Skip to main content

Where was Pip born?

The name of the town where Pip was born and spent his childhood and youth is not named, but it is modeled after Rochester, a large town in the county of Kent in southeastern England. Rochester, situated on the coast of the North Sea, was a significant place for Charles Dickens. He lived there and vacationed there often. Though it is on the coast, there are places where the town is separated from the water by marshes, such as those that play a significant role in the first chapters of Great Expectations. There was a real “Satis House” in Rochester, but there are parts of another house called Restoration House in the town that form a model for the home of Miss Havisham and Estella. It is about 30 miles from London, where Pip went to become a gentleman.


Pip’s parents had lived in this town for some time before Pip was born, as is evident from the graves of his siblings that he visited in the churchyard by the marshes. Pip’s sister, Mrs. Joe, has settled down in this town along with Joe Gargery, her husband. It is likely that she also is a native of the town.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more