''May'' I?" associated with handshakes.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|pp=140–142}}</ref>

From Pip's hope comes his "uncontrollable, impossible love for Estella",<ref>{{Citation|author=Jack B. Moore|chapter=Heart and Hands in ''Great Expectations''|title=Dickensian 61|year=1965|pages=52–56}}</ref> despite the humiliations to which she has subjected him. For Pip, winning a place in society also means winning Estella's heart.

=== Wealth ===
When the money secretly provided by Magwitch enables Pip to enter London society, two new related themes, wealth and gentility, are introduced.

[[File:(ch.20) "Say another word--one single word--and Wemmick shall give you your money back".jpeg|thumb|Chapter 20, outside Bartholomew Close, Jaggers threatening a woman with a shawl called Amelia, by F. A. Fraser]]

As the novel's title implies, money is a theme of ''Great Expectations''. Central to this is the idea that wealth is only acceptable to the ruling class if it comes from the labour of others.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=8}}</ref> Miss Havisham's wealth comes not from the sweat of her brow but from rent collected on properties she inherited from her father, a brewer. Her wealth is "pure", and her father's profession as a brewer does not contaminate it. Herbert states in chapter 22 that "while you cannot possibly be genteel and bake, you may be as genteel as never was and brew".<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=160}}</ref> Because of her wealth, the old lady, despite her eccentricity, enjoys public esteem. She remains in a constant business relationship with her lawyer Jaggers and keeps a tight grip over her "court" of sycophants, so that, far from representing [[social exclusion]], she is the very image of a powerful landed aristocracy that is frozen in the past and "embalmed in its own pride".<ref name="Suhamy9">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=9}}</ref>

On the other hand, Magwitch's wealth is socially unacceptable, firstly because he earned it, not through the efforts of others, but through his own hard work, and secondly because he was a convict, and he earned it in a penal colony. It is argued that the contrast with Miss Havisham's wealth is suggested symbolically. Thus Magwitch's money smells of sweat, and his money is greasy and crumpled: "two fat sweltering one-pound notes that seemed to have been on terms of the warmest intimacy with all the cattle market in the country",<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=77}}</ref> while the coins Miss Havisham gives for Pip's "indentures" shine as if new. Further, it is argued Pip demonstrates his "good breeding", because when he discovers that he owes his transformation into a "gentleman" to such a contaminated windfall, he is repulsed.<ref name="Suhamy9"/> A.&nbsp;O.&nbsp;J. Cockshut, however, has suggested that there is no difference between Magwitch's wealth and that of Miss Havisham.<ref>{{Citation|author=Anthony Oliver John Cockshut|title=The Imagination of Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=Methuen|year=1965|pages=192, 164}}</ref>

Trotter emphasizes the importance of Magwitch's greasy banknotes. Beyond Pip's emotional reaction the notes reveal that Dickens's views on social and economic progress have changed in the years prior to the publication of ''Great Expectations''.<ref name="Dickens_xiv">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=xiv}}</ref> His novels and ''Household Words'' extensively reflect Dickens's views, and his efforts to contribute to social progress expanded in the 1840s. To illustrate his point, he cites Humphry House who, succinctly, writes that in ''[[Pickwick Papers]]'', "a bad smell was a bad smell", whereas in ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' and ''Great Expectations'', "it is a problem".<ref name="Dickens_xiv"/><ref>{{harvnb|Humphry House|1941|p=135}}</ref>

[[File:"Pip's a gentleman of fortune, then" said Joe, "and God bless him in it!".jpeg|thumb|Joe commenting on Pip's good fortune, by John McLenan]]
At the time of [[The Great Exhibition]] of 1851, Dickens and [[Richard Henry Horne]], an editor of ''Household Words'', wrote an article comparing the British technology that created [[the Crystal Palace]] to the few artifacts exhibited by China: England represented an openness to worldwide trade and China isolationism. "To compare China and England is to compare Stoppage to Progress", they concluded. According to Trotter, this was a way to target the [[Tory]] government's return to [[protectionism]], which they felt would make England the China of Europe. In fact, ''Household Words''' 17 May 1856 issue championed international [[free trade]], comparing the constant flow of money to the circulation of the blood.<ref name="Dickens_xv">{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1996|p=xv}}</ref> In the 1850s, Dickens believed in "genuine" wealth, which critic Trotter compares to fresh banknotes, crisp to the touch, pure and odorless.<ref name="Dickens_xv"/>

With ''Great Expectations'', Dickens's views about wealth have changed. However, though some sharp [[satire]] exists, no character in the novel has the role of the moralist that condemn Pip and his society. In fact, even Joe and Biddy themselves, paragons of good sense, are complicit, through their exaggerated innate humility, in Pip's social deviancy. Dickens's moral judgement is first made through the way that he contrasts characters: only a few characters keep to the straight and narrow path; Joe, whose values remain unchanged; Matthew Pocket whose pride renders him, to his family's astonishment, unable to flatter his rich relatives; Jaggers, who keeps a cool head and has no illusions about his clients; Biddy, who overcomes her shyness to, from time to time, bring order. The narrator-hero is left to draw the necessary conclusions: in the end, Pip finds the light and embarks on a path of moral regeneration.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|pp=9–11}}</ref>

===London as prison===
[[File:"Look here", said Herbert (Herbert Pocket.jpg|thumb|Herbert Pocket and Pip in London, by John McLenan]]
In London, neither wealth nor gentility brings happiness. Pip, the apprentice gentleman constantly bemoans his anxiety, his feelings of insecurity,<ref name="Suhamy11">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=11}}</ref> and multiple allusions to overwhelming chronic unease, to weariness, drown his enthusiasm (chapter 34).<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=101}}</ref> Wealth, in effect, eludes his control: the more he spends, the deeper he goes into debt to satisfy new needs, which were just as futile as his old ones.

His unusual path to gentility has the opposite effect to what he expected: infinite opportunities become available, certainly, but will power, in proportion, fades and paralyses the soul. In the crowded metropolis, Pip grows disenchanted, disillusioned, and lonely. Alienated from his native Kent, he has lost the support provided by the village blacksmith. In London, he is powerless to join a community, not the Pocket family, much less Jaggers's circle. London has become Pip's prison and, like the convicts of his youth, he is bound in chains: "no Satis House can be built merely with money".<ref name="Suhamy13">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=13}}</ref><ref group="N">From Latin ''satis'', meaning "enough".</ref>

=== Gentility ===
[[File:Do you take tea, or coffee, Mr Gargery?, by F. A. Fraser, c. 1877.jpeg|thumb|left|"Do you take tea, or coffee, Mr Gargery?" by F. A. Fraser, c. 1877]]
The idea of "good breeding" and what makes for a "gentleman" other than money, in other words, "gentility", is a central theme of ''Great Expectations''. The convict Magwitch covets it by proxy through Pip; Mrs Pocket dreams of acquiring it; it is also found in Pumblechook's sycophancy; it is even seen in Joe, when he stammers between "Pip" and "Sir" during his visit to London, and when Biddy's letters to Pip suddenly become reverent.

There are other characters who are associated with the idea of gentility like, for example, Miss Havisham's seducer, Compeyson, the scarred-face convict. While Compeyson is corrupt, even Magwitch does not forget he is a gentleman.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=43}}</ref> This also includes Estella, who ignores the fact that she is the daughter of Magwitch and another criminal.<ref name="Suhamy9"/>

There are a couple of ways by which someone can acquire gentility, one being a title, another being family ties to the upper middle class. Mrs Pocket bases every aspiration on the fact that her grandfather failed to be knighted, while Pip hopes that Miss Havisham will eventually adopt him, as adoption, as evidenced by Estella, who behaves like a born and bred little lady, is acceptable.<ref name="Suhamy10">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=10}}</ref> But even more important, though not sufficient, are wealth and education. Pip knows that and endorses it, as he hears from Jaggers through Matthew Pocket: "I was not designed for any profession, and I should be well enough educated for my destiny if I could hold my own with the average of young men in prosperous circumstances."<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=174}}</ref> But neither the educated Matthew Pocket, nor Jaggers, who has earned his status solely through his intellect, can aspire to gentility. Bentley Drummle, however, embodies the social ideal, so that Estella marries him without hesitation.<ref name="Suhamy10"/>

=== Moral regeneration ===
Another theme of ''Great Expectations'' is that Pip can undergo "moral regeneration".

In chapter 39, the novel's turning point, Magwitch visits Pip to see the gentleman he has made, and once the convict has hidden in Herbert Pocket's room, Pip realises his situation:

{{Blockquote|For an hour or more, I remained too stunned to think; and it was not until I began to think, that I began fully to know how wrecked I was, and how the ship in which I had sailed was gone to pieces.

Miss Havisham's intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me&nbsp;... But, sharpest and deepest pain of all—it was for the convict, guilty of I knew not what crimes, and liable to be taken out of those rooms where I sat thinking, and hanged at the Old Bailey door, that I had deserted Joe.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=279}}</ref>}}

To cope with his situation and his learning that he now needs Magwitch, a hunted, injured man who traded his life for Pip's. Pip can only rely on the power of love for Estella.<ref>{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|pp=265, 271}}</ref> Pip now goes through a number of different stages each of which, is accompanied by successive realisations about the vanity of the prior certainties.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|pp=11–14}}</ref>
[[File:"Joe now sat down to his great work,"etc..jpeg|thumb|Joe learns to read by John McLenan]]

Pip's problem is more psychological and moral than social. Pip's climbing of the social ladder upon gaining wealth is followed by a corresponding degradation of his integrity. Thus after his first visit in Miss Havisham, the innocent young boy from the marshes, suddenly turns into a liar to dazzle his sister, Mrs Joe, and his Uncle Pumblechook with the tales of a carriage and veal chops.<ref name="Suhamy11"/> More disturbing is his fascination with Satis House—where he is despised and even slapped, beset by ghostly visions, rejected by the Pockets—and the gradual growth of the mirage of London. The allure of wealth overpowers loyalty and gratitude, even conscience itself. This is evidenced by the urge to buy Joe's return, in chapter 27, Pip's haughty glance as Joe deciphers the alphabet, not to mention the condescending contempt he confesses to Biddy, copying Estella's behaviour toward him.<ref name="Suhamy12">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=12}}</ref>

[[File:"Hold me! I'm so frightened!" (Trabb's boy).jpeg|thumb|left|Trabb's boy mocks Pip in the village highstreet outside the post-office by John McLenan]]
Pip represents, as do those he mimics, the bankruptcy of the "idea of the gentleman", and becomes the sole beneficiary of vulgarity, inversely proportional to his mounting gentility.<ref>{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|pp=269–270}}</ref> In chapter 30, Dickens parodies the new disease that is corroding Pip's moral values through the character "Trabb's boy", who is the only one not to be fooled. The boy parades through the main street of the village with boyish antics and contortions meant to satirically imitate Pip. The gross, comic caricature openly exposes the hypocrisy of this ''new'' gentleman in a frock coat and top hat. Trabb's boy reveals that appearance has taken precedence over being, protocol on feelings, decorum on authenticity; labels reign to the point of absurdity, and human solidarity is no longer the order of the day.<ref name="Suhamy14">{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|p=14}}</ref>

[[File:Mrs. Pocket And Her Family by Harry Furniss. 1910..jpeg|thumb|Mrs Pocket and her children indulging in idleness by Harry Furniss (1910)]]
Estella and Miss Havisham represent rich people who enjoy a materially easier life but cannot cope with a tougher reality. Miss Havisham, like a melodramatic heroine, withdrew from life at the first sign of hardship. Estella, excessively spoiled and pampered, sorely lacks judgement and falls prey to the first gentleman who approaches her, though he is the worst. Estella's marriage to such a brute demonstrates the failure of her education. Estella is used to dominating but becomes a victim to her own vice, brought to her level by a man born, in her image.<ref>{{harvnb|Henri Suhamy|1971|pp=13–14}}</ref>

Dickens uses imagery to reinforce his ideas and London, the paradise of the rich and of the ''ideal'' of the gentleman, has mounds of filth, it is crooked, decrepit, and greasy, a dark desert of bricks, soot, rain, and fog. The surviving vegetation is stunted, and confined to fenced-off paths, without air or light. Barnard's Inn, where Pip lodges, offers mediocre food and service while the rooms, despite the furnishing provided, as Suhamy states, "for the money", is most uncomfortable, a far cry from Joe's large kitchen, radiating hearth, and his well-stocked pantry.<ref name="Suhamy13"/>

Likewise, such a world, dominated by the lure of money and social prejudice, also leads to the warping of people and morals, to family discord and war between man and woman.<ref group="N">Original quote in French: "un monde que dominent l'appât de l'argent et les préjugés sociaux conduit à la mutilation de l'être, aux discordes de famille, à la guerre entre homme et femme, et ne saurait conduire à quelque bonheur que ce soit".</ref> In contrast to London's corruption stands Joe, despite his intellectual and social limitations, in whom the values of the heart prevail and who has natural wisdom.<ref name="Suhamy14"/>

===Pip's conscience===
[[File:"He was taken on board, and instantly manacled at the wrists and ankles.".jpeg|thumb|left|Magwitch's arrest after his capture on the Thames while trying to escape to France, by John McLenan]]
Another important theme is Pip's sense of guilt, which he has felt from an early age. After the encounter with the convict Magwitch, Pip is afraid that someone will find out about his crime and arrest him. The theme of guilt comes into even greater effect when Pip discovers that his benefactor is a convict. Pip has an internal struggle with his conscience throughout ''Great Expectations'', hence the long and painful process of redemption that he undergoes.

Pip's moral regeneration is a true pilgrimage punctuated by suffering. Like Christian in [[John Bunyan|Bunyan]]'s ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'', Pip makes his way up to light through a maze of horrors that afflict his body as well as his mind. This includes the burns he suffers from saving Miss Havisham from the fire; the illness that requires months of recovery; the threat of a violent death at Orlick's hands; debt, and worse, the obligation of having to repay them; hard work, which he recognises as the only worthy source of income, hence his return to Joe's forge. Even more important, is his accepting of Magwitch, a coarse outcast of society.<ref name="Hillis-Miller270">{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|p=270}}</ref>

Dickens makes use of symbolism, in chapter 53, to emphasise Pip's moral regeneration. As he prepares to go down the Thames to rescue the convict, a veil lifted from the river and Pip's spirit. Symbolically the fog which enveloped the marshes as Pip left for London has finally lifted, and he feels ready to become a man.<ref name="Hillis-Miller271">{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|p=271}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|As I looked along the clustered roofs, with Church towers and spires shooting into the unusually clear air, the sun rose up, and a veil seemed to be drawn from the river, and millions of sparkles burst out upon its waters. From me too, a veil seemed to be drawn, and I felt strong and well.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=370}}</ref>}}

[[File:The placid look at the white ceiling came back, and passed away, and his head dropped quietly on his breast..jpeg|thumb|Magwitch's death, by John McLenan]]
Pip is redeemed by love, that, for Dickens as for generations of Christian moralists, is only acquired through sacrifice.<ref>{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|p=274}}</ref> Pip's reluctance completely disappears and he embraces Magwitch.<ref name="Hillis-Miller276">{{harvnb|John Hillis-Miller|1958|p=276}}</ref> After this, Pip's loyalty remains constant, during the imprisonment, trial, and death of the convict. He grows selfless and his "expectations" are confiscated by the Crown. Moments before Magwitch's death, Pip reveals that Estella, Magwitch's daughter, is alive, "a lady and very beautiful. And I love her".<ref>{{harvnb|Charles Dickens|1993|p=392}}</ref> Here the greatest sacrifice: the recognition that he owes everything, even Estella, to Magwitch; his new debt becomes his greatest freedom.<ref name="Hillis-Miller276"/>

Pip returns to the forge, his previous state and to meaningful work. The philosophy expressed here by Dickens, that of a person happy with their contribution to the welfare of society, is in line with [[Thomas Carlyle]]'s theories and his condemnation, in ''Latter-Day Pamphlets'' (1850), of the system of social classes flourishing in idleness, much like that of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]].<ref group="N">Marx and Engels condemned the rejection of Carlyle's democratic system but agreed that the aristocracy remains the dominant class.</ref><ref>''Reviews from the Neue Rheinisch Zeitung Politisch-Ökonomische'', no. 4, in ''Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels'', volume 10, p. 306</ref> Dickens's hero is neither an aristocrat nor a capitalist but a working-class boy.<ref>{{harvnb|Earle Davis|1963|p=254}}</ref>

In ''Great Expectations'', the true values are childhood, youth and heart. The heroes of the story are the young Pip, a true visionary, and still developing person, open, sensible, who is persecuted by soulless adults. Then the adolescent Pip and Herbert, imperfect but free, intact, playful, endowed with fantasy in a boring and frivolous world. Magwitch is also a positive figure, a man of heart, victim of false appearances and of social images, formidable and humble, bestial but pure, a vagabond of God, despised by men.<ref group="N">Original text in French: "vagabond de Dieu honni des hommes, lépreux porteur de la bonne nouvelle"</ref> There is also Pip's affectionate friend Joe, the enemy of the lie. Finally, there are women like Biddy.

===Imperialism===
[[Edward W. Said]], in his 1993 work ''[[Culture and Imperialism]]'', interprets ''Great Expectations'' in terms of [[Postcolonial literature|postcolonial theory]] about late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century [[British Empire|British imperialism]]. Pip's disillusionment when he learns his benefactor is an escaped convict from Australia, along with his acceptance of Magwitch as surrogate father, is described by Said as part of "the imperial process", that is the way [[colonialism]] exploits the weaker members of a society.<ref>{{harvnb|Edward Said|1993|p=xiv}}</ref> Thus the British trading post in [[Cairo]] legitimatises Pip's work as a clerk, but the money earned by Magwitch's honest labour is illegitimate, because Australia is a [[penal colony]], and Magwitch is forbidden to return to Britain.<ref group="N">Cairo was of course not a British colony at this time, though [[Egypt]] became a [[British protectorate]] in the 1880s</ref> Said states that Dickens has Magwitch return to be redeemed by Pip's love, paving the way for Pip's own redemption, but despite this moral message, the book still reinforces standards that support the authority of the British Empire.<ref name="Edward Said 1993">{{harvnb|Edward Said|1993|p=xv}}</ref> Said's interpretation suggests that Dickens's attitude backs Britain's exploitation of Middle East "through trade and travel", and that ''Great Expectations'' affirms the idea of keeping the Empire and its peoples in their place—at the exploitable margins of British society.

However, the novel's [[Gothic novel|Gothic]] and Romance genre elements, challenge Said's assumption that ''Great Expectations'' is a [[literary realism|realist]] novel like [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]''.<ref name="OpenUni"/>

==Novels influenced by ''Great Expectations''==
Dickens's novel has influenced a number of writers. Sue Roe's ''Estella: Her Expectations'' (1982), for example, explores the inner life of an Estella fascinated with a Havisham figure.<ref>{{cite book |first=Nicolas |last=Tredell |title=Charles Dickens: David Copperfield/ Great Expectations |location=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2013 |page=209 |isbn=978-1137283245}}</ref> Miss Havisham is again important in ''Havisham: A Novel'' (2013), a book by [[Ronald Frame]], that features an imagining of the life of Miss Catherine Havisham from childhood to adulthood.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/havisham-by-ronald-frame-8274148.html |title=Havisham, By Ronald Frame: To reimagine a dark star of classic fiction is a daring move, but one that yields mixed results |last=Craig |first=Amanda |date=3 November 2012 |work=The Independent |access-date=25 May 2018 |archive-date=26 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526185748/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/havisham-by-ronald-frame-8274148.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The second chapter of Rosalind Ashe's ''Literary Houses'' (1982) paraphrases Miss Havisham's story, with details about the nature and structure of Satis House and coloured imaginings of the house within.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashe|first1=Rosalind|title=Literary Houses |date=1982|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York |isbn=9780871966766|page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GEhaAAAAMAAJ&q=satis|access-date=5 November 2015}}</ref> Miss Havisham is also central to ''[[Lost in a Good Book]]'' (2002), [[Jasper Fforde]]'s [[alternate history|alternative history]] fantasy novel, which features a parody of Miss Havisham.<ref>Fforde, Jasper (2002) ''Lost in a Good Book'', Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-82283-X</ref> It won the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association 2004 [[Dilys Award]].<ref name="urlThe Dilys Award">{{cite web |url=http://www.mysterybooksellers.com/dilys.html |title=The Dilys Award |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916165038/http://www.mysterybooksellers.com/dilys.html |archive-date=16 September 2008 |access-date=26 August 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Magwitch is the protagonist of [[Peter Carey (novelist)|Peter Carey]]'s ''[[Jack Maggs]]'' (1997), which is a re-imagining of Magwitch's return to England, with the addition, among other things, of a fictionalised Dickens character and plot-line.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/reviews/980208.08jamest.html?scp=2&sq=pilfers&st=cse |title=Great Extrapolations |work=The New York Times |last=James |first=Caryn |date=8 February 1998 |access-date=25 May 2018 |archive-date=26 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526113047/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/reviews/980208.08jamest.html?scp=2&sq=pilfers&st=cse |url-status=live }}</ref> Carey's novel won the [[Commonwealth Writers Prize]] in 1998. ''[[Mister Pip]]'' (2006), a novel by New Zealand author [[Lloyd Jones (New Zealand author)|Lloyd Jones]], won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. ''Mister Pip'' is set in a village on the [[Papua New Guinea]] island of [[Bougainville Island|Bougainville]] during a brutal civil war there in the 1990s, where the young protagonist's life is impacted in a major way by her reading of ''Great Expectations''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jul/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview21/ |title=Pip Pip: Olivia Laing finds Dickens taking root in a war-torn jungle in Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip |first=Olivia |last=Laing |work=The Guardian |date=7 July 2007 |access-date=25 May 2018 |department=Books |archive-date=13 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613060143/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jul/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview21 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In May 2015, Udon Entertainment's Manga Classics line published a manga adaptation of ''Great Expectations''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Great Expectations |series=Manga Classics |year=2015 |last1=Dickens |first1=Charles |last2=Chan |first2=Crystal S |last3=King |first3=Stacy |publisher=UDON Entertainment |isbn=978-1927925317}}</ref>

==Adaptations==

Like many other Dickens novels, ''Great Expectations'' has been filmed for the cinema or television and adapted for the stage numerous times. The film adaptation in 1946 gained the greatest acclaim.<ref name=Ebert1999 /> The story is often staged, and less often produced as a musical. The 1939 stage play and the 1946 film that followed from that stage production did not include the character Orlick and ends the story when the characters are still young adults.<ref name=Allingham2005 /> That character has been excluded in many televised adaptations made since the 1946 movie by David Lean.<ref name=Allingham2005 /> Following are highlights of the adaptations for film and television, and for the stage, since the early 20th century.

;Film and television
* 1917 – ''[[Great Expectations (1917 film)|Great Expectations]]'', a silent film, starring [[Jack Pickford]], directed by [[Robert G. Vignola]]. This is a lost film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.5790/default.html |work=Performing Arts Database |publisher=The Library of Congress |title=Great Expectations / Robert G Vignola [motion picture] |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=28 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228171735/http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.5790/default.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1922 – Silent film, and the first adaptation not in English, made in [[Denmark]], starring Martin Herzberg, directed by [[A. W. Sandberg]].<ref name=Hammond2016p166>{{cite book |first=Mary |last=Hammond |title=Charles Dickens's Great Expectations: A Cultural Life, 1860–2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mCrCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|date=3 March 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-16825-6|pages=166–167}}</ref>
* 1934 – [[Great Expectations (1934 film)|''Great Expectations'']] film starring [[Phillips Holmes]] and [[Jane Wyatt]], directed by [[Stuart Walker (director)|Stuart Walker]].
* 1946 – ''[[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]]'', the most celebrated film version,<ref name=Ebert1999>{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-great-expectations-1946 |title=Great Movie: Great Expectations |date=22 August 1999 |work=Roger Ebert Reviews |access-date=2 December 2018 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |archive-date=14 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614060640/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-great-expectations-1946 |url-status=live }}</ref> starring [[John Mills]] as Pip, [[Bernard Miles]] as Joe, [[Alec Guinness]] as Herbert, [[Finlay Currie]] as Magwitch, [[Martita Hunt]] as Miss Havisham, [[Anthony Wager]] as Young Pip, [[Jean Simmons]] as Young Estella and [[Valerie Hobson]] as the adult Estella, directed by [[David Lean]]. It came fifth in a 1999 [[BFI Top 100 British films|BFI poll of the top 100 British films]].
* 1954 – the first television adaptation shown as two-part television version starring [[Roddy McDowall]] as Pip and [[Estelle Winwood]] as Miss Havisham. It aired as an episode of the show ''[[Robert Montgomery Presents]]''.<ref name=Hammond2016p162>{{cite book |first=Mary |last=Hammond |title=Charles Dickens's Great Expectations: A Cultural Life, 1860–2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGGrCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT162|date=3 March 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-16824-9 |page=162 |access-date=2 December 2018}}</ref>
* 1959 – [[BBC]] television version aired in 13 parts, starring [[Dinsdale Landen]] as Pip, Helen Lindsay as Estella, [[Colin Jeavons]] as Herbert Pocket, Marjorie Hawtrey as Miss Havisham and [[Derek Benfield]] as Landlord.<ref name=Allingham2005>{{cite web |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/filmadapt.html |title=Great Expectations in Film and Television, 1917 to 1998 |last=Allingham |first=Philip V |date=26 June 2005 |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=3 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203010912/http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/filmadapt.html |url-status=live }}</ref> It was rebroadcast in 1960, but has not been seen since, as Part 8 is [[Lost television broadcast|missing]].
* 1967 – ''[[Great Expectations (1967 TV series)|Great Expectations]]'' – a BBC television serial starring [[Gary Bond]] as Pip and [[Francesca Annis]]. BBC issued the series on DVD in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theconsultingdetectivesblog.com/2017/07/11/bbc-charles-dickens-classics-great-expectations-1967-review/ |title=BBC Charles Dickens Classics – Great Expectations (1967) Review |date=7 November 2017 |work=The Consulting Detective |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=3 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203010914/https://theconsultingdetectivesblog.com/2017/07/11/bbc-charles-dickens-classics-great-expectations-1967-review/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1974 – ''[[Great Expectations (1974 film)|Great Expectations]]'' – a film starring [[Michael York (actor)|Michael York]] as Pip and [[Simon Gipps-Kent]] as Young Pip, [[Sarah Miles]] and [[James Mason]], directed by Joseph Hardy.
* 1981 – ''[[Great Expectations (1981 TV series)|Great Expectations]]'' – a [[BBC]] serial starring [[Stratford Johns]], [[Gerry Sundquist]], [[Joan Hickson]], [[Patsy Kensit]] and Sarah-Jane Varley. Produced by [[Barry Letts]], and directed by [[Julian Amyes]].
* 1983 – an animated version, starring Phillip Hinton, Liz Horne, Robin Stewart and [[Bill Kerr]], adapted by Alexander Buzo.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q48753745|title=Great Expectations (1983)}}</ref>
* 1987 – ''[[Great Expectations: The Untold Story]]'' 
* 1989 – ''[[Great Expectations (1989 TV series)|Great Expectations]]'', a Disney Channel six-part film starring [[Anthony Hopkins]] as Magwitch, [[John Rhys-Davies]] as Joe Gargery, and [[Jean Simmons]] as Miss Havisham, directed by [[Kevin Connor (director)|Kevin Connor]].
* 1998 – ''[[Great Expectations (1998 film)|Great Expectations]]'', a film starring [[Ethan Hawke]], [[Gwyneth Paltrow]], [[Robert De Niro]], and [[Anne Bancroft]], directed by [[Alfonso Cuarón]]. This adaptation is set in contemporary New York City, and renames Pip to Finn and Miss Havisham to Nora Dinsmoor. The film's score was composed by [[Patrick Doyle]].
* 1999 – ''[[Great Expectations (1999 film)|Great Expectations]]'', a film starring [[Ioan Gruffudd]] as Pip, [[Justine Waddell]] as Estella, and [[Charlotte Rampling]] as Miss Havisham ([[Masterpiece Theatre]]—TV)
* 2000 – ''[[Pip (South Park)|Pip]]'', an episode of the television show ''[[South Park]]'', starring [[Matt Stone]] as Pip, [[Eliza Schneider]] as Estella, and [[Trey Parker]] as Miss Havisham.
* 2011 – ''[[Great Expectations (2011 TV series)|Great Expectations]]'', a three-part BBC serial. Starring [[Ray Winstone]] as Magwitch, [[Gillian Anderson]] as Miss Havisham and [[Douglas Booth]] as Pip.
* 2012 – ''[[Great Expectations (2012 film)|Great Expectations]]'', a film directed by [[Mike Newell (director)|Mike Newell]], starring [[Ralph Fiennes]] as Magwitch, [[Helena Bonham Carter]] as Miss Havisham and [[Jeremy Irvine]] as Pip.
* 2012 – ''Magwitch'', a film written and directed by Samuel Supple, starring Samuel Edward Cook as Magwitch, Candis Nergaard as Molly and David Verrey as Jaggers. The film is a prequel to ''Great Expectations'' made for the Dickens bicentenary. It was screened at the [[Toronto International Film Festival]] and the Morelia International Festival.
* 2016 – ''[[Fitoor]]'' is an Indian [[Hindi]]-language romantic drama film directed by [[Abhishek Kapoor]], starring [[Aditya Roy Kapur]], [[Katrina Kaif]], [[Tabu (actress)|Tabu]]  and [[Ajay Devgn]]. The film is set and filmed in [[Kashmir]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Saltz |first=Rachel |date=2016-02-11 |title=Review: 'Fitoor' Enlists Dickens to Tell a Hindi Love Story (Published 2016) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/movies/review-fitoor-enlists-dickens-to-tell-a-hindi-love-story.html |access-date=2021-01-04 |archive-date=26 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426103900/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/movies/review-fitoor-enlists-dickens-to-tell-a-hindi-love-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="dnaindia.com">[http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-aditya-roy-kapur-katrina-kaif-to-pair-up-for-fitoor-1907698 Aditya Royn Kapur, Katrina Kaif to pair up for 'Fitoor'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924085354/http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report-aditya-roy-kapur-katrina-kaif-to-pair-up-for-fitoor-1907698 |date=24 September 2015 }}. Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved 23 October 2013.</ref> 
* 2023 – ''[[Great Expectations (2023 TV series)|Great Expectations]],'' a six-part [[BBC]] and [[FX (TV channel)|FX]] co-production, scripted and executive produced by [[Steven Knight]], and starring [[Olivia Colman]] as Miss Havisham, [[Fionn Whitehead]] as Pip, [[Johnny Harris (actor)|Johnny Harris]] as Magwitch, [[Bashy]] as Jaggers, [[Shalom Brune-Franklin]] as Estella.<ref>{{cite web|title=Olivia Colman, Matt Berry Among Cast for FX & BBC's 'Great Expectations' Series|first=Joe|last=Otterson|publisher=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|url=https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/olivia-colman-matt-berry-great-expectations-series-fx-bbc-1235184783/|date=17 February 2022|access-date=30 June 2022|archive-date=25 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625112412/https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/olivia-colman-matt-berry-great-expectations-series-fx-bbc-1235184783/|url-status=live}}</ref>
;Stage
* 1871 –  ''Great Expectations'' by [[W. S. Gilbert|W.S. Gilbert]], playwright of the [[Gilbert and Sullivan|Gilbert & Sullivan]] operas. The play opened at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] on 29 May 1871 and ran for around 48 performances. Pip was played at various ages by Jessie Powell and Miss M Brennan, with [[Edward Righton (actor)|Edward Righton]] as Joe, JC Cowper as Magwitch, [[John Clayton (British actor)|John Clayton]] as Jaggers and [[Eleanor Bufton]] as Estella. Miss Havisham did not appear as a character in the play, which was revived on 17 March 1877 at the [[Royal Aquarium|Royal Aquarium Theatre]], where it ran for just a month.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moss |first=Simon |date=24 June 2023 |title=c20th.com |url=https://www.c20th.com/GSarchivewsg.htm }}</ref><ref>Theatre Programme: Great Expectations, Royal Court Theatre, 1871</ref>
* 1939 – adaptation made by [[Alec Guinness]] and staged at Rudolf Steiner Hall, which was to influence [[David Lean]]'s 1946 film, in which both Guinness and [[Martita Hunt]] reprised their stage roles.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thecityreview.com/greatex.html |title=Great Expectations |last=Horsely |first=Carter B |work=The City Review |location=New York City |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=8 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908013650/http://www.thecityreview.com/greatex.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hammond2016">{{cite book|first=Mary |last=Hammond |title=Charles Dickens's Great Expectations: A Cultural Life, 1860–2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mCrCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA217 |date=3 March 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-16825-6 |page=217 |access-date=2 December 2018}}</ref>
* 1975 – [[Great Expectations (musical)|Stage Musical]] (London West End). Music by [[Cyril Ornadel]], lyrics by [[Hal Shaper]], starring [[John Mills|Sir John Mills]]. Ivor Novello Award for Best British Musical.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mCrCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA145 |title=Charles Dickens's Great Expectations: A Cultural Life, 1860–2012 |last=Hammond |first=Mary |year=2016 |page=145 |access-date=25 May 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1409425878}}</ref>
* 1988 – Glasgow Mayfest, stage version by the Tag Theatre Company in association with the Gregory Nash group, adapted by [[Jo Clifford|John Clifford]]; the cast included a young [[Alan Cumming]] and the staging included dance, and it was a success.<ref name="McFarlane2014">{{cite book |first=Brian |last=McFarlane |title=Screen Adaptations: Great Expectations: A close study of the relationship between text and film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hy1uBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41|date=26 September 2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4081-4902-7 |pages=41–42 |access-date=2 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/STA/search/detaile.cfm?EID=25314 |title=Great Expectations |last=Clifford |first=John |date=10 May 1988 |work=Scottish Theatre Archive |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=3 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203055633/http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/STA/search/detaile.cfm?EID=25314 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 1995 – Stage adaptation of ''Great Expectations'' at [[Dublin]]'s [[Gate Theatre]] by [[Hugh Leonard]].<ref name="Irish Playography, Hugh Leonard, Great Expectations">{{cite web |title=Great Expectations |last=Leonard |first=Hugh |work=Playography Ireland |url=http://www.irishplayography.com/play.aspx?playid=268 |date=30 November 1995 |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=24 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324072712/http://www.irishplayography.com/play.aspx?playid=268 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 2002 – [[Melbourne Theatre Company]] four-hour re-telling, in an adaptation by company director Simon Phillips.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mtc.com.au/about/the-company/history/former-artistic-leadership/simon-phillips/ |title=Simon Phillips |publisher=Melbourne Theatre Company |access-date=25 May 2018 |archive-date=26 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526112803/http://www.mtc.com.au/about/the-company/history/former-artistic-leadership/simon-phillips/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 2005 – [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] adaptation by the [[Cheek by Jowl]] founders [[Declan Donnellan]] and [[Nick Ormerod]], with [[Sian Phillips]] as Miss Havisham.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/rsc-performances/grx200512-great-expectations |title=RSC Performances Great Expectations |date=12 June 2005 |work=Royal Shakespeare Theatre |location=Stratford-upon-Avon |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=2 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202155350/http://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/rsc-performances/grx200512-great-expectations |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/dec/07/theatre1 |title=Great Expectations |last=Billington |first=Michael |date=7 December 2005 |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=2 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202155325/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/dec/07/theatre1 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* 2011 – [[English Touring Theatre]] and [[Watford Palace Theatre]] production of adaptation by [[Tanika Gupta]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk/pl283.html#e|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302031703/http://www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk/pl283.html#e|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 March 2011 |title=Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, adapted by Tanika Gupta|publisher= Watford Palace Theatre|date=February 2011}}</ref>
* 2013 – West End adaptation written by Jo Clifford<ref name=Dibdin2016>{{cite news |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2016/jo-clifford-when-i-write-a-script-i-become-the-actor-playing-the-character/ |title=Jo Clifford: 'When I write a script, I become the actor playing the character' |last=Dibdin |first=Tom |work=The Stage |date=4 March 2016 |access-date=2 December 2018 |quote=The play [Eve], Clifford's life (both in the last decade as Jo and before that as John) and the changing emphasis from playwright to performer are inextricably linked. |archive-date=3 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203010855/https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2016/jo-clifford-when-i-write-a-script-i-become-the-actor-playing-the-character/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and directed by Graham McLaren. [[Paula Wilcox]] as Miss Havisham, [[Christopher Ellison|Chris Ellison]] as Magwitch.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lovetheatre.com/tickets/3174/Great-Expectations|title=Great Expectations Tickets|work=LOVE Theatre|access-date=7 October 2014|archive-date=12 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012062153/http://www.lovetheatre.com/tickets/3174/Great-Expectations|url-status=live}}</ref> This was a revival of the 1988 adaptation, without dance.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/feb/07/great-expectations-review |title=Great Expectations – review, theatre |last=Gardner |first=Lyn |work=The Guardian |date=4 February 2013 |access-date=2 December 2018 |archive-date=2 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202202711/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/feb/07/great-expectations-review |url-status=live }}</ref> This play was filmed in 2013.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q123616248|title=Great Expectations}}</ref>
* 2015 – [[Dundee Repertory Theatre]] adaptation written by Jo Clifford and directed by Jemima Levick.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dundeerep.co.uk/event/greatexpectations|title=Great Expectations|work=Dundee Rep Theatre|access-date=11 June 2015|archive-date=12 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150612021233/http://www.dundeerep.co.uk/event/greatexpectations|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2016 – [[West Yorkshire Playhouse]] adaptation written by [[Michael Eaton]] and directed by [[Lucy Bailey]]. Starring [[Jane Asher]] as Miss Havisham.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wyp.org.uk/events/great-expectations/ |title=Great Expectations |work=West Yorkshire Playhouse |date=11 March 2016 |access-date=11 March 2016 |author=Eaton, Michael |archive-date=12 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312122601/https://www.wyp.org.uk/events/great-expectations/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/firstnightreviews/article4710264.ece |title=Great Expectations, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds |work=The Times, First Night Reviews |url-access=subscription |date=11 March 2016 |access-date=11 March 2016 |location=London |archive-date=12 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312104542/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/firstnightreviews/article4710264.ece |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* 2022 – A one-woman adapted show of ''Great Expectations'' performed by [[Eddie Izzard]] in [[New York City]] at the Greenwich House Theater between 2022 and 2023, featuring Izzard performing over 20 characters.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eddieizzardgreatexpectations.com/|title=EDDIE IZZARD PERFORMS DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS|website=EDDIE IZZARD PERFORMS DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS|access-date=13 January 2023|archive-date=13 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113035957/https://www.eddieizzardgreatexpectations.com/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* 2023 – [[Eddie Izzard]] transferred her one-woman show to [[London]] at the [[Garrick Theatre]] on 26 May for a limited 6 week engagement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thegarricktheatre.co.uk/tickets/great-expectations/|title=EDDIE IZZARD PERFORMS DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS|website=EDDIE IZZARD PERFORMS DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS|access-date=26 May 2023|archive-date=26 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230526203617/https://thegarricktheatre.co.uk/tickets/great-expectations/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{portal|Novels|Literature}}
{{Reflist|30em|group="N"}}

==References==
{{Reflist|25em}}

==Bibliography==

===Texts===

{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{citation|author=Charles Dickens|title=Great Expectations|location=Ware, Hertfordshire|publisher=Wordsworth Classics|year=1992|isbn=978-185326004-9}}, with an unsigned and unpaginated introduction
* {{citation|author1=Charles Dickens |editor=Margaret Cardwell |editor-link=Margaret Cardwell|title=Great Expectations|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-818591-8}}, introduction and notes by Margaret Cardwell
* {{citation |author1=Charles Dickens|title=Great Expectations|location=London|publisher=Penguin Classics |year=1996|isbn=978-014143956-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatexpectation00dick_0|editor=Charlotte Mitchell}} introduction by David Trotter
* {{citation |author1=Charles Dickens |year=1999 |title=Great Expectations'|edition=authoritative text |isbn=978-039396069-3|location=New York |publisher=W W Norton |editor=Edgar Rosenberg |series=Norton critical edition}}
{{refend}}

=== General sources ===

{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{citation|author=Paul Schlicke|title=Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999 |isbn=978-019866253-2}}
* {{citation|author=Paul Davis|title=Charles Dickens from A to Z|location=New York|publisher=Checkmark Books|year=1999|isbn=0816040877}}
* {{citation|author=John O. Jordan|title=The Cambridge companion to Charles Dickens|location=New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2001 |isbn=978-052166964-1}}
* {{citation|author=David Paroissien|title=A Companion to Charles Dickens|location=Chichester|publisher=Wiley Blackwell|year=2011|isbn=978-0-470-65794-2}}
* {{citation|author=Robin Gilmour|title=The Idea of the Gentleman in the Victorian Novel|location=Sydney|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=1981|isbn=9780048000057}}
* {{citation|author=Paul Davis|title=Critical Companion to Charles Dickens, A Literary Reference to His Life and Work|location=New York|publisher=Facts on File, Inc.|year=2007|isbn=978-0-8160-6407-6}}
* {{citation |author=Jerome Hamilton Buckley |title=Season of Youth: the Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding |year=1974 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=9780674796409 |chapter=Dickens, David and Pip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yDNaAAAAMAAJ }}
* {{citation|author=Edward Said|title=Culture and Imperialism|year=1993|publisher=Vintage Books|location=New York|isbn=9780679750543|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBZKliCGSNQC&pg=PR14|access-date=11 December 2015}}
{{refend}}

=== Specific sources ===

====Life and work of Dickens====
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{citation|author=John Forster|title=The Life of Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=J. M. Dent & Sons|year=1872–1874}}, edited by J. W. T. Ley, 1928
* {{citation|author=John Forster|title=Life of Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=Everyman's Library|year=1976|isbn=0460007823|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofcharlesdic00john}}
* {{citation|author=Hippolyte Taine|title=History of English Literature|others=Translated from French by H. Van Laun|location=New York|year=1879}}
* {{citation|author=G. K. Chesterton|title=Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=Methuen and Co., Ltd.|year=1906}}
* {{citation|author=G. K. Chesterton|title=Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=J. M. Dent|year=1911}}
* {{citation|author=S. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald|title=Dickens and the Drama|location=London|publisher=Chapman & Hall, Ltd.|year=1910}}
* {{citation|author=Gilbert Keith Chesterton|title=Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens|location=London|year=1911}}
* {{citation|author=George Gissing|title=The Immortal Dickens|location=London|publisher=Cecil Palmer|year=1925}}
* {{citation|author=Humphry House|title=The Dickens World|location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1941}}
* {{citation|author=Una Pope Hennessy|title=Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=The Reprint Society|year=1947}}, first published 1945
* {{citation|author=Hesketh Pearson|title=Dickens|location=London|publisher=Methuen|year=1949}}
* {{citation|author=Jack Lindsay|title=Charles Dickens, A Biographical and Critical Study|location=New York|publisher=Philosophical Library|year=1950}}
* {{citation|author=Barbara Hardy|title=Dickens and the Twentieth Century. The Heart of Charles Dickens|publisher=Edgar Johnson|location=New York|year=1952}}
* {{citation|author=Edgar Johnson|title=Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph. 2 vols|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1952}}
* {{citation|author=Sylvère Monod|title=Dickens romancier|location=Paris|publisher=Hachette|year=1953|language=fr}}
* {{citation|author=John Hillis-Miller|title=Charles Dickens, The World of His Novels|location=Harvard|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1958|isbn=9780674110007|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/charlesdickenswo0000mill}}
* {{citation|author=E. A. Horsman|title=Dickens and the Structure of Novel|location=Dunedin, N.Z.|year=1959}}
* {{citation|author=R. C. Churchill|title=Charles Dickens, From Dickens to Hardy|publisher=Boris Ford|location=Baltimore, Md.|year=1964}}
* {{citation|author=Earle Davis|title=The Flint and the Flame: The Artistry of Charles Dickens|location= Missouri-Columbia|publisher=University of Missouri Press|year=1963}}
* {{citation|author=Steven Marcus|title=Dickens: From Pickwick to Dombey|location=New York|year=1965}}
* {{citation|author=K. J. Fielding|title=Charles Dickens, A Critical Introduction|location=London|publisher=Longman|year=1966}}
* {{citation|author=Christopher Hibbert|title=The Making of Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=Longmans Green & Co., Ltd.|year=1967}}
* {{citation|author=Harry Stone|title=Charles Dickens' Uncollected Writings from Household Words 1850–1859|volume=1 and 2|location=Indiana|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1968|isbn=0713901209}}
* {{citation|author=F. R. & Q. D. Leavis|title=Dickens the Novelist|location=London|publisher=Chatto & Windus|year=1970|isbn=0701116447}}
* {{citation|author=A. E. Dyson|title=The Inimitable Dickens|location=London|publisher=Macmillan|year=1970|isbn=0333063287}}
* {{citation|author=Angus Wilson|title=The World of Charles Dickens|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1972|isbn=0140034889}}
* {{citation|author=Philip Collins|title=Charles Dickens: The Public Readings|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1975}}
* {{citation|author=Robert L. Patten|title=Charles Dickens and His Publishers|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1978|isbn=0198120761|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/charlesdickenshi0000patt}}
* {{citation|author=Virginia Woolf|title=The Essays of Virginia Woolf: 1925–1928|editor=Andrew McNeillie|location=London|publisher=Hogarth Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-7012-0669-7}}
* {{citation|author=Harry Stone|title=Dickens and the Invisible World, Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Novel-Making|location=Bloomington and Londres|publisher=Indiana University. Press|year=1979}}
* {{citation|author=Michael Slater|title=Dickens and Women|location=London|publisher=J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.|year=1983|isbn=0-460-04248-3}}
* {{citation|author=Fred Kaplan|author-link=Fred Kaplan (biographer)|title=Dickens, A Biography|publisher=William Morrow & Co|year=1988|isbn=9780688043414|url=https://archive.org/details/dickensbiography00kapl}}
* {{citation|author=Norman Page|title=A Dickens Chronology|location=Boston|publisher=G. K. Hall and Co.|year=1988}}
* {{citation|author=Peter Ackroyd|title=Charles Dickens|location=London|publisher=Stock|year=1993|isbn=978-0099437093}}
* {{citation|author=Philip Collins|title=Charles Dickens, The Critical Heritage|location=London|publisher=Routletge|year=1996}}
{{refend}}

==== About ''Great Expectations'' ====
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Citation |author=Mary Edminson |year=1958 |title=The Date of the Action in ''Great Expectations'' |journal=[[Nineteenth-Century Fiction]] |volume=13 |number=1 |pages=22–35 |doi=10.2307/3044100 |jstor=3044100 }}
* {{citation |editor=Richard Lettis and William Morris |title=Assessing Great Expectations |location=San Francisco |publisher=Chandler |year=1960}}, texts from Forster, Whipple, Chesterton, Leacock, Baker, House, Johnson, van Ghent, Stange, Hagan, Connolly, Engel, Hillis Miller, Moynahan, Van de Kieft, Hardy, Lindberg, Partlow
* {{citation |author=Julian Moynahan |chapter=The Hero's Guilt, The Case of ''Great Expectations'' |title=Essays in Criticism |number=10, 1 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1960 |pages=60–79}}
* {{citation |author=Henri Suhamy |title=Great Expectations, cours d'Agrégation |location=Vanves |publisher=Centre de Télé-Enseignement |year=1971 |page=25 |language=fr}}
* {{citation |author=Edgar Rosenberg |chapter=A Preface to ''Great Expectations'': The Pale Usher Dusts His Lexicon |title=Dickens Studies Annual, 2 |year=1972}}
* {{citation |author=Edgar Rosenberg |chapter=Last Words on ''Great Expectations'': A Textual Brief in the Six Endings |title=Dickens Studies Annual, 9 |year=1981}}
* {{citation |author=Michael Peled Ginsburg |title=Dickens and the Uncanny: Repression and Displacement in ''Great Expectations'' |journal=Dickens Studies Annual 13 |year=1984 |publisher=University of California Santa Cruz |url=http://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/dsa/vol-13.html |access-date=17 May 2015 |archive-date=22 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722032007/http://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/dsa/vol-13.html |url-status=live }}
* {{citation |author=George J. Worth|title=Great Expectations: An Annotated Bibliography |location=New York |publisher=Garland |year=1986}}
* {{citation |author=Anny Sadrin |title=Great Expectations |publisher=Unwin Hyman |year=1988 |isbn=978-0048000514 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/greatexpectation0000sadr }}
* {{citation |editor=Michael Cordell |title=Critical Essays on ''Great Expectations'' |location=Boston |publisher=G. K. Hall |year=1990 |pages=24, 34}}
* {{citation |editor=Michael Cotsell |title=Critical Essays on Charles Dickens' Great Expectations |location=Boston |publisher=G. K. Hall |year=1990}}, texts from Chesterton, Brooks, Garis, Gissing, ''et al''
* {{Citation |author=Jerome Meckier |year=1992 |title=Dating the Action in ''Great Expectations: A New Chronology'' |journal=Dickens Studies Annual |volume=21 |pages=157–194 }}
* {{citation |author=Elliot L. Gilbert |chapter=''In Primal Sympathy'': ''Great Expectations'' and the Secret Life |title=Critical Essays |year=1993 |pages=146–167}}
* {{citation |editor=Roger D. Sell |title=''Great Expectations: Charles Dickens'' |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |year=1994}}, texts from Brooks, Connor, Frost, Gilmour, Sadrin ''et al''.
* {{citation |author=William A. Cohen |chapter=Manual Conduct in ''Great Expectations'' |title=ELH (English Literary History), 60 |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University |year=1993 |pages=217–259}}
* {{citation |title=Bodies of Capital: ''Great Expectations'' and The Climacteric Economy  |author=Susan Walsh |journal=Victorian Studies |volume=37 |number=1 |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=Autumn 1993 |pages=73–98 |jstor=3829059}}
* {{citation|author=Nicholas Tredell|title=Charles Dickens: Great Expectations|location=Cambridge|publisher=Icon Books|year=1998}} (distributed by Penguin)
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|Great Expectations|''Great Expectations''}}
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}

=== Online editions ===
* [https://www.ollibrary.com/2022/02/great-expectations-by-charles-dickens.html Great Expectations read online at ollibrary]
* [https://bookwise.io/charles-dickens/great-expectations Great Expectations read online at Bookwise]
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/charles-dickens/great-expectations}}
* [https://archive.org/stream/greatexpectation00dickiala#page/n11/mode/2up ''Great Expectations''] with illustrations, bound with ''The Uncommercial Traveller'' at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{Gutenberg|no=1400|name=Great Expectations}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080502010110/http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54ge/complete.html ''Great Expectations'']  – 1867 edition in modern type as e-book, no illustrations, from University of Adelaide Library, Australia, last updated 27 March 2016
* [http://dickens.stanford.edu/archive/great/expectations.html ''Great Expectations''] – PDF scans of the entire novel as it originally appeared in ''[[All the Year Round]]''
*{{Librivox book | title=Great Expectations | author=Charles Dickens}}

=== Other ===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080614093654/http://www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk/virtualtour_libraries.htm Original manuscript] – held at [[Wisbech & Fenland Museum]], [[Wisbech]]
* [http://www.londonfictions.com/charles-dickens-great-expectations.html David Parker's article on the London Fictions site about the London of ''Great Expectations'']
* [http://charlesdickenspage.com/dickens_london_map.html Map of Dickens's London]
* [https://archive.org/download/TheaterGuildontheAir/Tgoa_53-04-05_ep147-Great_Expectations.mp3 1953 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation] at [[Internet Archive]]
{{Great Expectations}}
{{Charles Dickens}}
{{Convicts in Australia}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Expectations}}
[[Category:Great Expectations| ]]
[[Category:1861 British novels]]
[[Category:British bildungsromans]]
[[Category:British Gothic novels]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into plays]]
[[Category:British novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Chapman & Hall books]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1812]]
[[Category:Fiction with unreliable narrators]]
[[Category:Novels about orphans]]
[[Category:Novels by Charles Dickens]]
[[Category:Novels first published in serial form]]
[[Category:Novels set in Kent]]
[[Category:Novels set in London]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1810s]]
[[Category:Works originally published in All the Year Round]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Harper's Weekly]]