September 2023-May, 2024: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

September 24, October 22, November 26, January 28, February 25, March 24, April 28, and May 26 at 1:00-3:00 PM (Pacific) | Virtual Event

New this year, we will be devoting an entire year to one novel instead of two, and will dive deeply into Great Expectations. Join Dickens enthusiasts and Pickwick Club members for a series of discussions about this book.

Charles Dickens depicts how a gentleman is made, not born, in this novel. Presented as Pip's confessional autobiography, Great Expectations describes his childhood at the forge, his infatuation with the beautiful Estella, his shame at his working-class origin and his eagerness to be a gentleman, and eventually his life as a young man-about-town with "great expectations" of inheriting a fortune. Recalling these events as an adult, Mr. Pirrip is frank about his mistakes and shortcomings.

Reading Schedule

Great Expectations reading schedule

Sep 24	Beginning to Book 1, Chapter 9 with Wayne Batten
Oct 22	To Book 1, Chapter 17 with Wayne Batten
Nov 26	To Book 2, Chapter 4 with David Brownell
Dec 24	No Meeting	No Recording
Jan 28	To Book 2, Chapter 11 with Barbara Raney
Feb 25	To Book 2, Chapter 19 with Clark Cloyd
Mar 24	To Book 3, Chapter 5 with Catherine Springer
Apr 28	To Book 3, Chapter 14 with Wayne Batten
May 26	To End with John O. Jordan

Recommended Edition: We recommend the Penguin Classics edition of the novel for its appendices and notes, but other versions are fine. First-time readers should avoid the Introduction if they don't want spoilers. Download the novel to read at Gutenburg.org or to listen at LibriVox.org.

The Santa Cruz Pickwick (Book) Club, a branch of the Dickens Fellowship, is a community of local bookworms, students, and teachers who meet monthly to discuss a nineteenth-century novel. The Santa Cruz Public Libraries provide support for the reading group.