📝 Summary · Summary
Great Expectations Summary: Who Paid for What
Great Expectations summary as a money ledger: who paid Pip in each of the three stages, when he learns the truth, our own word counts, and which ending the text prints. Full spoilers.
Classic novel
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
Pip's rise from the forge to London, followed as a money ledger: who gave him what, when he learns the truth, and which ending the text prints.
★★★★☆ 4 / 5
A long, funny, bitter novel about a boy who is ashamed of the wrong people. The middle drags a little, but the reveal in chapter 39 and the money trail behind it reward a careful read. Four out of five (draft).
Great Expectations: summary
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
What is Great Expectations about?
Great Expectations is Dickens’s novel of Pip, a blacksmith’s apprentice who is told he will come into a fortune from an unnamed donor. We use the free Project Gutenberg text, ebook #1400, labelled the 1867 edition: 59 chapters in three stages.
Below is a summary built as a money ledger: who gives Pip what in each stage, when he learns the truth, the people who shape him, our own word counts, and which ending the Gutenberg text prints. Spoilers throughout.
Read it if
- You want a classic with a real mystery at its centre
- You like stories about class, shame and second chances
- You have it on a syllabus and want the money and the benefactor clear
Skip it if
- You want a quick modern pace: it is about 187,000 words
- Long Victorian sentences wear you out
- You want a clean romantic ending: the text leaves it open
Great Expectations review scorecard
Story
4.5
Characters
4.5
Language
3.5
Pace
3
Readability
3
Average3.7 / 5
Great Expectations: questions people ask
Is Great Expectations worth reading?
A long, funny, bitter novel about a boy who is ashamed of the wrong people. The middle drags a little, but the reveal in chapter 39 and the money trail behind it reward a careful read. Four out of five (draft). Read it if: you want a classic with a real mystery at its centre; you like stories about class, shame and second chances; you have it on a syllabus and want the money and the benefactor clear. Skip it if: you want a quick modern pace: it is about 187,000 words; long victorian sentences wear you out; you want a clean romantic ending: the text leaves it open.
Is there a summary of Great Expectations?
Great Expectations summary as a money ledger: who paid Pip in each of the three stages, when he learns the truth, our own word counts, and which ending the text prints. Full spoilers. Summary: Great Expectations →
What is Great Expectations about?
Pip, an orphan raised by his sister and her husband Joe, a blacksmith, is told by the lawyer Mr. Jaggers that he has great expectations from a secret donor. He moves to London, assumes the donor is Miss Havisham, and learns in chapter 39 that it is the convict he helped on the marshes as a boy. The money is lost, a debt lands him in trouble, and Joe pays it.
Who is Pip's benefactor in Great Expectations?
The convict Abel Magwitch, who uses the alias Provis. Pip learns it in chapter 39, the last chapter of the second stage. Magwitch says he made his money as a sheep-farmer abroad and sent it to Jaggers for Pip. The text does not name him until chapter 40.
How many chapters and stages does Great Expectations have?
In the Project Gutenberg text there are 59 chapters in three stages: chapters 1 to 19, chapters 20 to 39 and chapters 40 to 59. By our count each stage is close to 62,000 words.
How much money does Pip get?
The text gives these sums: a bank note for 500 pounds on his 21st birthday in chapter 36, then 500 pounds a year drawn as 125 pounds a quarter. It gives no figure for Magwitch's fortune. Pip pays about half of his first 500 pounds, around 250, for a secret partnership for his friend Herbert.
Who paid Pip's debt at the end?
Joe. In chapter 57 Pip is arrested for a jeweller's account of 123 pounds, 15 shillings and sixpence, and when he recovers he finds the receipt is in Joe's name.
Which ending does the Gutenberg text of Great Expectations print?
The revised ending: Pip meets Estella on the grounds of Satis House, and the last line says he saw no shadow of another parting from her. Two sources we checked (an edition note from the Cove Collective and a Victorian Web bibliography of studies on the changed endings) say Dickens first wrote a darker ending and changed it after advice from Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1861.
Which edition of Great Expectations is this summary based on?
Project Gutenberg ebook number 1400, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, whose file is labelled the 1867 edition. Every chapter number on this page follows its 59 chapters.
Related books explained
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: reviews, endings and guides
also by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: reviews, endings and guides
also by Charles Dickens
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: reviews, endings and guides
gothic romance classic (1847)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: reviews, endings and guides
classic family novel (project gutenberg ebook #37106)