Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel; a bildungsroman which depicts the personal growth and personal development of an orphan nicknamed Pip. It is Dickens's second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens' most memorable scenes, including the opening in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is full of extreme imagery - poverty; prison ships and chains, and fights to the death - and has a colourful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. Great Expectations (popular both with readers and literary critics) has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.Upon its release, the novel received near universal acclaim, although Thomas Carlyle spoke disparagingly of "all that Pip's nonsense." Later, George Bernard Shaw praised the novel, as "All of one piece and consistently truthfull." During the serial publication, Dickens was pleased with public response to Great Expectations and its sales; when the plot first formed in his mind, he called it "a very fine, new and grotesque idea."Charles John Huffam Dickens , n� � Landport, pr�s de Portsmouth, dans le Hampshire, le 7 f�vrier 1812 et mort � Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, le 9 juin 1870 (� 58 ans), est consid�r� comme le plus grand romancier de l'�poque victorienne. D�s ses premiers �crits, il est devenu immens�ment c�l�bre, sa popularit� ne cessant de cro�tre au fil de ses publications.L'exp�rience marquante de son enfance, que certains consid�rent comme la clef de son g�nie, a �t�, peu avant l'incarc�ration de son p�re pour dettes � la Marshalsea, son embauche � douze ans chez Warren o� il a coll� des �tiquettes sur des pots de cirage pendant plus d'une ann�e. Bien qu'il soit retourn� presque trois ans � l'�cole, son �ducation est rest�e sommaire et sa grande culture est essentiellement due � ses efforts personnels.Il a fond� et publi� plusieurs hebdomadaires, compos� quinze romans majeurs, cinq livres de moindre envergure (novellas en anglais), des centaines de nouvelles et d'articles portant sur des sujets litt�raires ou de soci�t�. Sa passion pour le th��tre l'a pouss� � �crire et mettre en sc�ne des pi�ces, jouer la com�die et faire des lectures publiques de ses oeuvres qui, lors de tourn�es souvent harassantes, sont vite devenues extr�mement populaires en Grande-Bretagne et aux �tats-Unis.Charles Dickens a �t� un infatigable d�fenseur du droit des enfants, de l'�ducation pour tous, de la condition f�minine et de nombreuses autres causes, dont celle des prostitu�es.