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Home , Elizabeth Dickens, John Dickens

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APPENDIX 1

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR

Charles Dickens is considered to be one of the greatest English novelists of the Victorian period. He was born on February 7th, 1812, at Landport, . He was the second child of and . John Dickens was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, but he subsequently became a newspaper reporter in . Young Dickens received a somewhat less education, was for a time a mere drudge in a blacking warehouse, and subsequently a clerk in an attorney’s office. Having perfected himself in shorthand, however, he became a newspaper critic and reporter, was engaged on the Mirror of Parliament and the True Sun, and in 1835 on the Morning Chronicle. (Robert, 1959, p. 56) In 1829 he met and soon fell in love with Maria Beadnell, but her parents found him socially inferior. Finally in April 1836, two months after the publication of , he married Catherine Hoghart. In early 1837, the first of ten children was born, and in May, Catherine’s sister Mary, who had lived with them since their marriage, died. (Hardy, 1870, p. 78) In other way, between 1837 and 1841, Dickens wrote four successful novels: , , , and . These novels added sentiment and melodrama to the humor of . In 1844, he reached a vast audience with his famous story, . (Mortimer, 1980, p. 35). In 1851, he became editor of the weekly serial , and in 1853, the novel came out. In 1859, superseded Household Words, and in the first number was begun. Great Expectation followed in the same paper, beginning December 1st, 1860 and completed in 1865. Great Expectation is often considered to be Dickens’s finest novel. He had thus completed fourteen full-length novels in less than thirty years. (Robert, 1967, p. 77)

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To this intense creative work, we must add his activity s journalist actor, public reader and philanthropist. In 1867, despite increasing ill health, Dickens traveled to America and gave public reading of his work. In 1870, after more readings in , he began to write The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was never completed. On June 9th, 1870 he collapsed and died at his home in Kent. His death was an occasion for national mourning, and he was buried among the great writers of the past in Westminster Abbey. (Mortimer, 1980, p. 86) He is the great novelist of childhood, whose demands and disappointments alienated his own children and also the great sentimental celebrant of domestic life. (Hardy, 1970, p. 25).

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APPENDIX 2 SYNOPSIS

Great Expectation is a story about a young men, his name is Pip (Phillip Pirrip), an orphan. He was lived with Georgiana his shrewish sister and her good husband, the blacksmith Joe Gragery. The story opens while Pip in the churchyard, he sudden by a convict who had escaped from the prison-ship. His name is Magwitch. He forced Pip to stealing a file to cut the shackle and some food for him. The next morning, Pip stole the supplies for the man, but that afternoon the convict was recaptured. Pip grew up with only such education as he got from the great-aunt of Mr. Wopsle, and her granddaughter Biddy. Shortly after this, Pip was invited to play at Satis House, home of the wealthy Miss Havisham. In that place he met Estella, a beautiful girl. When Pip was old enough, Miss Havisham pays Pip to become Joe’s apprentice. Pip knew that Biddy, was falling in love to him but Pip was in love with Estella. His life was changed when Mr. Jaggers, a London lawyer, told him that a mysterious benefactor had provided money to make him a gentleman with great expectation. Pip assumes that his benefactor was Miss Havisham. Finally, Pip moved to London and he made friend with Wemmick and Herbert Pocket. He studies hard in that place. After that Pip works as a clerk in London. He has experience to be a rich man, but it not stay along to him. Pip secretly arranged to by Herbert a partnership in shipping firm. After that, both of them have a lot of debt but Pip always tries to help Herbert. Although he is success to be a gentleman, he must loose Estella because she decided to married Drummle, a brutal man. At the end of the story, Pip knows that his mysterious benefactor is Magwitch. Pip did not want Magwitch money, because of that he cannot pay his debt. After eleven years working with Herbert’s firm, Pip comes home to England. In the ruined garden of Satis House he meets Estella, a woman that he loves very much. She is now a widow. This story end with Pip asks Estella to company him.

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