Great Expectations is among the most masterful of Charles Dickens's novels. Displaying extraordinary tragicomic range, Dickens blends an atmosphere of brooding violence and guilt with sharp and often disturbing humor to create a drama charged with the thrilling intensity of a detective story and the poignancy of a spiritual autobiography. Much of the novel's power comes from Dickens's unequaled skill at making even the most wildly eccentric of characters seem utterly real, so that the players in this novel quickly come to feel as vivid and close to the reader as old friends. From the orphan Pip's first terrifying encounter with the convict Magwitch to his strange relationship with Miss Havisham and her beautiful, heartless ward, Estella; from the buffoonery of very bad Shakespearean acting to the almost unbearably sad realization of blighted hopes, Great Expectations is a magnetic and very moving story that engages the heart as well as the mind.
