Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations somewhere between 1860 and 1861, and managed to break the reader's heart - my own included - on the very first page. On that same page he introduces the seven-year-old Pip - standing alone in a graveyard beside the tombstones of the parents and five little brothers he never got to meet. Pip is an orphan, but he is not alone.
He is raised by his older sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, who never misses an opportunity to beat him. Nothing comes easy in Pip's life, except perhaps the fortune he later gets from his benefactor.
But it was only its coming that was easy - the transfer from point A to point B - all else had a transactional nature.
And true love is not transactional - transformative, yes, but never transactional.
Lacking the ability to define it - for can we define something so vast and profound, and not take away from its intensity - we can only share a glimpse of it in the attempts to understand another, and the will to let them go, when such time comes.
Today, read a bit about Pip's all-consuming love for his beloved Estella, and his decision to let her go, while keeping her as a part of him.
“The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.”
“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since—on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation I associate you only with the good, and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!”
About Charles Dickens
Born on February 7th, 1812, in Portsmouth, England, Charles Dickens has been hailed as one of the greatest and most influential writers of 19th-century England. He wrote 14 novels, many of them abundant in topical allusion, and produced a body of work as essayist, reporter, correspondent, and editor that constitutes a lifelong account of the facts of Victorian life as he knew them.
Early Life and Family Struggles
Dickens faced financial instability and family struggles at an early age, and those experiences had a serious impact on shaping his worldview and literary endeavors. His father worked as a naval clerk, and thus, the family had to move several times, facing young Dickens with the harsh realities of social inequality and poverty early on.
When he was 12 years old, his father was arrested for debt and taken to prison. To help the family out, Dickens was sent to work in a warehouse, pasting labels on shoe-blacking pots.
Losing his childhood innocence was an experience that never truly subsided, but it did instill in Dickens a deep empathy for the less fortunate and downtrodden.
Journalism and the Morning Advertiser
In 1828, Dickens became a freelance reporter in the London law courts. He alternated reporting for several years, exploring the streets of London, and reading avidly at the British Museum. Devoted already to the essays of Oliver Goldsmith, Joseph Addison, and Samuel Johnson, he now read the major 19th-century essayists: William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, Thomas De Quincey, and Walter Savage Landor.
When he was 20 years old, Dickens got a job as a parliamentary reporter for the Mirror of Parliament, which was founded by his uncle John Henry Barrow. He worked there from 1832 to 1834, and got such a reputation that he would be the envy of any aspiring journalist. Dickens's contemporary, James Grant of the Morning Advertiser, claimed that Dickens
“occupied the very highest rank, not merely for accuracy in reporting, but for marvelous quickness in transcript.”
In his work as a reporter, Dickens was a lover of facts and an outraged reformer uncompromising in his attacks on privileged interests.
When the Morning Chronicle was reorganized, Dickens grasped the chance of becoming one of its regular staff members.
John Forster, Dickens's friend and biographer, would later say that Dickens admitted to him that he
“went at it with a determination to overcome all difficulties, which fairly lifted me up into that newspaper life, and floated me away over a hundred men’s heads.”
Literature, Social Critique and Sketches by Boz
Dickens's growing reputation as a reporter was soon overshadowed by the fame of "Boz", the name under which he wrote a series of tales and sketches published in Bell’s Weekly Magazine, the Monthly Magazine, Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, the Evening Chronicle, and the Morning Chronicle. These pieces were later collected in two hardcover volumes titled Sketches by Boz (1836). In fact, many of the sketches are actually essays, having an informal immediacy that strikingly portrays the lower- and middle-class street life he observed firsthand. Dickens used his storytelling as a way to captivate audiences by introducing them with vivid characters and intricate plots - such as those in Oliver Twist and The Pickwick Papers - but also as a powerful tool for social critique. Thus, he shed light on the predicament of the marginalized and challenged the power structures of his time. Dickens's ability to effortlessly include social commentary into his narratives inspired generations of readers to confront the injustices of their own societies.
Public Readings, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Final Months
Dickens spent his final months writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood (6 parts, 1870) and concluding a series of extremely successful public readings.
After attending one of Dickens's readings in Boston, Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
"I am afraid he has too much talent for his genius; it is a fearful locomotive to which he is bound and can never be free from it nor set to rest.…He daunts me! I have not the key. During this time, although ill, he also remained faithful to the profession that nurtured his talent from the very beginning. In the spring of 1870 he traveled to London several times, supervising his son Charley in the offices of All the Year Round. Twoextends far beyond his literary achievements, encompassing his tireless advocacy for social justice and his profound influence on subsequent generations of writers and activists. His timeless themes of compassion, redemption, and the resilience of the human spirit continue to resonate with readers worldwide, transcending the boundaries of time and space. Dickens's journalistic and literary endeavors serve as a testament to the enduring power of storytelling to provoke empathy, inspire change, and illuminate the path towards a more just and compassionate society. In commemorating the life and legacy of Charles Dickens, we honor not only a literary giant but also a passionate advocate for social reform whose impact continues to be felt today."
During this time, Dickens remained faithful to the profession that nurtured his talent from the very beginning. To supervise his son Charley in the offices of All the Year Round, he traveled to London several times in the spring of 1870. On June 2nd, a week before his death, he added a codicil to his will which gave his son his interest in All the Year Round.
Dickens died on June 9, 1870, in Gad’s Hill, near Chatham, Kent.
Charles Dickens: Essential Books on Sale Now
"A newly repackaged edition of Dickens's classic coming-of-age tale, with an introduction, contextual essays, a map, and suggestions for further exploration by Victorian scholar Tanya Agathocleous. "A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor-these form a series of events that change the orphan Pip's life forever, as he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens's haunting novel depicts Pip's education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his great expectations. Published nine years before Dickens's death, it remains one of his most celebrated works." For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators."
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2. A Tale of Two Cities (Mass Market Paperbound)
"The French Revolution comes to vivid life in Charles Dickens's famous novel about the best of times and the worst of times...
The storming of the Bastille...the death carts with their doomed human cargo...the swift drop of the guillotine blade--this is the French Revolution that Charles Dickens vividly captures in his famous work A Tale of Two Cities. With dramatic eloquence, he brings to life a time of terror and treason, a starving people rising in frenzy and hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadent regime. With insight and compassion, Dickens casts his novel of unforgettable scenes with some memorable characters: the sinister Madame Defarge, knitting her patterns of death; the gentle Lucie Manette, unswerving in her devotion to her broken father; Charles Darnay, the lover with a secret past; and dissolute Sydney Carton, whose unlikely heroism gives his life meaning.
With an Introduction by Frederick Busch and an Afterword by A. N. Wilson."
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3. David Copperfield (paperback)
"'The most perfect of all the Dickens novels' Virginia Woolf
David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield - the novel he described as his 'favourite child' - Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. This edition uses the text of the first volume publication of 1850, and includes updated suggestions for further reading, original illustrations by 'Phiz', a revised chronology and expanded notes. In his new introduction, Jeremy Tambling discusses the novel's autobiographical elements, and its central themes of memory and identity.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators."
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