GajimaruClassics.
Great ExpectationsOn the coverA Rubber at Miss Havisham's, Marcus Stone, 1862
Great Expectations
A poor orphan named Pip, marked by a terrifying encounter in the marshes and a strange summons to a decaying mansion, comes into a mysterious fortune, and learns what it really costs to become a gentleman. Dickens’s most personal novel.
Character notes and context for the chapter you’ve read.
Dickens at his most personal and least sentimental, a coming-of-age about money, shame, and gratitude, with the best opening chapter he ever wrote. Funny, haunting, and wise about who we owe.
SettingEngland, 1810s–20s
Victorian England was obsessed with the gentleman: birth, money, and manners decided your worth, and a windfall could vault a blacksmith’s boy into a class that would never quite accept him.
On screen & beyond
- David Lean’s classic film (1946)
- BBC series (2011)