<P> As the idea and Dickens's ambition grew, he began writing . However, in September, the weekly All the Year Round saw its sales fall, and its flagship publication, A Day's Ride by Charles Lever, lost favour with the public . Dickens "called a council of war", and believed that to save the situation, "the one thing to be done was for (him) to strike in ." The "very fine, new and grotesque idea" became the magazine's new support: weeklies, five hundred pages, just over one year (1860--1861), thirty - six episodes, starting 1 December . The magazine continued to publish Lever's novel until its completion on 23 March 1861, but it became secondary to Great Expectations . Immediately, sales resumed, and critics responded positively, as exemplified by The Times's praise: "Great Expectations is not, indeed, (Dickens's) best work, but it is to be ranked among his happiest ." </P> <P> Dickens, whose health was not the best, felt "The planning from week to week was unimaginably difficult" but persevered . He thought he had found "a good name", decided to use the first person "throughout", and thought the beginning was "excessively droll": "I have put a child and a good - natured foolish man, in relations that seem to me very funny ." Four weekly episodes were "ground off the wheel" in October 1860, and apart from one reference to the "bondage" of his heavy task, the months passed without the anguished cries that usually accompanied the writing of his novels . He did not even use the Number Plans or Mems; he only had a few notes on the characters' ages, the tide ranges for chapter 54, and the draft of an ending . In late December, Dickens wrote to Mary Boyle that "Great Expectations (is) a very great success and universally liked ." </P> <P> Dickens gave six readings from 14 March to 18 April 1861, and in May, Dickens took a few days' holiday in Dover . On the eve of his departure, he took some friends and family members for a trip by boat from Blackwall to Southend - on - Sea . Ostensibly for pleasure, the mini-cruise was actually a working session for Dickens to examine banks of the river in preparation for the chapter devoted to Magwitch's attempt to escape . Dickens then revised Herbert Pocket's appearance, no doubt, asserts Margaret Cardwell, to look more like his son Charley . On 11 June 1861, Dickens wrote to Macready that Great Expectations had been completed and on 15 June, asked the editor to prepare the novel for publication . </P> <P> Following comments by Edward Bulwer - Lytton that the ending was too sad, Dickens rewrote it prior to publication . The ending set aside by Dickens has Pip, still single, briefly see Estella in London; after becoming Bentley Drummle's widow, she has remarried . It appealed to Dickens due to its originality: "(the) winding up will be away from all such things as they conventionally go ." Dickens revised the ending for publication so that Pip meets Estella in the ruins of Satis House, she a widow and he single . His changes at the conclusion of the novel did not quite end either with the final weekly part or the first bound edition, because Dickens further changed the last sentence in the amended 1868 version from "I could see the shadow of no parting from her ." to "I saw no shadow of another parting from her". As Pip uses litotes, "no shadow of another parting", it is ambiguous whether Pip and Estella marry or Pip remains single . Angus Calder, writing for an edition in the Penguin English Library, believed the less definite phrasing of the amended 1868 version perhaps hinted at a buried meaning:'...at this happy moment, I did not see the shadow of our subsequent parting looming over us .' </P>

Who is the lady pip has never seen before