Name: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens

How you explore Great Expectations on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 35 characters, 24 places, 25 objects and 8 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 63 passages of Great Expectations sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Charles Dickens wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Charles Dickens instead.

9:41

The Cast

Pip / Philip Pirrip

Main · Gargery household; London gentleman-world

A marsh-country orphan whose wish to become a gentleman teaches him shame before it teaches him gratitude.

Locations

The marshes

marshland

Out on this flat wet emptiness a terrified boy meets the man who will shape his whole life.

Passage

A child names himself, and a lifelong identity begins with a mispronounced compromise.

Read →

The Author’s Pen

Calling Myself Pip

My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

Reading

Pip names himself, and that small fact quietly sets up everything to come. He cannot manage the full weight of his father's name, so he shortens it to something a baby's mouth can handle, and the shortened version sticks because he says it first. This is a boy defining who he is before anyone else gets the chance, which is fitting for a book about a man trying to make himself into someone grander than his beginnings. The self he starts with is a leftover, whatever was easy to say.

World Index

The Plot

The Convict on the MarshesSatis House and EstellaGreat ExpectationsLondon and New CompanyEstella and Pip's DeclineThe Return of MagwitchRuin and the RiverA Humbler Heart

The Cast

Pip / Philip PirripJoe GargeryAbel MagwitchEstellaMiss HavishamMr. JaggersWemmickHerbert PocketBiddyCompeysonDolge OrlickBentley DrummleMollyMrs. Joe GargeryMatthew PocketMrs. PocketClara BarleyMr. PumblechookStartopAged ParentMiss SkiffinsMr. WopsleMr. Wopsle’s great-auntTrabbTrabb’s boySarah PocketCamillaCousin RaymondGeorgianaBill BarleyMr. HubbleMrs. HubbleThe AvengerArthur HavishamClarriker

Locations

Barnard’s InnClara’s house near the riverJaggers’s house / dining roomJaggers’s officeJoe’s forgeLondonMatthew Pocket’s householdMiss Havisham’s room / feast-roomNewgate / courtroom spacesPip’s sickroom in LondonPumblechook’s premisesRichmondRuined Satis House grounds / gardenSatis HouseThe BatteryThe churchyardThe Gargery kitchenThe hulks / prison shipsThe marshesThe riverThe sluice-houseThe villageVillage school / Wopsle’s great-aunt’s schoolWalworth Castle

Objects of Note

Boats used in the escapeClarriker partnership papersEstella’s jewelsHousehold debts and furnishingsJaggers’s courtroom casts / criminal relicsJaggers’s soap / hand-washingJoe’s forge toolsLegal papers / office documentsLetters and warningsMagwitch’s leg-ironMiss Havisham’s crutch stickMrs. Joe’s apronMrs. Joe’s slatePip’s apprentice indenturesPlaying cardsStolen food / pork pieThe decaying wedding cake / feast-tableThe fileThe forge fireThe money / expectationsThe stopped clocksThe wedding dressTicklerWemmick’s drawbridge / castle apparatusWemmick’s portable property

Core Concepts

Gentility as moral misrecognitionLove as care versus possessionMoney as fantasy and contaminationMoral education through errorRespectability versus nobilityThe past returns

The Author's Pen

Parents Imagined From TombstonesPip In the ChurchyardThe Man Among the GravesTilted Into ObedienceFellow Sufferers and ConfidencesBread and Butter in ReserveStealing Food And A FileJoe Gargery in Strength and WeaknessBrought Up By HandThe Fingerpost and the HulksBreakfast Before the GallowsI Took HimThe Blacksmith’s Stolen VittlesToo Cowardly To Do RightJoe Reads His NameAshamed of JoeAt Miss Havisham’s GateThe Withered BrideEstella's First InsultKeeping Back TearsOne Memorable DayThat Means You Have WonAshamed Of HomeOrlick’s Hidden HostilityEither I Am Very StupidI Want To Be A GentlemanTo Gain Her OverA Young Fellow of Great ExpectationsThe Secret BenefactorJoe Wants NothingOffended By Kind LooksThe Old Shoes FarewellMr. Jaggers’s Dismal RoomThe First of My Great ExpectationsLaughing in Barnard’s InnNo True Gentleman At HeartOnly ProfessionalWemmick’s Little BatteryBentley Drummle IntroducedJoe in His Forge DressEstella Laughs At MeEstella Has No HeartLove Her If She Wounds YouTears Soon DriedNewgate on My ClothesWe Are Not FreeThe Fiction of EnjoymentTake Me As MadeI Made a GentlemanYour Second FatherCompeyson’s BusinessWhat Have I DoneThe Flaming RescueEstella’s FatherI’m a-Going to Have Your LifeBy Magwitch’s SideLoitering at the Temple StairsThe Face DisclosedTelling Him About His ChildJoe's Tender CareBiddy Married to JoeFriends Apart

Plot point 01

The Convict on the Marshes

A lonely orphan is seized among the graves by an escaped convict who demands food and a file — and swears him to secrecy.

Objects of Note

The file

A tool Pip steals from Joe to free a convict, and the start of a debt he cannot yet see.

The Cast

Joe Gargery

Main · Gargery household

A gentle blacksmith whose strength is most visible when he refuses to use it for pride.

You’ve seen 6 cards

There are 161 waiting

for you to explore

Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Great Expectations feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of Great Expectations

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

The Convict on the Marshes
Satis House and Estella
Great Expectations
London and New Company
Estella and Pip's Decline
The Return of Magwitch
Ruin and the River
A Humbler Heart

The author's pen in Great Expectations

The passages themselves, Charles Dickens's own words, as Literah maps it.

Calling Myself Pipch. 1
Parents Imagined From Tombstonesch. 1
Pip In the Churchyardch. 1
The Man Among the Gravesch. 1
Tilted Into Obediencech. 1
Fellow Sufferers and Confidencesch. 2
Bread and Butter in Reservech. 2
Stealing Food And A Filech. 2
Joe Gargery in Strength and Weaknessch. 2
Brought Up By Handch. 2
The Fingerpost and the Hulksch. 3
Breakfast Before the Gallowsch. 3
I Took Himch. 5
The Blacksmith’s Stolen Vittlesch. 5
Too Cowardly To Do Rightch. 6
Joe Reads His Namech. 7
Ashamed of Joech. 8
At Miss Havisham’s Gatech. 8
The Withered Bridech. 8
Estella's First Insultch. 8

The characters of Great Expectations

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Pip / Philip Pirripmajor
Joe Gargerymajor
Abel Magwitchmajor
Estellamajor
Miss Havishammajor
Mr. Jaggersmajor
Wemmickmajor
Herbert Pocketmajor
Biddymajor
Compeysonmajor
Dolge Orlickmajor
Bentley Drummlemajor
Mollymajor
Mrs. Joe Gargerysupporting
Matthew Pocketsupporting
Mrs. Pocketsupporting

The locations in Great Expectations

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

The marshesmarshland
The churchyardchurchyard
The Batteryabandoned military battery
Joe’s forgeforge
The Gargery kitchenkitchen
The villagevillage
Village school / Wopsle’s great-aunt’s schoolschool
Pumblechook’s premisesmerchant premises
Satis Housemansion
Miss Havisham’s room / feast-roominterior room
Ruined Satis House grounds / gardenruined garden
Londoncity
Barnard’s Innlodgings
Jaggers’s officelaw office

The core concepts in Great Expectations

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Gentility as moral misrecognition
Love as care versus possession
The past returns
Moral education through error
Respectability versus nobility
Money as fantasy and contamination

The objects of note in Great Expectations

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

The file
Stolen food / pork pie
Magwitch’s leg-iron
Joe’s forge tools
The forge fire
Mrs. Joe’s apron
Tickler
Mrs. Joe’s slate
Pip’s apprentice indentures
The money / expectations
Legal papers / office documents
The wedding dress
The stopped clocks
The decaying wedding cake / feast-table

The offer

Explore Great Expectations. And 127 more.

Literah maps the classics into worlds you can walk through — the cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words, passage by passage. One payment, no subscription, yours to keep.

$75$150one time · 128 books

How you explore Great Expectations on Literah

The plot of Great Expectations

The author's pen in Great Expectations

The characters of Great Expectations

The locations in Great Expectations

The core concepts in Great Expectations

The objects of note in Great Expectations

Explore Great Expectations. And 127 more.

Some of the titles in our library