# Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

2 Hacker News commenters recommended Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a great novel, though most listed quotes describe a data-quality library with the same name, so the evidence for the book is thin.

## Why people recommend it

- Regarded as great novels (1 comments): "If they are not great novels, I don't know what are." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49379466))

## What people warn about

- Chapters padded with irrelevant material (1 comments): "about 60 chapters of irrelevant stuff because Dickens was paid weekly by the chapter" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46217283))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crime-and-punishment.md): 39 recommend
- [The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brothers-karamazov.md): 28 recommend
- [Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/infinite-jest.md): 26 recommend
- [The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://hackerapproved.com/p/great-gatsby.md): 24 recommend
- [Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atlas-shrugged.md): 23 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/140588035X?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781405880350) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Great Expectations by Charles Dickens", https://hackerapproved.com/p/great-expectations/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).