Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens first serialized in All the Year Round, a weekly periodical, from December 1860 to August 1861. It is considered one of his greatest novels and was popular with Victorian readers. The story tells of Pip, an orphan who escapes his humble background and rises to wealth, prestige and power. He has been aided—and hindered—by a mysterious benefactor known as “Magwitch”, who later turns out to be Abel Magwitch from the novel’s first chapter. In other words, Magwitch is a disguised version of the older Pip (or Philip Pirrip), who shows up at Satis House and becomes a major character in his own right for the final third of the book.
It tells the story of Pip, an orphan boy who rises to wealth and falls into misfortune after meeting an escaped convict called Abel Magwitch (also known as Compeyson).
