The Connell Guide To Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

What is'Great Expectations' about? Is Pip a snob? How real is his love for Stella? Is Great Expectations a misogynist novel? What makes the opening scenes so powerful? Why does Pip feel so drawn to Satis House? What is the significance of Magwitch? How corrupt is the world Dickens shows us in 'Great Expectations'? Is Orlick Pip's "double"? How plausible is the ending of the novel? With what view of life does 'Great Expectations' leave us? 'Great Expectations' has been described as the most perfect of Dickens's works. One of the best-selling Victorian novels of our time, it continues not only to be astonishingly popular, but to generate huge critical debate, raising profound questions about the nature of Victorian society, the way human relationships work and the extent to which we are shaped by our childhoods. In this short guide, John Sutherland and Jolyon Connell draw on the leading critics of 'Great Expectations' to offer a compelling and incisive interpretation of the novel. Entertaining and accessible, the guide is essential reading not just for students of literature but for anyone interested in Dickens's extraordinary vision of the world.

'I only wish an accessible and insightful guide like this had been available to me as a teenager, encountering Dickens for the first time and missing so much which Sutherland and Connell brilliantly identify and explain.' Sir Max Hastings

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus, UCL, and has for many years been a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of many books and writes and reviews widely in the UK and US.

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