Orlick

The One vs. the Many

Does a novel focus on one life or many? Alex Woloch uses this simple question to develop a powerful new theory of the realist novel, based on how narratives distribute limited attention among a crowded field of characters. His argument has important implications for both literary studies and narrative theory. Characterization has long been a troubled and neglected problem within literary theory. Through close readings of such novels as Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and Le Père Goriot, Woloch demonstrates that the representation of any character takes place within a shifting field of narrative attention and obscurity. Each individual--whether the central figure or a radically subordinated one--emerges as a character only through his or her distinct and contingent space within the narrative as a whole. The "character-space," as Woloch defines it, marks the dramatic interaction between an implied person and his or her delimited position within a narrative structure. The organization of, and clashes between, many character-spaces within a single narrative totality is essential to the novel's very achievement and concerns, striking at issues central to narrative poetics, the aesthetics of realism, and the dynamics of literary representation. Woloch's discussion of character-space allows for a different history of the novel and a new definition of characterization itself. By making the implied person indispensable to our understanding of literary form, this book offers a forward-looking avenue for contemporary narrative theory.

Dicks' standard plays

Great Expectations

I can't forget her...sometimes, thinking about everything I have to live up to, trying to be this new person, its too much. The only way I can make sense of it all is the thought that somewhere down the line, this new life might somehow bring us together. In this modern day re-imagining of Charles Dickens' classic story, Pip is a boy from a council estate with no money, and no hope for the future. His mother, widow Jo Gargery, is a police officer struggling to provide for herself and her son. Before long, Pip's life is changed forever after he meets mysterious fugitive Magwycz, the beautiful but troubled Estella and the fearsome, wounded Miss Havisham. Pip's whirlwind adventure takes him to the heights of big city success – and into more danger than he could have ever imagined. Catapulting Dickens' beloved characters into the 21st century, Tom Crowley's adaption captures all the humour, humanity and adventure of the original with its timeless themes of unrequited love, the divide between the rich and the poor, and what it means to be 'good'. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at The Old Red Lion Theatre, London in December 2017.