Great Expectations was first serialised in Dickens’s weekly journal All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to 3 August 1861 (in thirty-six weekly instalments), then published in three volumes by Chapman & Hall, London, in July 1861, priced at 31s 6d. The novel was written to rescue All the Year Round from declining circulation (caused by the serialisation of Charles Lever’s unsuccessful A Day’s Ride) and succeeded spectacularly — restoring the journal’s readership and producing what many critics consider Dickens’s finest novel.
The Novel
Philip Pirrip — “Pip” — grows up in the Kent marshes, raised “by hand” by his harsh sister and her gentle husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. On Christmas Eve, a terrified escaped convict (Abel Magwitch) seizes the boy in a churchyard and demands food and a file. Pip complies. This act of charity — performed under duress, amid terror — will determine his entire life.
Years later, the lawyer Jaggers informs Pip that he has “great expectations” — an anonymous benefactor has settled a fortune on him and he is to become a gentleman. Pip assumes his benefactor is Miss Havisham — the wealthy recluse who lives in darkness among the ruins of her interrupted wedding, raising the beautiful Estella to break men’s hearts. He goes to London, becomes a snob, neglects Joe, and pursues Estella — who cannot love anyone.
The revelation that his benefactor is not Miss Havisham but Magwitch — the convict from the marshes, now a transported felon whose return to England means death — shatters Pip’s self-image. Everything he has built (his gentility, his contempt for his origins, his romantic fantasy) is founded on a transported criminal’s gratitude. The novel’s power lies in this inversion: true generosity comes from the lowest place in society; respectability and wealth are instruments of corruption.
Collecting Great Expectations
First edition in book form (1861, Chapman & Hall, London): Three volumes, priced at 31s 6d.
Identification points:
- Published by Chapman and Hall
- Three volumes in purple cloth
- “All the Year Round” advertisements at the end
First edition (three volumes):
- Complete set in original cloth: $15,000–$40,000
- Rebound: $3,000–$8,000
Serialisation in All the Year Round (1860–1861): Complete runs of the thirty-six instalments are collected: $5,000–$15,000 for clean, complete sets.
Harper’s Weekly (American serialisation): The illustrated American serialisation (with John McLenan’s engravings) is separately collected.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 1.5× for the three-volume first. Dickens’s market is mature but stable, driven by institutional demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Dickens change the ending? Yes. The original ending (Pip and Estella meet briefly and part forever) was altered at Bulwer-Lytton’s suggestion to a more ambiguous but hopeful conclusion. Both endings are now published; most critics prefer the original for its consistency with the novel’s themes.
What is the connection to David Copperfield? Both are first-person Bildungsromane. Dickens acknowledged the debt by rereading Copperfield before beginning Great Expectations — “to be quite sure I had fallen into no unconscious repetitions.” The later novel is more compressed, more structurally perfect, and darker.
Why is Miss Havisham in her wedding dress? She was jilted at the altar by Compeyson (Magwitch’s partner in crime) and has never moved past that moment. She stopped all clocks, let the wedding breakfast rot, and raised Estella as an instrument of revenge against men. She is Dickens’s most Gothic creation.