Download or read book Critical Essays on Charles Dickens's Great Expectations written by Michael Cotsell and published by Macmillan Reference USA. This book was released on 1990 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary criticism of Dickens's famous novel is the focus of this collection, which examines how feminism, psychoanalysis and the new historicism can be applied to Great Expectations. Essays from the turn of the century are included to give a perspective on later criticism. Extracts from Dickens's memoirs and a piece by John Forster cover the novel's genesis. The introduction considers the themes that have recurred in criticism of the novel: the relation of the individual to society; the influence of history on the individual; and the complex psychology of the hero.