Great Expectations book cover

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens · English text · 185,438 words

Pip’s hopes for gentility and romance carry him from a marshland childhood to London, where he gradually learns the sources and costs of his expectations.

Start reading

Background

Dickens’s novel is a coming-of-age story shaped by class, guilt, loyalty, and the instability of self-invention.

Reading notes

  • Notice the older Pip’s perspective on his younger judgments.
  • Track how the meaning of “expectations” changes.
  • Compare affection freely given with the social status Pip pursues.