Great Expectations
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Great Expectations
| Author | Charles Dickens |
|---|---|
| Published | 1861 |
| Pages | 514 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Dickens’s novel of Pip, who comes into money from a source he misidentifies and spends the book discovering what his new expectations cost — chiefly the blacksmith who raised him. A machine for taking apart the idea that wealth confers standing. |
Great Expectations
Where I heard about it
- Dissident Teacher — on A Library to Build Great Americans, a 468-title curriculum published on Substack in December 2025, in the Ages 13-99+ band under Fiction.
About this edition
Dickens serialised it weekly in All the Year Round in 1860-61; it is his penultimate completed novel. He wrote two endings: the published one, revised on a friend’s advice, is gentler than the one he drafted, and most modern editions print both — which makes the book useful for arguing about what an ending is for. The card tracks the Penguin edition the curator linked (514 pages).
Connections
- Charles Dickens — the author.
- A Tale of Two Cities — the earlier novel from the same weekly, also on this list.
- Ambition — and what the book says it costs.
- Literature
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.