Great Expectations

Charles Dickens is universally regarded as one of the greatest novelists who ever wrote in the English language, if not any language, and Great Expectations is considered, along with Bleak House, to be his best. Many of the characters are typical Dickens: quick sketches with colorfully descriptive names, representing a particular position and/or attitude. Many are stereotypes, but this makes them no less effective in telling the story. The adult characters include Magwitch, the terrifying escaped criminal who sets Pip's adventures in motion, the insane Miss Havisham, the greedy Pumblechook, and the complex and contradictory Wemmick -- in other words, a credible cross-section of adult personalities.

Nineteenth-century literature, with its demanding vocabulary and old-fashioned assumptions and manners, is not everyone's cup of tea, and this includes young readers. But it continues, over a century later, to win new fans who fall in love with the book at a young age. Like all of the author's work, the story is fast-paced and picaresque.