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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.

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