Les Epicuriens Classics: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
What makes a novel timeless?
Today, Les Epicuriens Books and The Sir Williams Shakespeare’s Room would like to open a new chapter with the launch of Les Epicuriens Classics, a category dedicated to the literary works that have transcended generations and earned their place in our collective imagination.
What makes a book a classic? Is it the beauty of its prose, the depth of its characters, or its remarkable ability to speak to readers centuries after it was written? Perhaps a true classic is something like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa: a masterpiece whose significance continues to evolve with every generation that encounters it.
In an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and technological change, returning to the great works of literature offers us an opportunity to reconnect with the extraordinary power of human imagination. Through this new category, we will explore a rich selection of English, French, Spanish, and international classics, discovering what makes these stories endure beyond their own time.
But a bookclub is more than a collection of books; it is a meeting of minds. We invite our members to share their favourite classics, recommend the works they believe deserve to stand the test of time, and reflect on a question at the heart of this new adventure: What does timelessness mean to you?
Our first literary journey takes us into the world of Charles Dickens and his celebrated novel, Great Expectations.
Great Expectations: The Making of a Man
Few writers have captured the contradictions of human nature with the vividness, compassion, and social insight of Charles Dickens. Born in Portsmouth, England, on 7 February 1812, Dickens became a defining literary voice of the Victorian era. His fiction, populated by unforgettable characters and shaped by a keen awareness of poverty, injustice, ambition, and social inequality, continues to resonate with readers today.
His genius lies not simply in the stories he tells, but in the questions they leave behind. What does it mean to become successful? Can wealth bring happiness? How much of our identity is shaped by the society we inhabit, and how much by the choices we make?
These questions are at the heart of Great Expectations, a novel that invites us to examine not only the journey of its protagonist, but also our own ideas about success, belonging, love, and personal growth.
First published in serial form between December 1860 and August 1861 in Dickens’s weekly journal, All the Year Round, the novel appeared in three volumes in October 1861. It was Dickens’s thirteenth novel and his second written entirely in the first person, following David Copperfield. A landmark of Victorian literature, it is also a classic example of the bildungsroman—the coming-of-age novel—in which the protagonist’s experiences gradually shape his understanding of himself and the world.
At its centre is Pip, an orphan whose childhood encounters and unexpected prospects set him on a complicated path towards adulthood. As his ambitions grow, so too does the distance between the person he is and the person he believes he ought to become.
Yet Dickens’s great achievement is to make Pip’s story about far more than social advancement. Beneath the promise of wealth and respectability lies a deeper exploration of conscience, loyalty, pride, and the cost of abandoning one’s roots.
For our bookclub: What is the most important lesson Pip learns on his journey to adulthood? Do his experiences make him a better person, or simply a more self-aware one? And to what extent do the choices he makes define his identity?
## A World of Fog, Shadows, and Expectations
One of the novel’s most striking achievements is its atmosphere. Dickens transports us from the bleak, mist-covered marshes of Kent to the crowded, restless streets of early nineteenth-century London, creating two contrasting worlds that mirror Pip’s inner transformation.
The marshes, with their isolation, uncertainty, and looming sense of danger, provide the setting for some of the novel’s most haunting moments. The story opens in a graveyard, where the young Pip encounters the escaped convict Abel Magwitch—a scene that establishes the atmosphere of fear and vulnerability that will follow him into adulthood.
London, by contrast, represents possibility, ambition, and social aspiration. Yet beneath its promise of sophistication and advancement lies a world of rigid hierarchies, moral compromises, and unexpected disappointments.
Dickens uses these settings not merely as backdrops, but as reflections of Pip’s changing outlook. The landscape of his childhood becomes inseparable from his memories, while the city challenges his understanding of class, wealth, and respectability.
The result is a novel in which the external world and the inner life of its protagonist are constantly intertwined.
As readers, we are invited to consider how the places we inhabit shape our ambitions—and whether leaving one world behind necessarily means becoming someone new.
## Dickens’s Gallery of Unforgettable Characters
A classic often survives through its characters, and Great Expectations offers a remarkable cast whose personalities continue to fascinate readers.
There is the eccentric and enigmatic Miss Havisham, frozen in a past she cannot escape; the beautiful yet emotionally guarded Estella, whose upbringing complicates her capacity for affection; and Joe Gargery, the kind-hearted blacksmith whose humility and loyalty stand in striking contrast to Pip’s growing ambitions.
Alongside them are the calculating lawyer Mr Jaggers, the wonderfully contradictory Wemmick, the socially ambitious Uncle Pumblechook, and Herbert Pocket, whose friendship brings warmth and humanity to Pip’s London life.
Each character reveals a different aspect of the novel’s moral universe. Some embody kindness and generosity, others pride and manipulation, while many resist such simple distinctions altogether. Dickens rarely allows us to settle comfortably into a single judgment: his characters are often as contradictory as the society they inhabit.
Miss Havisham, in particular, raises fascinating questions about the relationship between suffering and cruelty. Estella challenges our assumptions about love and emotional responsibility. Joe, meanwhile, reminds us that dignity and goodness need not depend on education, wealth, or social status.
For our bookclub: Which character intrigues you most, and why? Is there someone whose actions you found difficult to understand—or whose humanity surprised you? How did your feelings towards a particular character change as the story unfolded?
## A Novel That Continues to Speak
Although Great Expectations belongs to the nineteenth century, its central concerns remain strikingly familiar. Pip’s desire to rise above his circumstances, his anxieties about social acceptance, and his struggle to distinguish genuine happiness from outward success are experiences that transcend historical boundaries.
Dickens’s prose is rich in imagery and dramatic detail, bringing poverty, imprisonment, social barriers, and human conflict vividly to life. His descriptions of chains, prison ships, and physical and emotional confinement reinforce the novel’s broader concern with the forces that restrict human freedom.
The work also occupies an interesting place in Dickens’s literary career. It is often regarded as one of his more concentrated and tightly constructed novels, particularly when compared with some of his longer works. Originally conceived on a larger scale, it was ultimately shaped into a more compact narrative.
Its reception was not uniformly enthusiastic. Thomas Carlyle reportedly dismissed it as “All that Pip's nonsense,” while George Bernard Shaw later praised its consistency and truthfulness. Such contrasting reactions remind us that a literary classic is not necessarily a work that everyone admires equally, but one that continues to invite interpretation, debate, and reconsideration.
Dickens himself held the novel in particularly high regard. Its enduring appeal lies in its combination of memorable storytelling and moral complexity: it entertains us while asking us to question the values by which we measure our lives.
## Les Epicuriens Bookclub Conversation
As we begin our Classics journey, Great Expectations offers us an ideal opportunity to reflect on what literature can reveal about the human experience.
Pip’s story asks us to look beyond appearances, reconsider our assumptions about success, and recognise the people whose kindness may matter more than the social status we pursue. It reminds us that growing up is not simply about acquiring wealth, education, or independence, but about developing the wisdom to understand ourselves and others.
So, as you turn the final page—or perhaps revisit a novel you first encountered years ago—we would love to hear from you.
What makes Great Expectations* a classic in your eyes?
* Which character left the strongest impression on you?
* Did Pip’s journey change the way you think about ambition, wealth, or belonging?
* And which classic should Basket explore next?
Share your thoughts, memories, and recommendations with our community. After all, the life of a classic does not end with its final page. It continues every time a new reader discovers it, questions it, and finds something of themselves within its pages.
Welcome to Les Epicuriens Classics. Let’s discover together which stories truly stand the test of time.
References
Dickens, C. (1861). Great Expectations. Chapman & Hall. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8721462W/Great_Expectations
(1861). Great Expectations. Chapman & Hall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations
Flood, A. (December 8, 2011). Dickens manuscript illuminates author's workings. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/08/dickens-manuscript-great-expectations
Dickens, C. (1861). Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Publisher: Chapman & Hall. https://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/novels/great-expectations/
Chesterton, G. K. (1906). Charles Dickens. Chapter IX: Later Life and Works. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens_(Chesterton)
(2026). Charles Dickens Books in Order. ([inorderbookseries.com](https://inorderbookseries.com/series/charles-dickens?utm_source=openai)). https://inorderbookseries.com/series/charles-dickens
Dickens, C. (1861). Great Expectations. Chapter 19. https://www.literaturepage.com/read/greatexpectations-178.html