Great Expectations

Introduction by Robbie

Great Expectations was the tenth book in the reading sequence, begun in December 2024 after the Oscar Wilde short stories. The fourth Dickens novel in the series, and perhaps his most perfectly constructed — tighter and more focused than the sprawling earlier works, told entirely in the first person by Pip.

The reading ran from December 2024 through March 2025, covering fifty-nine chapters across three volumes. After the breadth of Bleak House, Great Expectations offered something more concentrated: a single life, a single voice, a story of aspiration and disillusion that never loses its grip.

Dickens's first-person narration gives the reader aloud a particular intimacy. Pip's voice — by turns naive, ashamed, hopeful, and finally wise — becomes the reader's own voice. It is a novel that asks to be spoken.