Definition
The Thames River, flowing through London, as far upstream as Teddington, is a constant reference point and distinguishes this Dickens novel from those which had come earlier.
The Thames
The Thames River, flowing through London, as far upstream as Teddington, is a constant reference point and distinguishes this Dickens novel from those which had come earlier. Compeyson, first met with at Epsom races, lives below Teddington at Brentford, the Brent being a tributary of the Thames (Dickens 2003: 347, 348). Epsom, 13 miles out from the center of London, had been used for racing at least since the Restoration: its famous annual occasion, the Derby, had been painted by William Frith (1819–1909) between 1856 and 1858, as “Derby Day.” The picture embodies London life and seems to be the place where Compeyson first met Miss Havisham (181), as he certainly first met Magwitch there (347) – Magwitch has just been released from Kingston jail, another Thames location. There may be a...
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Tambling, J. (2018). Dickens, Great Expectations and the Thames. In: Tambling, J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62592-8_101-1
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