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Great Expectations is written by English author Charles Dickens. The book was published serially in the journal All the Year Round in 1860-61 and issued in book form in 1861. The novel traces the prospects of a poor young man - Pip - who is educated as a gentleman of "great expectations." Written in the first-person narrative, the story tells the saga of Pip (Philip Pirrip) who is looked after by his disagreeable sister and her sweet-natured husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. One day, the young Pip helps an escaped convict. Later on, Abel Magwitch, the convict he once aided dies awaiting trial after Pip is unable to help him a second time. It was Joe who rescued Pip from despair and nursed him back to health. Like David Copperfield, the novel draws on parts of Dickens's own personality and experience. Many consider Great Expectations as the most finely achieved novel by Dickens. Pip, the main protagonist, is explored with great subtlety, and his development through a childhood and youth is traced sympathetically.
About the author
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812 - 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education and other social reforms.
