The most important novel by Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations", follows the journey of the narrator of the story, the orphan Philip Pirrip (Pip) from the years he lives as an apprentice blacksmith in a small village to his adulthood and his stay in London. From the famous dramatic opening scene in the marshes of Kent, the story is filled with some of Dickens' 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 kind-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 twists of fate, through a sequence of exciting adventures, lead him to maturity and the most important 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 and dramatic intensity, through a dark plot, the Victorian era of the 19th century.