If the video doesn’t load please try refreshing the page. If the problem persists make sure you have the latest version of the Flash player or watch the videos on our RecAPP iPhone and iPod application.

Great Expectations is part fairy-tale and part soap opera. Author Charles Dickens knew his audience, and his audience wanted both. So Dickens wrote Pip’s story in cliffhanger fashion, publishing chapters of Great Expectations as he wrote them, with killer plot twists to leave his readers begging for more. Give us 60 seconds and you’ll beg, too.

Video Transcription:

Once upon a time there was a boy named Pip. Now Pip was a prince in the making, but he didn’t know that yet.

Remember when things were simple? Remember when you got to read fairy tales instead of … this doorstop?

Back to the story … after this.

Anyway, poor Pip just sat around his rough little cottage on the marshes and got his ears boxed by his grumpy old sister.

Once in a while, something exciting would happen. Like when Pip stole some food for an escaped convict. But mostly Pip’s life was ordinary.

Then one day Pip was invited to meet a princess. She wasn’t a real princess, but she thought she was. Her name was Estella and she sure acted like a princess.

And Pip fell hopelessly in love.

But the princess was ensnared by a crazy old woman.

And Pip wasn’t a real prince yet, so what could he do?

Pip needed a knight in shining armor.

Enter the knight! (Don’t tell Pip that the knight used to be a convict.)

Like any good prince, Pip had to face his share of dragons before he could win the princess’s hand.

But, like any good prince, Pip triumphed in the end. He proved himself to be a man of character.

Does that mean he ended up with the princess?

Sorry—storytime’s over. You’ll have to keep watching to find out.