Summary
With Great Expectations, Charles Dickens applied his bravura storytelling abilities to a familiar subject for a novelist: a young person's coming of age. This classic novel presents the coming of age of Pip (Philip Pirrip), one of Dickens's most memorable characters, as he struggles to define himself and his place in a world populated by escaped convicts, cruel guardians, and the unforgettable Miss Havisham, the jilted bride trapped in the disappointments and regrets of the past. This new edition in the Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations series offers a selection of contemporary criticism of Dickens's powerful exploration of identity and self-actualization. An introductory essay by literary scholar Harold Bloom, a bibliography, a chronology of the author's life, and an index round out this new volume.
Specifications
Chronology. Bibliography. Index.
About the Author(s)
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. Educated at Cornell and Yale universities, he is the author of 30 books, including Shelley's Mythmaking (1959), The Visionary Company (1961), Blake's Apocalypse (1963), Yeats (1970), A Map of Misreading (1975), Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism (1982), The American Religion (1992), The Western Canon (1994), Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996), and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), a 1998 National Book Award finalist. The Anxiety of Influence (1973) sets forth Professor Bloom's provocative theory of the literary relationships between the great writers and their predecessors. His most recent books include How to Read and Why (2000), Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002), Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003), Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (2004), and Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005). In addition, he is the author of hundreds of articles, reviews, and editorial introductions. In 1999, Professor Bloom received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism. He has also received the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennial Prize of Denmark.