# of Words: 298

One chilly and misty evening, a tiny boy meets an escaped offender on the marshes near England's coast. No, it is not the launching of a TV crime drama (though it may be)--it is the beginning of one of Charles Dickens' most renowned novels: Good Expectations. With two chapters Weekly, Great Expectations (along with other serialized novels like it) were as close as Victorian England got to Breaking Bad or Mad Men.

People waited patiently each week to the next "incident" to arrive at the newsstands and on the shelves--and you will see why. Dickens was a master of the serialized novel, writing sections filled with cliff-hangers and nail-biting action, while staying true to the novel's overall storyline. His stories worked in bits and as a cohesive whole--not an easy task. (Only ask J. J. Abrams.)

When Good Expectations began its conduct, Charles Dickens was already world-famous, but his magazine All the Year Round was fighting. He came up with a plan: rather than rescue the story he had sketched out to get a cooler and better-paying publication, he chose to conduct it into his own magazine.

The novel was a significant success. While England was developing wealthy and powerful at the age of colonialism and the Industrial Revolution, Dickens saw the injustice that ran rampant among the working and lower classes. He documented Britain's underbelly and researched the struggle for survival at a time of such wealth.

Nevertheless, it is not all doom and gloom. Sure, there are broken hearts, glimpses into London's dark criminal underworld, and sufficient child abuse to make you wish to phone protective services. At the exact same time, it is filled with hilarious characters and small slice-of-life sketches which, exactly like any serialized TV series, will keep you returning for more.

Related Papers

The Giver Lois Lowry

Imagine if you had been told that, as old twelvemonths, you had to get a job... and then keep it for the rest of your life. Terrifying? Try this: imagine if you had been always been viewed over by an obscure brute force. Yikes? All of this is dreadful, however The Giver is the gift that keeps on giving (you nightmares): envision a society in which there are not any emotions. No love, no hatred, to bliss, no jealousy, no aggravation. Excuse us while we spend the following day beneath our......Read More

Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen

Henrik Ibsen is sort of a big deal. Following William Shakespeare, he is the most frequently produced dramatist ever in history. A Norwegian playwright writing in the last half of the 19th century, Ibsen is known as "the father of modern drama." Because he wrote in a then new realist fashion -- covering everyday topics and ordinary folks -- he set the platform for many realist authors to come, among them the very famous Anton Chekhov. Ibsen demonstrated that with quite realistic settings,......Read More

East Of Eden John Steinbeck

He has written about mice and men, and a few wrathful grapes, however at his novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck sets his sights a bit high and takes on the Book of Genesis. That is right--our guy Steinbeck might have been writing in 1952 and based his story during that awkward time when the 19th century became the 20th, but his subject matter comes from manner further back. But even though Steinbeck stepped into religious territory, Easy of Eden is still chock full of all the classic Steinbeck......Read More

Related Topics