Great Expectations (Macmillan Popular Classics)

“Great Expectations offers a fascinating view of the differences between classes during the Victorian era, as well as a great sense of comedy and pathos.” – James Topham 

Great Expectations is a coming of age novel by Charles Dickens that depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens’s weekly periodical All the Year Round, from December 1860 to August 1861.

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.

Upon its release, the novel received near universal acclaim. In the 21st century, the novel retains good ratings among literary critics and in 2003 it was ranked 17th on the BBC’s The Big Read poll.