Favorite Dickens Novel

Instead of maintaining a regular blog (which I'm probably not diligent enough to do), I'm going to post periodic "Favorites" that focus mainly on books, food, and culture.

I'm going to begin with my favorite Dickens novel: Great Expectations. I love the book's portraits of loneliness--Pip's yearnings; Magwitch's life of crime and injustice; Miss Havisham's rotted, almost-wedding banquet; Estella's terrifying beauty. Yet there are also raucous drunks, endearing eccentrics, and the sweet and dependable Joe Gargery. I talk with my students about how writers can create worlds through their fiction; nobody shows this better than Dickens.

Suggested editions: Norton and Oxford.