Great Expectations

Great Expectations
Type:	Book
Made by:	Charles Dickens

Great Expectations was a novel written by Charles Dickens. (TV: The Unquiet Dead) It was described as "haunting", depicting the personal development of an orphan named Pip as he discovered the true nature of his 'great expectations'. By the 21st century it was considered a literary classic. (TV: The Empty Planet)

Plot

"It was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me."

-An extract from Great Expectations. (TV: The Empty Planet)

As outlined in the blurb, the book followed the journey of an orphaned boy, Pip, as he began his new life as a gentleman. (TV: The Empty Planet)

A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict on a graveyard on the 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 changes the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dicken's haunting late novel depicts Pip's education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his 'great expectations'.

References

The Ninth Doctor referred to this novel as one he had read, among other stories by Charles Dickens, when encountering the author on Christmas Eve 1869. (TV: The Unquiet Dead)

While visiting the Reform Club in 1866, the Eighth Doctor got into an argument with Dickens about an error in Great Expectations. (AUDIO: The Man Who Wasn't There)

In 1884, Captain Kybo read Great Expectations to help him learn English. (AUDIO: Judoon in Chains)

In 2010, Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer had to read the book for school. Typically, Rani took the assignment far more seriously than Clyde. He claimed that all one needed to do to understand the novel sufficiently for the purposes of school was to "read the beginning, the end and page 73". (TV: The Empty Planet)

In 2016, the assortment of objects in the conservatory of the old stone house reminded Tanya Adeola of a scene from the novel adapted to a scenario when Miss Havisham were a keen gardener. (PROSE: The Stone House)