Charles Dickens was an influential English writer, the most famous novelist of the Victorian era. Born in 1812 in the city of Portsmouth, even without the opportunity to receive a formal education, he became one of the great writers of world literature. Great Expectations, a classic by Charles Dickens published in 1861, is a kind of political fairy tale about "dirty money," an exploration of memory and literature, and a disturbing portrait of identity instability. Shorter and written more quickly than the enormous social panoramas of the 1850s, Dickens is one of those writers every good reader should know, and Great Expectations is one of his literary successes. The work has been adapted several times for the screen and is part of the famous collection: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.