Great Expectations

This is the thirteenth of Charles Dickens fourteen novels .Only two of his works are fully in first- person narrative; the other being David Copperfield. Great Expectations is a "coming of age" story (Bildungsroman). The protagonist, Pip, lives with his sister “Mrs Joe Gargery” and her husband, Joe, in a secluded rural village in the marshlands of Kent. Both his parents are dead. Pip has always had a burning desire to become a Gentleman. The story follows how Pip, through circumstances not of his own making, rises to great wealth, becomes part of the London elite and is considered to have “Great Expectations”. However, as the story develops, he betrays or deserts his true friends and becomes eventually humbled by his own arrogance and pride. Dickens paints wonderful characters throughout the book. Joe Gargery (his adoptive father by marriage); Magwich (the Convict); Miss Havisham (the reclusive old woman); Estella (her prideful, adopted daughter and love of Pip’s life); Matthew Pocket,