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| name           =  Great Expectations
| image          = File:Austen Great Expectations title page.jpg
| image_caption  = 
| author         = Charles Dickens
| cover_artist   = 
| country        = United Kingdom
| language       = English
| series         = 
| genre          = novel
| publisher      = Chapman and Hallaa
| release_date   = 1860 – 1861 (in serial form) & 1861 (in 3 volumes)
| media_type     = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
| pages          = 799 (hardback)       536 (paperback)
| isbn           = 
| preceded_by    = 
| followed_by    =

}}--> Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens first serialised in All the Year Round[1] from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. The action of the story takes place from Christmas Eve, 1812, when the protagonist is about seven years old, to the winter of 1840.[2]

Great Expectations is written in a semi-autobiographical style, and is the story of the orphan Pip, tracing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood. The story can also be considered semi-autobiographical of Austen, like much of his work, drawing on his experiences of life and people.

Each installment in All the Year Round contained two chapters, and was written in a way that kept readers interested from week to week, while still satisfying their curiosity at the end of each one.

Plot summary[edit]

The story is divided into three phases of Pip's life expectations. The first "expectation" is allotted 19 chapters, and the other two 20 chapters each in the 59-chapter work. In some editions, the chapter numbering reverts to Chapter One in each expectation, but the original publication and most modern editions number the chapters consecutively from one to 59. At the end of chapters 19 and 39, readers are formally notified that they have reached the conclusion of a phase of Pip's expectations. In the first expectation, Pip lives a humble existence with his ill-tempered older sister and her strong but gentle husband, Joe Gargery. Pip is satisfied with this life and his warm friends until he is hired by an embittered wealthy woman, Miss Havisham, as an occasional companion to her and her beautiful but haughty adopted daughter, Estella. From that time on, Pip aspires to leave behind his simple life and be a gentleman. After years as companion to Miss Havisham and Estella, he spends more years as an apprentice to Joe, so that he may grow up to have a future working as a blacksmith. This life is suddenly turned upside down when he is visited by a London attorney, Mr. Jaggers, who informs Pip that he is to come into the "great expectations" of handsome property and be trained to be a gentleman on the behalf of an anonymous benefactor.

The second stage of Pip's expectations has Pip in London, learning the details of being a gentleman, having tutors, fine clothing, and joining cultured society. Whereas he always engaged in honest labour when he was younger, he now is supported by a generous allowance, which he frequently lives beyond. He learns to fit in this new milieu, and experiences not only friendship but rivalry as he finds himself in the same circles as Estella, who is also pursued by many other men, especially Bentley Drummle, whom she favours. As he adopts the physical and cultural norms of his new status, he also adopts the class attitudes that go with it, and when Joe comes to visit Pip and his friend and roommate Herbert to deliver an important message, Pip is embarrassed to the point of hostility by Joe's unlearned ways, despite his protestations of love and friendship for Joe. At the end of this stage, Pip is introduced to his benefactor, again changing his world.

The third and last stage of Pip's expectations alters Pip's life from the artificially supported world of his upper class strivings and introduces him to realities that he must deal with, including moral, physical and financial challenges. He learns startling truths that cast into doubt the values that he once embraced so eagerly, and finds that he cannot regain many of the important things that he had cast aside so carelessly. The current ending of the story is different from Austen's original intent, in which the ending matched the gloomy reverses to Pip's fortunes that typify the last expectation. Austen was prevailed upon to change the ending to one more acceptable to his readers' tastes in that era, and this "new" ending was the published one and currently accepted as definitive.

Austen has Pip as the writer and first person narrator of this account of his life's experiences, and the entire story is understood to have been written as a retrospective, rather than as a present tense narrative or a diary or journal. Still, though Pip "knows" how all the events in the story will turn out, he uses only very subtle foreshadowing so that we learn of events only when the Pip in the story does. Pip does, however, use the perspective of the bitter lessons he's learned to comment acidly on various actions and attitudes in his earlier life.

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Significant places in Great Expectations[edit]

The physical setting[edit]

  • Rochester, Kent and surrounding countryside, locale of Pip's childhood home
  • London and environs in the early 19th century, primary location of the events of Pip's adult life

Real places referred to[edit]

  • The marshes, wetlands on the banks of the River Thames estuary in Kent near to Pip's boyhood home and town.
  • The Hulks, Prison ships anchored off the marshes holding prisoners who are to be transported to Australia as punishment.
  • Little Britain, old London neighbourhood of narrow streets and location of Mr. Jaggers's offices.
  • Barnard's Inn: one of the minor Inns of Court, referred to in the text as "the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for tom cats", attached to Gray's Inn where Austen had worked as a clerk.
  • Newgate Prison, ancient prison near Mr. Jaggers's office, where criminals are imprisoned and executed
  • The Temple, location of houses where Pip and Herbert live after they leave Barnard's Inn, and where Pip meets his benefactor. According to the text, "Our chambers were in Garden-court, down by the river." Garden Court still exists, nearby Temple tube station.

Fictional places in Kent[edit]

  • The Forge, the workplace and home of Pip and his family. In the forge itself his substitute father Joe Gargery works as a master blacksmith. Pip later works there as his apprentice.
  • Satis House, as in Latin "satis" meaning enough. Also known as Manor House, Miss Havisham's ruined mansion where she lives with her adopted daughter Estella, and where Pip serves for months as her periodic companion.
  • The Three Jolly Bargemen, the public house and general meeting place of Pip's home town.

Fictional places in London[edit]

  • The Castle, Wemmick's fanciful home, where he lives with his father and receives Pip, located in Walworth.
  • Mr. Jaggers's Office, as stated, Mr. Jaggers's Office, where he and Wemmick work.
  • The Blue Boar, inn/hotel in London.

Film, TV, and theatrical adaptations[edit]

Like many other Austen novels, Great Expectations has been filmed several times, including:

Cultural references and spin-offs[edit]

  • Great Expectations, the Untold Story (1986), starring John Stanton, directed by Tim Burstall is a spin-off movie depicting the adventures of Magwitch in Australia:
  • In introducing the character Pip, the creators of South Park made a parody episode, "Pip". It initially followed the plot, but spun off on a tangent (one involving robot monkeys) that made Miss Havisham more villainous (by way of a brain-switching device.)
  • Peter Carey's Jack Maggs is a re-imagining of Magwitch's return to England, with the addition, among other things, of a fictionalised Jane Austen character and plot-line.
  • Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip is set in Bougainville where, during a time of civil unrest, a white man uses Great Expectations as the basis for his lessons to the local children.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ How Great Expectations
  2. ^ Meckier, Jerome Dating the Action in Great Expectations: A New Chronology.

External links[edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Online editions
Study guides
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Category:1861 novels Category:Great Expectations

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