Pip has one of the guiltiest consciences in literature.

Close to closing chapter 8, our hero has one of the saddest, most miserable days of his short life, with many-many more to follow.

Falling in love is mainly a Western concept of moving from a feeling of neutrality towards a person to one of love. The use of the term “fall” implies that the process is in some way inevitable, uncontrollable, risky, irreversible, and that it puts the lover in a state of vulnerability, in the same way the word “fall” is used in the phrase “to fall ill” or “to fall into a trap”. The term is generally used to describe an (eventual) love that is strong.

“In the little world where children have their existence, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice.”

In Dickens’ time, and earlier, beer was drank to quench thirst, not water from a well. Tea and coffee were too expensive. Children were served a thin brew.

I was inspired by the way Dickens renders Miss Havisham on this page, as a spectral figure from the darkness that would turn to dust under sunlight.

Stella (star) is a name that became  immensely popular thanks to Great Expectations. There were hardly any references of that name before 1861.

In this page Pip discovers all the clocks in Satis house are intentionally stopped at 8:40 AM, the exact time when Miss Havisham’s heart broke.