- Introduction to the plates
- Plate One [The gibbet on the marshes] 24 Nov. 1860, p. 740
- Plate Two: "You young dog!" said the man, licking his lips at me, "What fat cheeks you ha' got!"
- Plate Three: "Pip, old chap! You'll do yourself a mischief. It'll stick somewhere. You can't have chawed it, Pip.""
- Plate Four: "You're not a false imp? You brought no one with you?"
- Plate Five: "But he was down on the rank wet grass, filing at his iron like a madman." 1 Dec. 1860, p. 765
- Plate Six: "Oh, Un-cle Pum-ble-chook! This is kind!"
- Plate Seven [Three soldiers, carrying torches, are leading Magwitch, centre, away in chains.] 8 Dec. 1860, p. 773
- Plate Eight: "Then Joe began to hammer and clink, hammer and clink."
- Plate Nine: [Mrs. Joe roughly washes and dries Pip's face] 15 Dec. 1860, p. 789
- Plate Ten: "At such times as your sister is on the ram-page, Pip."
- Plate Eleven: "Who is it?" said the lady at the table. "Pip, Ma'am." 22 Dec. 1860, p. 804
- Plate Twelve: "Leave this lad to me, Ma'am; leave this lad to me." 29 Dec. 1860, p. 821
- Plate Thirteen: "It's a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!" 5 January 1861, p. 5
- Plate Fourteen: "Which I meantersay, Pip." 12 January 1861, p. 21. Note: The January 19 (i. e., ninth) instalment was not illustrated, and no instalment appeared in the January 26 issue of Harper's.
- Plate Fifteen [Pip and Biddy sitting on a bank in the Marshes]. 2 February 1861, p. 69
- Plate Sixteen: "Hulloa!" he growled; "Where are you two going?"" [Orlick, Pip, and Biddy] 2 February 1861, p. 69
- Plate Seventeen: [Scene: Saturday night at the Three Jolly Bargemen] 9 February 1861, p. 85
- Plate Eighteen: "Pip's a gentleman of fortune, then," said Joe, "and God bless him in it!" 9 February 1861, p. 85
- Plate Nineteen [Pip and Joe on the marshes] 16 February 1861, p. 101
- Plate Twenty: "And may I — May I —?" 16 February 1861, p. 101
- Plate Twenty-one: "You infernal scoundrel, how dare you tell me that?" 23 February 1861, p. 117
- Plate Twenty-two: "I hope your Mama is quite well?" 2 March 1861, p. 133
- Plate Twenty-three: "This chap murdered his master." 9 March 1861, p. 149
- Plate Twenty-four: "Molly, let them see both your wrists. Show them. Come!" 13 March 1861, p. 173
- Plate Twenty-five: "Pip, how are you, Pip?" 13 March 1861, p. 181
- Plate Twenty-six: We walked round the garden twice or thrice more, etc. 6 April 1861, p. 205
- Plate Twenty-seven: "Hold me! I'm so frightened!" 6 April 1861, p. 205
- Plate Twenty-eight: "If I say yes, may I kiss the cheek again?" 20 April 1861, p. 229
- Plate Twenty-nine: "Dear Joe, how are you?" 27 April 1861, p. 253
- Plate Thirty: The responsible duty of making the toast was delegated to the Aged. 27 April 1861, p. 269
- Plate Thirty-one: She carried a bare candle in her hand, etc. 4 May 1861, p. 286.
Note: The May 11, 18, and 25 (i. e., the twenty-fourth through twenty-sixth) instalments [covering Chapters 38 through 41] were not illustrated, perhaps because Harper's was providing extensive pictorial coverage of the Civil War, depicting camps, fortresses, and battles — e. g., Camp Curtin, Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a Rendezvous of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. — [Sketched by Jasper Green, Esq.] on page 301 takes up three of the four columns, the fourth being the start of Chapter 38 of Great Expectations. A Civil War scene also occupies the space that might otherwise have been devoted to McLenan illustrations on p. 318 [in Chapter 18].
- Plate Thirty-two: "All done, all gone!" 8 June 1861, p. 350
- Plate Thirty-three: "Look here," said Herbert. 15 June 1861, p. 366
- Plate Thirty-four: Let me sit listening as I would, with dread, etc. 11.5 cm wide by 12 cm high. 15 June 1861, p. 367
- Plate Thirty-five: I saw her running at me, shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her, etc. 22 June 1861, p. 398
- Plate Thirty-six: "Know him!" repeated the landlord. "Ever since he was no height at all." 29 June 1861, p. 414
- Plate Thirty-seven: He was taken on board, and instantly manacled at the wrists and ankles. 13 July 1861, p. 446
- Plate Thirty-eight: The placid look at the white ceiling came back, and passed away, and his head dropped quietly on his breast. 27 July 1861, p. 479
- Plate Thirty-nine: Joe now sat down to his great work, etc. 27 July 1861, p. 479
- Plate Forty: I saw the shadow of no parting from her. 3 August 1861, p. 494.
Other Artists’ Illustrations for Dickens's Great Expectations
- Edward Ardizzone (2 plates selected)
- H. M. Brock (8 lithographs)
- J. Clayton Clarke ("Kyd") (2 lithographs from watercolours)
- Felix O. C. Darley (4 photogravure plates)
- Sol Eytinge, Jr. (8 wood engravings)
- Marcus Stone (8 wood engravings)
- Frederic W. Pailthorpe (21 coloured lithographs)
- Harry Furniss (28 plates)
- Charles Green (10 lithographs)
Related Material
- Abel Magwitch: A Chronology of the Step-father Figure in Dickens's Great Expectations
- Front page of All the Year Round, Vol. IV, No. 84
- Fifteen Images of Magwitch
- A Comparison of Fraser's Illustrations in the original 1876 Household Edition plates and those in the Collier New York edition of 1900
- Great Expectations in Film and Television, 1917 to 2000
- Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations
- Bibliography of works relevant to illustrations of Great Expectations
Bibliography
Allingham, Philip V. "The Illustrations for Great Expectations in Harper's Weekly (1860-61) and in the Illustrated Library Edition (1862) — 'Reading by the Light of Illustration'." Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 40 (2009): 113-169.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Illustrated by John McLenan. [The First American Edition]. Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, Vols. IV: 740 through V: 495 (24 November 1860-3 August 1861).
______. Great Expectations. All the Year Round. Vols. IV and V. 1 December 1860 through 3 August 1861.
______. ("Boz."). Great Expectations. With thirty-four illustrations from original designs by John McLenan. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson (by agreement with Harper & Bros., New York), 1861.
Created 28 November 2006 Last updated 19 April 2026