Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Great Expectations is remarkable for its sym- bolic use of setting. The hostile world of the cold and lonely marshes is an apt background for the meeting Of the lonely child and the outcast convict, both of whom have found the world hostile. Satis House, with its decay and its stopped clocks, represents not only the stopped world of Miss Havisham, and the corruption that Estella undergoes there, but also the corruption that the genteel world will bring to Pip. Mr. Jaggers' office, full of re- minders of the criminal world, is Mr. Jaggers' life. Wal- worth is Wemmick's castle, not only because it has tur- rets and a drawbridge, but because it is his individuality, his humanity, which must be preserved and defended against the world of his employer and Little Britain.
Great Expectations is perhaps Dickens' master- piece. The structure is skillful, the irony brilliant, and the theme sustained. The hero, unlike his earlier counter- parts, is no pasteboard figure, but a fallible human being in Search of his identity. The comedy is less grotesque and the pathos less sentimental than in the earlier novels. In its exploration of guilt, the book anticipates a very modern theme. It may well turn out to be the most en- during, for the fastidious reader, of all the works of Dickens.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English Dutch French
Subjects
Authors, Benefactors, Bildungsromans, Boys, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Child and youth fiction, Children's fiction, Classic Literature, Coming of age, Conduct of life, Criticism and interpretation, Description and travel, Drama, English fiction, English literature, English Manuscripts, Ex-convicts, Facsimiles, Family, Fiction, History, Industrial revolution, Inheritance and succession, Juvenile fiction, Man-woman relationships, Manners and customs, Manuscripts, Newspapers, Open Library Staff Picks, open_syllabus_project, Orphans, Pirates, Politics and government, Poor children, Readers, Readers (Adult), Readers for new literates, Revenge, Roman, Social classes, Social conditions, Social history, Social life and customs, Study guides, Working class, Young men, Adaptations, England, fiction, Children's stories, Dickens, charles , 1812-1870, Young men--england--fiction, Pr4560 .a1 1999, 823/.8People
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Philip Pirrip, Joe Gargery, Georgiana Maria Gargery, Mr Pumblechook, Miss Havisham, Estella, Matthew Pocket, Herbert Pocket, Camilla, Raymond, Georgiana, Sarah Pocket, Mrs Hubble, Mr Hubble, Biddy, Mr Jaggers, John Wemmick, Molly, Compeyson, Arthur Havisham, Dolge Orlick, Bentley Drummle, Clara Barley, Miss Skiffins, StartopPlaces
England, Great Britain, United States, Canada, Italy, Kent, Barnard's Inn, London (England), Richmond, New South WalesTimes
19th centuryShowing 18 featured editions. View all 1249 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
01 |
zzzz
|
02 |
bbbb
|
03
Great Expectations
2014-10-02, [publisher not identified]
paperback
in English
1499571151 9781499571158
|
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
04 |
bbbb
|
05 |
bbbb
|
06 |
cccc
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
07 |
bbbb
|
08 |
bbbb
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
09
Great Expectations
2003, GE Fabbri
Hardcover
in English
- Facsimile reproduction of the 1875 edition published by Chapman and Hall, London.
|
cccc
|
10 |
bbbb
|
11 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
12 |
eeee
|
13 |
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
14
Great Expectations
1963-01, Washington Square Press
paperback
in English
- Washington Square Press edition, 6th printing
|
cccc
|
15 |
eeee
|
16 |
eeee
|
17 |
eeee
|
18 |
eeee
|
Book Details
Published in
New York
Edition Notes
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Work Description
Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman; a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens' second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.
The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century 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, and Joe, 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 both with readers and literary critics, has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.
Links outside Open Library
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created May 5, 2010
- 17 revisions
February 17, 2023 | Edited by Lisa | ocaid |
February 17, 2023 | Edited by Lisa | //covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/13322322-S.jpg |
February 17, 2023 | Edited by Lisa | ocaid |
December 26, 2022 | Edited by Lisa | removed incorrect ia id |
May 5, 2010 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Internet Archive item record. |