Great Expectations
Charles Dickens · 1812–1870 · England
Why it matters
Dickens's most perfect novel: a blacksmith's boy is anonymously funded into gentility and must reckon with what he owes, and to whom, for the life he never quite earned. Self-making and shame: the Victorian dream audited by its greatest dreamer.
At a glance
bildungsromangothic
Difficulty 4/10medium pace512 pagesLong but linear plot with clear prose; some period diction and legal detail.
Deep dive
Why 'great expectations' reads, from the title on, as a diagnosis rather than a blessing — and what Dickens thinks inherited money does to a decent, unsuspecting boy.
Where to go next
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