Excerpt from Great Expectations ON the first of December, 1860, Dickens began the publica tion, in all the Year Round, of his novel. Of Great Expectations, and closed it in the number of that weekly which appeared on the third of August, His first intention, as in the case of The Old Curiosity Shop, was to write a short sketch or story for the periodical he edited. Forster had suggested to him that he should try something in his old way, - something which would recall to the public his vouthful achievements in humorous scenes and characterize tions. Dickens replied. For a little piece I have been writ ing - or am writing - for I hope to finish it to-day - such a very fine, new, and grotesque idea has opened upon me, that I begin to doubt whether I had not better cancel the little paper, md reserve the notion for a new book. You shall judge as soon as I get it printed. But it so opens out before me, that I can see the whole of a serial revolving on it, in a most singu lar and comic manner. This grotesque idea was, doubtless, the relation established between Pip and Magwitch, which might easily have been narrated in a few charming pages, such as those in which he had disposed of the genus of many other romances, in the series of essays, sketches, and portraitures of life, which he was then writing under the general title of The Uncommercial Traveller. But the idea of an innocent boy, establishing unconsciously an immense influence over the mind of a hunted felon, simply by giving him that assistance which he dared not refuse, haunted Dickens's imagination until he gathered round it a whole new world of characters and. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.