The most important novel by Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, follows the journey of the story's narrator, the orphan Philip Pirrip (Pip) from his years living as an apprentice blacksmith in a small village to his adulthood and residence in London. From the famous dramatic opening scene in the Kent marshes, the story is filled with Dickens's most memorable characters. The tender blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham with her beautiful adopted daughter Estella, Pip's good-hearted roommate Herbert Pocket, and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip gradually uncovers the truth behind his "great expectations" through his struggle to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the complexities of fate, through a series of thrilling adventures, lead him to maturity and the greatest discovery of all – the truth about himself. Great Expectations is one of the most beloved and widely read novels in the world. The author depicts with humor but also dramatic intensity through a dark plot the Victorian era of the 19th century.