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Great Expectations Study Guide

by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations is Dickens' thirteenth novel, completed in 1861. The GradeSaver study guide on Great Expectations contains a biography of Charles Dickens, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Great Expectations is the story of Pip, an orphan boy adopted by a blacksmith's family, who has good luck and great expectations, and then loses both his luck and his expectations. Through this rise and fall, however, Pip learns how to find happiness. He learns the meaning of friendship and the meaning of love and, of course, becomes a better person for it.

The story opens with the narrator, Pip, who introduces himself and describes a much younger Pip staring at the gravestones of his parents. This tiny, shivering bundle of a boy is suddenly terrified by a man dressed in a prison uniform. The man tells Pip that if he wants to live, he'll go down to his house and bring him back some food and a file for the shackle on his leg.

Pip runs home to…

Read the full Great Expectations Summary

• Great Expectations Summary
• About Great Expectations
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis of Part I, Chapters 1-10 (1-10)
• Summary and Analysis of Part I, Chapters 11-19 (11-19)
• Summary and Analysis of Part II, Chapters 1-10 (20-29)
• Summary and Analysis of Part II, Chapters 11-20 (30-39)
• Summary and Analysis of Part III, Chapters 1-10 (40-49)
• Summary and Analysis of Part III, Chapters 11-20 (50-59)
• Related Links on Great Expectations
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources

• Great Expectations: Essays
• Great Expectations: E-Text
• Great Expectations: Questions
• Great Expectations: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
• Charles Dickens: Biography