Primary sourceBook1860–1861
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens · 1860–1861
Dickens's 1860–61 novel narrated by the orphan Pip, serialised in his own magazine All the Year Round.
One of Dickens's most celebrated novels, written and serialised by him in his own weekly magazine.
About this source
What it is
A novel by Charles Dickens, first published in weekly parts in his periodical All the Year Round from December 1860, then as a three-volume book in 1861. It is told in the first person by Pip, an orphan raised by his sister and her husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery.
Why it matters
The novel is one of Dickens's most admired works, praised by contemporaries such as George Bernard Shaw, and it explores wealth, class and the gap between appearance and real worth through characters like the convict Magwitch and the recluse Miss Havisham. As his second novel told in the first person, it shows Dickens experimenting with a more personal, reflective style of storytelling in his later career.
Look closer
- Why might Dickens have chosen to tell this story in Pip's own voice rather than as an outside narrator?
- What does the scanned magazine page tell you about how readers in 1860 first encountered this story?
- What does serial publication, week by week, do to how a writer can build suspense?
This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Charles Dickens on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.
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