Summary: Jack Maggs is a novel that reimagines the story of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens from the perspective of Magwitch, the convict who becomes Pip’s benefactor. In this version, Magwitch is renamed Jack Maggs and returns to London in 1837 after making a fortune in Australia. He is looking for his son, Henry Phipps, who is the equivalent of Pip. However, Phipps has disappeared and Maggs takes a job as a footman in the house of a wealthy merchant, Percy Buckle.
There he meets Tobias Oates, a young writer who is based on Dickens himself. Oates becomes fascinated by Maggs and his past and makes a deal with him to help him find Phipps in exchange for using him as a source of inspiration for his next novel. The novel explores the themes of identity, colonialism, class, and literature as Maggs faces various obstacles and dangers in his quest to reunite with his son.
Review: Jack Maggs is a creative and ambitious novel that pays homage to Dickens while also offering a fresh and original perspective on his characters and themes. Carey skillfully recreates the atmosphere and language of Victorian London and Australia, while also adding his own flair and humor. The novel is full of twists and turns, suspense and surprises, as well as moments of tenderness and tragedy.
The characters are complex and compelling, especially Maggs, who is portrayed as a sympathetic and heroic figure despite his criminal background. Oates, on the other hand, is shown as a talented but flawed and selfish artist who exploits Maggs for his own gain. The novel also raises interesting questions about the nature and ethics of fiction writing, as well as the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Jack Maggs is a novel that both honors and challenges the legacy of Dickens, and offers a rich and rewarding reading experience
About The Author
Peter Carey was born in Australia in 1943.
He was educated at the local state school until the age of eleven and then became a boarder at Geelong Grammar School. He was a student there between 1954 and 1960 — after Rupert Murdoch had graduated and before Prince Charles arrived.
In 1961 he studied science for a single unsuccessful year at Monash University. He was then employed by an advertising agency where he began to receive his literary education, meeting Faulkner, Joyce, Kerouac and other writers he had previously been unaware of. He was nineteen.
For the next thirteen years he wrote fiction at night and weekends, working in many advertising agencies in Melbourne, London and Sydney.
