Recommended texts of Great Expectations
For those making specialist or dissertation study of the novel
Norton Critical Edition (1999). Edgar Rosenberg (ed.). Extensive background information, and detailed notes, with a witty and highly erudite introduction
For A-Level and first-year undergraduates
Everyman Library (1994). Robin Gilmour (ed.).
Penguin Classics (1999). David Trotter and Charlotte Mitchell (eds.).
Biographies
John Forster: The Life of Charles Dickens (Forgotten Books, 2009), A fine if tactful and partial biography by one of Dickens’s closest friends, first published shortly after Dickens’s death
Edgar Johnson: Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph (Abridged version, Allen Lane 1977). The classic biography, scrupulously researched, dating from 1952
Peter Ackroyd: Dickens (Abridged version, Vintage 2002). A shorter modern biography, offering no original research but extremely readable, astute and vivid
Critical collections
Philip Collins: Dickens: The Critical Heritage (Routledge, 1971). Assembles an interesting selection of early reviews of Great Expectations
John O. Jordan (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens (CUP, 2001). Includes valuable essays on Dickens’ language, structures, and attitudes to gender and the city, plus excellent bibliography
Stephen Wall (ed.): Charles Dickens: A Critical Anthology (Penguin, 1970). Extracts from several modern critiques of Great Expectations
General
Peter Brooks: Reading for the Plot (Clarendon Press, 1984). Contains a challenging and illuminating essay on the narrative structure of Great Expectations
John Butt and Kathleen Tillotson: Dickens at Work (Methuen, 1957). Fascinating exploration of Dickens’ manuscripts and writing habits
John Carey: The Violent Effigy (Faber, 1979). Controversial and suggestive essays on the darker side of Dickens’s imagination
Philip Collins Dickens and Crime (Macmillan, 1962)
Robin Gilmour: The Idea of the Gentleman in the Victorian Novel (Allen and Unwin 1981). One of the most sensitive treatments of Pip’s predicament
J Hillis Miller: Charles Dickens: The World of his Novels (Harvard UP, 1958)
F R and Q D Leavis: Dickens the Novelist (Pelican Books, 1972). Q D Leavis’ essay on Great Expectations is particularly rigorous and forceful
Ellen Moers: The Dandy (Secker and Warburg, 1960). Classic study of a cult of fashion which moulded Dickens’s idea of the gentleman
Grahame Smith Charles Dickens: A Literary Life (Macmillan,1996). An excellent account of Dickens’ career as man of the theatre, campaigner and journalist as well as novelist
Michael Slater: Dickens and Women (J M Dent, 1983)
Harry Stone: Dickens and the Invisible World (Macmillan, 1980). Strong on Dickens’ relationship to fairy tales and fantasy literature
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