Great expectations

Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel; a bildungsroman which depicts the personal growth and personal development of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes. The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens' most memorable scenes, including the opening in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is full of extreme imagery - poverty; prison ships and chains, and fights to the death - and has a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. Great Expectations (popular both with readers and literary critics) has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media. Upon its release, the novel received near universal acclaim, although Thomas Carlyle spoke disparagingly of "all that Pip's nonsense." Later, George Bernard Shaw praised the novel, as "All of one piece and consistently truthfull." During the serial publication, Dickens was pleased with public response to Great Expectations and its sales; when the plot first formed in his mind, he called it "a very fine, new and grotesque idea." Charles John Huffam Dickens, né à Landport, près de Portsmouth, dans le Hampshire, le 7 février 1812 et mort à Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, le 9 juin 1870 (à 58 ans), est considéré comme le plus grand romancier de l'époque victorienne. Dès ses premiers écrits, il est devenu immensément célèbre, sa popularité ne cessant de croître au fil de ses publications. L'expérience marquante de son enfance, que certains considèrent comme la clef de son génie, a été, peu avant l'incarcération de son père pour dettes à la Marshalsea, son embauche à douze ans chez Warren où il a collé des étiquettes sur des pots de cirage pendant plus d'une année. Bien qu'il soit retourné presque trois ans à l'école, son éducation est restée sommaire et sa grande culture est essentiellement due à ses efforts personnels. Il a fondé et publié plusieurs hebdomadaires, composé quinze romans majeurs, cinq livres de moindre envergure (novellas en anglais), des centaines de nouvelles et d'articles portant sur des sujets littéraires ou de société. Sa passion pour le théâtre l'a poussé à écrire et mettre en scène des pièces, jouer la comédie et faire des lectures publiques de ses oeuvres qui, lors de tournées souvent harassantes, sont vite devenues extrêmement populaires en Grande-Bretagne et aux États-Unis. Charles Dickens a été un infatigable défenseur du droit des enfants, de l'éducation pour tous, de la condition féminine et de nombreuses autres causes, dont celle des prostituées.