Jack Maggs

Jack Maggs
1st edition cover
Author(s)	Peter Carey
Cover artist	Craig Voevodin
Country	Australia
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	University of Queensland Press
Publication date	1997
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	392 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-7022-2952-0 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number	37500556
Dewey Decimal	823 21
LC Classification	PR9619.3.C36 J33 1997
Preceded by	The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith
Followed by	True History of the Kelly Gang

Jack Maggs (1997) is a novel by Peter Carey.

Plot summary

Set in 19th century London, Jack Maggs is a reworking of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations. The story centres around Jack Maggs (the equivalent of Magwitch) and his quest to meet his 'son' Henry Phipps (the equivalent of Pip), who has mysteriously disappeared, having closed up his house and dismissed his household.

Maggs becomes involved as a servant in the household of Phipps's neighbour, Percy Buckle, as he attempts to wait out Phipps or find him in the streets of London. He eventually cuts a deal with the young and broke up and coming novelist Tobias Oates (a thinly disguised Charles Dickens) that he hopes will lead him to Phipps. Oates, however, has other plans, as he finds in Maggs a character from whom to draw much needed inspiration for a forthcoming novel which he desperately needs to produce.

Awards and nominations

• 1998 Miles Franklin Award, winner
• 1998 Commonwealth Writers Prize, South-East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book, winner
• 1998 Commonwealth Writers Prize, Overall Best Book Award, winner
• 1997 The Age Book of the Year Fiction Prize, winner

Awards and achievements
Preceded by The Glade within the Grove	Miles Franklin Award recipient 1998	Succeeded by Eucalyptus