Paperback, 512 pages
English language
Published Dec. 30, 1965 by Penguin Classics.
Great Expectations (first published in 1860/61) is one of the most mature and serious of Dickens's novels. As Angus Calder points out in his introduction, it re- sembles a detective story — but in the sense in which Oedipus Rex also resembles one. From the first shock of the early pages, when Pip encounters the convict Magwitch, the mystery grips our attention and its psychological and moral truth holds us until the end. For, in discovering the secret of his •great expecta- tions'. Pip also begins to discover the truth about himself.
The cover shows a detail from 'A Country Blacksmith Disputing the Price of Iron' by J. M. W. Turner (photo: Rodney Todd-White)
The portrait of Charles Dickens inside the front cover is taken from an engraving after a painting by W. P. Frith, by permission of the Trustees of the Dickens House
I enjoyed this novel more than I expected. Dickens writes very impressively, which maybe should not be a surprise but I imagined something more formal and tedious. He writes with a rhythm and some amazing turns of phrases. I am unfamiliar with the speech of the time to understand how much of what seems novel to me is merely the idiom of the time.
