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Fiction Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 11: Charles Dickens—Great Expectations

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
11.1 Charles Dickens—Great Expectations (Non-detailed): Introduction to the Author
and the Text
11.1.1 Introduction to the Author
11.1.2 Introduction to Great Expectations
11.2 Summary

11.3 Keywords
11.4 Review Questions
11.5 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Know about the Great Expectations of Charles Dickens.

Introduction

Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the
publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for
stage and screen over 250 times. Great Expectations is written in the first person from the
point of view of the orphan Pip. The novel, like much of Dickens’s work, draws on his
experiences of life and people.

11.1 Charles Dickens—Great Expectations (Non-detailed):
Introduction to the Author and the Text

11.1.1 Introduction to the Author

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, on February 7, 1812, to John and Elizabeth
Dickens. He was the second of eight children. His mother had been in service to Lord Crew,
and his father worked as a clerk for the Naval Pay office. John Dickens was imprisoned for
debt when Charles was young. Charles Dickens went to work at a blacking warehouse, managed
by a relative of his mother, when he was twelve, and his brush with hard times and poverty
affected him deeply. He later recounted these experiences in the semi-autobiographical novel
David Copperfield. Similarly, the concern for social justice and reform which surfaced later in
his writings grew out of the harsh conditions he experienced in the warehouse.

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