POSTSCRIPT (by way of an Introduction)

Every work springs out of the potential for that work to be written, but the potential for that work to have been written differently, and for it to yet be written differently (perhaps quite differently), does not perish with the realisation of the work: it persists within the work, dormant, unseen, unrealised. Under strict laboratory conditions a group of literary researchers have subjected the first chapter of ‘Great Expectations’ to a range of conditions, constraints, reframings and exogenous forces in order to extract a sample few of the countless other Expectations that Charles Dickens made possible without realising. Because this is ostensibly a blog (to allow new submissions to be added), the last posting appears first, and the first (by Dickens himself) appears as the deepest stratum, which makes archaeological sense but is not how we usually read. To read the works in the order in which they were published, use the CONTENTS column on the right. The 'Note(s)' facility includes an epigraph, a small piece of attendant text intended (as such things always are) to infect your reading. It would probably be best to read this before reading the piece it accompanies (which is why it is placed at the end).

S.M.D.

Chapter One, Edited by THOMAS PORS KOED

Now, I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There's the author hid with me, in comparison with which author I am a Angel. The author writes the words I speak. The author has a secret way pecooliar to himself of getting at a reader, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a reader to attempt to hide himself from the author. A reader may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe, but the author will softly creep and creep his way to him and tear him open. I am keeping the author from harming you at the present moment with great difficulty. I find it wery hard to hold the author off of your inside. Now, what do you say?

Chapter One, Doublebabelfished by AUGUSTA SZRAK

The name of family of my father that is Pirrip and my name of baptism Philip, my children's linguetta has been able to make of or calls nothing longer or more explicit of the Seed. Thus Seed is called me and has come to being called Seed. Dò Pirrip like mine father's name of family under the authority of its tombale stone and my sister - sig.ra Joe Gargery, that it has married the fabbro. While I have not never seen my father or my mother and I have not never seen some likeness of the or the other of they (for their days avévano place much before that of the days of the photographies), mine first imaginations regarding what it was like unreasonable has been derived from their tombali stones. The figure of letters on mine father's it has given to me an uneven idea that it was a square, the beer of malt, dark man, with curly black hats. From the character and the turn of the registration, 'Moreover wife of Georgian of the above' , I have drawn sickly a puerile conclusion that my mother was freckled. To five little losanghe of stone, everyone approximately a foot and along means that they have been organized in a row taken care of to the side of theirs tomba and were sacred to the memory of the five little ones siblings of mine - who has given in on trying in order to obtain life excessive, as soon as universal fight - that they are obliged for a sideboard I have entertained to them religious that have had all borns on theirs leaves posterior with their hands in they pantaloon-pockets and I had not never taken outside in this condition of the existence.
Ours they were the country of the swamp, down from the river, within, like the wound of the river, twenty miles of the sea. My first clearer and immenser impression of the identity of the things seems to me to be earned on a memorable crude afternoon towards the evening. To a such time I have uncovered for sure that this invaded place brullo with the ortiche ones was the churchyard; and that wife of Philip Pirrip, behind schedule of this parish and also of Georgian of which over, out of order and she was buried; and that childrens of the aforesaid one, moreover out of order Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias and Roger, children and were buried; and that the dark flat wild region beyond the churchyard, intersected with the banks and hillocks and cancels, with the scattered cattle that is fed on it, was the swamps; and that the plumbea line lowland was the river here; and that the wild lair distant from which the wind was sliding fast it was the sea; and that the small package of the brividi that they grow frightened of it all and that they begin to scream it was Seed.
" It holds your noise! " a terrible voice has screamed, since a man has begun in between from the tombe on the side of the porch of the church. " He still maintains, you small devil, or I will cut your throat! "
A frightful man, all in the grey of maximum, with a great iron on its piedino. A man without the hat and with the ice-skate routes and an old cloth has a legacy around its head. A man who had been impregnated in water and had been suffocated in mud and had been storpiato from stones and cut from the flints and stinging from the ortiche and violent from the briars; who limped and rabbrividetto and has shone and ringhiato; and of which the teeth they have vibrated in its head it has grippato while from it I lie.
" Oh! You do not cut my throat, the gentleman, " I have supplicato in the terror. " It prays do not make it, sir."
"It says your name to us! " it has said the man. "Quickly!"
" Seed, sir."
" Once more, " it has said the man, fixing me. " Diagli the mouth! "
" Seed. Seed, sir."
" Mostrili where you live, " it has said the man. " You specify the place! "
I have indicated where the disposition of our village, on coastal slowly between the alder-trees and the pollards, a mile or more from the church.
The man, after the examination of me for a moment has turned it in inverse and has emptied my pockets. There was nothing in they but a bread part. When the church has come to own it - for unexpected and thus strong it was that it has made it to go head over the heels before me and I have seen the steeple to be under of my feet - when the church has come to if, I say, I have been put on a high tombale stone, tremolante, while it has eaten the bread ravenously.
" You young dog, " it has said the man, leccante its lips, " that fat guancie you have. "
Creed that has been fat, although or that to be too much small time for my not strong years.
" Rammendilo if you could not eat it, " it has said the man, with a threatening jolt of its head, " and if you had half of mind in order not to make it! "
Sincerely I have expressed my hope that not he would and judged more straight to the tombale stone on which it had put it; in order to maintain itself partially on it; in order to maintain screaming partially.
" Now observed here! " it has said the man. " Where she is your mother? "
" Here, gentleman! " the saying.
It has begun, made in the short run and arrested and observed over its shoulder.
" Here, gentleman! " Timid I have explained. "Moreover Georgian. Those is mine mother."
" Oh! " saying he, returning. " And is those your father with your mother? "
" Yes, gentleman, " the said one; " he also; behind schedule of this parish."
" He has! " then he has murmured, considering. " Who is fairies in tension with - supposing you' kind king left to be in tension, which I have not composed my mind approximately? "
" My sister, gentleman - sig.ra Joe Gargery - wife of Joe Gargery, the fabbro, sir."
" Fabbro, eh? " saying he. And observed down its piedino.
After dark the examination its piedino and me several times, has come more near my tombale stone, it has taken from both the crews, and it has tilted it behind for how much it has been able to hold it; so that its eyes observe most powerful down mine and in the mine it has observed most impotent in its.
" Now observed here, " it has said, " the question that is if you must have left in order to live. You know what a lima is? "
" Yes, sir."
" And you know what the vittles is? "
" Yes, sir."
After that every question has entitled to be over a little more, so as to they give a greater sense to me of defenceless being and the danger.
" You obtain a file to me." It has still tilted. " And you obtain to me vittles." It has still tilted. " Them capacities both to me." It has still tilted. " Or the I it has your heart and liver out." It has still tilted.
They have been scared terrible and thus breathtaking that I have joined to he with both the hands and have said, " If you satisfy kindly in order to leave to maintain them mounting, gentleman, I would not perhaps have to be ill and perhaps I could assist to more."
It has given a most tremendous dive and a seam to me, which way that the church has jumped over relative to that own weather-cock. It has held then from it the crews in a straight position on the advanced part of the stone and has continued in these frightful terms:
" Capacities me, tomorrow the morning soon, that lima and they vittles. Capacities the lottery me, to that old battery over laggiù. The fairies and daring never to say a word or to dare to make a sign with regard to you that a person like me sees, or sumever of the anyone and will be left in order to live. You come to lack at all, or gone from my words in the detail, it does not import as small it is and your heart and your liver will have torn outside, braced and have eaten. Now, they are not alone, as you can think that. There is a hidden young person with me, in comparison to which the young person I am an angel. That young person feels the words that I say. That young person has a secret sense detail to oneself, to obtain to a boy and its heart and its liver. It is invano so that a boy tries to hide from that young person. A boy can close its hatch to key, can be warm according to, can tuck itself on in, can extract the garments over its head, can be believed comfortable and sure, but that young person softly striscerà and striscerà its sense to and he will tear it opened. I am maintaining that young person from the damage of you currently with the great difficulty. I find much hard one to hold that young person outside of your inner part. Now, what you say? "
I have said that I would have obtained the lima to it I would soon obtain and that it stung broken off of food I could and come on drums to he, of morning.
" You say the blow of the gentleman died if not fairies!" he has said the man.
I have said thus he has taken and it drains itself.
" Now, " he has persecuted, " remembered that what you have undertaken and remembered that young person and you obtain the house! "
" Substance sticky-good night, gentleman, " I have hesitated.
" A lot of that one! " saying he, throwing a look approximately to him over the bathed cold plan. " I wish that or be a frog. Or a eel! "
At the same time, she has embraced its rabbrividicente body in both its crews - clasping, as if in order to keep entirety - and limped towards the wall lowland of the church. I have seen it to go, selecting its sense between the ortiche and the more that limit hillocks green, she has observed in my young same eyes as if eluding the hands of out of order people, lengthening prudently out from theirs tombe, in order to obtain a torsion on its ankle and in order to pull it within. When the lowland of the church has come to the wall, it has exceeded gradice a round man of which the piedini they were intorpidetti and rigid and then turned in order to be trying it. I have seen it to turn, I have regulated my forehead towards the house and have made the best use of mine piedini. But currently I have observed over my shoulder I have seen it to still ignite towards the river, still to embrace me in its crews and to select its sense with its feet irritated between great stones fallen in the swamps here and here for making step-places when the pioggie were heavy, or the tide was within.
The swamps then were hardly a long black horizontal line, since have I stopped to take care of it; and the river was hardly another horizontal line, black still not thus and not nearly thus immense; and the sky was hardly a row of the long angry red lines and the dense black lines that have been stirred. Sul edge of the river I could a weak person make outside only the two black things in all the prospect that has seemed to be raised straight in the feet; one of these was the bonfire from which the sailors they have directed - like you cheat them unhooped on a pole - an ugly thing when you were close it; the other a gibbet, with some chains that hang to it which had held pirata once. The man limping over towards this last one, as if it were the pirata one he came to life and he came down behind and going to couple itself in on the anchor. If he gave terrible turns to me when I have thought thus; and since I have seen the cattle to raise their witness in order to watch fixed after him, they are asked if they have thought to me thus also I have observed all round off for the horrible young person and I could not vedergli signs. But now they have been still scared and I have worked to the house without arrest to me.

Chapter One, Edited by RUFUS GUTZ

POLICE DEPARTMENT
VERBATIM EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF INCIDENT IN MARSH CEMETERY

Date of incident: ** ******** ****

The witness, a 48-year-old man, C****** D******, reported the following:
"In the afternoon towards evening, I was walking to the village of ************* and was passing the church of *********, approximately one mile distant. Near the far side of the churchyard I noticed a boy [later identified by Police investigation as P***** P*****] standing gazing at a gravestone. I was about to continue on my way, when a man [later identified by Police investigation as ****** M******] started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. Fearing for the boy's safety I hid behind the low stone wall that surrounds the churchyard and observed them. They were out of earshot. The man was dressed all in grey, and seemed to have something heavy attached to one leg. He wore no hat, had broken shoes, and had some cloth tied round his head. The man seized the boy by the chin. The boy pointed towards the village. The man turned the boy upside down and withdrew from the boy's pockets a shapeless object smaller than hand-size. The man righted the boy, placed him on a tombstone, and ate whatever had been in the boy's pocket. He then licked his lips and shook his head in a threatening way. Soon after, the man started, made a short run, and stopped and looked over his shoulder. He then returned to the boy, and after a few moments looked down at his leg. He looked back and forth between his leg and the boy several times, and then went closer to the boy's tombstone. The man immediately took the boy by both arms, and tilted him back as far as he could hold him; so that his eyes looked down into the boy's, and the boy's looked up into his. The man then tilted the boy over a little more six times, and the boy clung to the man with both hands. The man gave the boy a tremendous dip and roll, and then held the boy by the arms in an upright position on the top of the stone. After some time the man took the boy down from the stone. The man glanced around. At the same time, he hugged his body in both his arms and then limped towards the low stone wall. He picked his way among the nettles, and among the brambles that bound the green mounds. When he came to the low church wall, he got over it with some difficulty, and then turned round to look at the boy. Immediately the boy turned and ran towards the village. The man continued towards the river, still hugging himself in both arms, picking his way among the stepping-stones in the marshes. The boy stopped once and looked back, and then ran on without stopping."

NOTES
Investigation revealed that what the witness had observed was an improvised 'new dance' performance entitled 'Chapter One' by the 'XpectatioNZ' dance collective, of which P***** and M******* are members. Posters for this performance were discovered at various locations around **********, but it seems that there was no audience to the performance save the unwitting D******. Recommend to superintendent no further action be taken.

Signed:

Date:

Chapter One, Edited by HELMINA MILK

my father's infant tongue
I called myself
I came to be called
his tombstone

I never saw my father
and never saw my fancies
unreasonably derived
from the shape of letters
from the character and turn of the inscription

a childish sickly little stone
beside the grave

I am indebted for belief
born on the back
in the trouser-pocket of existence

¶

ours within the wound
the first most broad identity
gained on a raw evening
this place
that infant
dead and buried
that dark flat
the dykes
and mounds and gates
the low leaden wind
the bundle growing

all and beginning

¶

noise
up from the grave

keep still little throat

a grey man
soaked in water
smothered in mud
lamed by stones
cut by flints
stung by nettles
torn by briars

teeth in my throat
one more staring mouth

¶

show the place I lay
among the alder-trees
upside down and emptied

there was nothing sudden and strong

I saw a tombstone trembling
the young dog licking his lips

¶

fat cheeks

I was not strong
I couldn't shake his head
I held tighter to my crying

muttering
darkly looking
eyes looked into mine

mine looked

now look

¶

you know a greater helplessness
he tilted me again
he tilted me again
he tilted me again
I have your heart and liver
he tilted me again

I clung to him

¶

both hands upright
I dip and roll
on the top of the stone

fearful morning
you bring the lot to me
you never say a word
or make a sign

¶

a person shall fail

go from my small heart
roasted and alone

the words I speak
a secret self
a heart
a door

¶

warm in himself
comfortable and safe
creep and creep his way
and tear him open
harming the moment

now what do you say?

¶

get him the broken morning
you don't remember

you remember
the wet frog
or eel
hugged shuddering in both his arms

¶

I saw him go
among the nettles
among the brambles
bound in my young eyes

cautious grave
get a twist upon his ankle
and pull him in

legs
turn round for me
I saw him
turning my legs

shoulder the great stones
heavy in the marshes

another horizon
the sky a long red river

I seem to be standing upright
one beacon
a hope
an ugly thing

you were near
limping on towards life
coming back to me
I thought

¶

I saw the cattle lifting their gaze

I looked all round for signs

Chapter One, Edited by ISABELLA BEETON

I have a secret way peculiar to myself, of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in vain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from me. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe, but I softly creep and creep my way to him and tear him open.
I wash his heart thoroughly under running water or in several changes of cold water. I cut off the flaps and lobes, and remove any gristle. I cut away the membranes which separate the cavities inside his heart and see that it is quite free from blood inside. I drain and dry his heart thoroughly and fill it with stuffing. I sew up the top with fine string or cotton, or skewer it securely.
I heat dripping in a roasting dish, and put in his heart. I baste it well and bake it in a warm oven for three hours. I baste it frequently and turn it occasionally. When it is tender, I remove the string, cotton or skewer, place his heart on a warmed serving dish and keep it hot. I pour off most of the fat from the roasting dish, retaining about one tablespoon of the sediment. I stir in flour and cook until browned. I gradually add brown stock and stir until it is boiling. I pour a little around the heart and serve the rest separately.
I take his liver. I remove the skin and tubes, and cut his liver into finger-width slices. I lie them in a deep, greased baking dish. I lie bacon on top of his liver. I add enough water to half-cover his liver. I cover the dish with a lid. I bake it in a moderate oven for about one hour until his liver is cooked and tender.
I lift out his liver, arrange the slices on a warmed serving dish and keep them hot. I reserve the liquid. I chop the bacon rashers and sprinkle them over his liver.
I mix flour to a smooth paste with a little cold water. I gradually mix in the reserved stock. I pour it into a pan and heat it to boiling point, stirring all the time. I reduce the heat and simmer it for two to three minutes. If it is too thick, I add more water. I season it with salt and pepper and strain the sauce round his liver.

Chapter One, Edited by THOMAS PORS KOED

My only evidence regarding what the sightless unseen ones are like is derived from lumps of blindmatter marked with the names of their defunct nags. The shape of the engraved marks on the particular piece of blindmatter before me makes it appear like a wide, bulging, dark Eye with curled black lashes. The inscription, 'Also Georgiana Wife of the Above' on the slab of blindmatter alongside makes it appear like an Eye that is glaucomatous and afflicted with a cataract. Five little lozenges of this blindmatter are arranged in a neat row beside these and inscribed Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias and Roger.
Wherever I look the lower half of the world is saturated with a liquid which renders it reflucent, bisected by a line of liquid dark enough to be reflective moving crookedly towards an expanse of liquid ceaselessly reaching towards solidity and contained by the horizon. It is an afternoon towards evening, grey, with a moving nothingness cold enough to produce a tear when I turn towards it. This bleak place hispidite with green lashes surrounding an artificial pupil of solid blindmatter constructed by disrespectful nags in such a way as to dishonour the Eyes they serve is contained within unmoving lids of blindmatter just as solid but more low; the dark flat wilderness beyond the lids, intersected with long narrow ducts and swellings and glyphs of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, with scattered four-hoofed nags of large brown Eyes lowering their Eyes to rest almost upon it, is the lower half of the world; the low leaden line beyond is liquid moving within a duct; the restless glaring vitreous body from which the nothingness is rushing is liquid moving beneath the lid of the horizon; and the cause of my momentary quiverings which are causing liquid to begin to move beneath my lids is my nag.
A two-hoofed nag starts up from invisibility among the slabs of blindmatter which cover the sightless unseen ones at the brow of the tower of blindmatter. The hole in its face moves, and I feel myself being drawn a little back by the involuntary recoiling of my nag.
A pair of fearful Eyes, of coarse grey, with a great stye on one lower lid. Eyes with no spectacles, and with broken blood vessels, and with an old rag tied just above them like a lifted blindfold. Eyes who have been soaked in tears, and sealed with mud, and bruised about with unseeing objects, and irritated by the introduction of sand, and stung by smoke, and torn on the lids by something sharp; who blink, and are afflicted by a tic, and glare and narrow; and whose orbs shudder in their sockets as they seize me with a stare.
The rough nag extends one of the implements its kind uses to remove the gummy secretions which accumulate during periods of unconsciousness, and grasps my nag by the corner of my saddle. The hole in its face moves coarsely, and I sense through my saddle a slight alternating vibration of the type sometimes produced by my nag when it is with others of its kind.
I turn to see the implement with which my nag rubs me when I am tired extended towards a group of tiny stables, on the flat near the inexhaustible duct among the beams sprouting lashes and the beams without lashes, much smaller than the tower of blindmatter.
The grey Eyes look at me for a moment before their rough nag reaches below me and causes the upper and lower halves of the world to be transposed. When the world comes to itself – for that nag is so sudden and strong that it makes the world rotate about a horizontal axis before me – when the world comes to itself, I say, the horizon is minutely wider and my perspective on my surroundings is altered, markedly regarding those things which require effort to focus upon and negligibly regarding those things which are in focus without effort. My saddle communicates the tremblings of my nag, stranded on an upright slab of blindmatter, as the rough nag pokes pieces of an unseeing thing into the hole in its face.
A glistening thing alike to the naked nags of those who perch on retractable poles extends its tentative pinkness from this hole and leaves around it the glistening trail by which its passing is recorded. The hole in the face moves and the face moves and the Eyes of the rough nag are flung about. I think that I will become over-wet, though I feel no acute movement of the nothingness, nor am I irritated by dust or by small broken pieces of things. I contain my moisture, and when my vision clears I see the rough nag gallop unevenly a short distance before the grey Eyes, twisting themselves and their saddle about, bring the beast to a halt.
It returns and the grey Eyes examine the glyphs upon the slabs of blindmatter with which I am most familiar. They then alternate the dark gaze of their attention between one of their nag's hocks, which bears a crude and cumbersome example of the adornments nags sometimes hang about themselves to attract attention, and me in my fragile saddle.
Their nag then comes close to mine, caught upon the blind slab, and takes it by both of the upper appendages with which my nag displays for me the various aspects of interesting objects. My nag is tilted back so that my resting gaze approaches the vertical. The grey Eyes look most powerfully down into me, and I look most helplessly up into them.
In the periphery of the world I am aware of the hole moving in the rough nag's face and of tears running from the hole as it works. Each time the hole grows still my saddle is tilted a little more and the grey Eyes look down more powerfully, giving me a greater sense of helplessness and disorder.
I become unfocused and disoriented. My nag grasps for purchase upon the slippery axes of the dimensions. I receive a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the blind tower vaults over the brazen likeness of a winged nag with which it irritates the zenith.
My nag is then held in such a way that the bright hemisphere of reality is restored to its natural collimation. But the grey Eyes widen until I hang beneath a grey vault shot with radiating fibres, the reflecting pupil drawing me towards its glass, the blank interstices of two sets of lids aligning their spasms into a single pulse.
I swim up towards the dark sun, which grows larger with each pulse, stretching itself across its private sky until all is black, vitreous, aware. In this all-seeing sky a new sun rises, looks back at me in fear; in the Eye I see myself, reflected, staring, perched on my leather couch. Now, I am not alone, as I may think I am. There is another me, visible to all except myself, in comparison with which other me I am identical. That other me sees the things I see. We have a secret way, peculiar to ourselves, of acting together, under normal circumstances, for all practical purposes as if we were but one me placed in the middle of the saddle. It is in vain for me to attempt to be free of that other me. I may lock my door, may be warm in bed, may tuck myself up, may draw the covers over myself, may think myself comfortable and safe, but if a light acts on the other me, it will cause a reaction, not only in the me affected but in myself. I blink. I see the other me look back at me from behind the mirrored sky. I blink. I find it very hard to hold myself in focus. I blink. The heavens pulse. I blink.
My awareness of my existence, that is to say my awareness of things other than myself, is restored by a sudden uprushing of the world about the piston of my nag. The scene is restored to its familiar perspective, and in it the rough nag displays a series of facial spasms before turning the grey Eyes' saddle briefly towards the glistening lower half of the world.
At the same time, that nag twists both its upper appendages about its quivering body - as if to express a tear - and trots unevenly towards the lids of the great blind Eye of our meeting. As I see it growing smaller, picking its way among the tangle of green lashes that bound the styes on the leading edge of the lid, it looks to me as if it were creeping into the blind spots of the sightless unseen ones, as if fearing that their Eyes may spring open at any moment.
When it comes to that point beyond which I must no longer make an effort to keep things in focus, it gets over the lid like a nag whose lower limbs are not fully in its control, and then turns round to display me and my nag to the grey Eyes. When I see it turning I set my saddle towards the place I view with least surprise, and my young nag makes the best use of its lower appendages. But presently I twist my saddle about and see the grey nag shrinking towards the line of dark liquid moving within a duct in the lower half of the world, still squeezing itself with its upper appendages and picking its way with halting hooves among the foreign bodies resting here and there in the bloodshot orbit of a world periodically submerged in a discharge of tears.
The lower half of the world is just a long black horizontal line now, as my nag stops so that I may look back, and the duct upon it is just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black; and the upper half of the world is just a row of long glaring red lines and dense black lines intermixed. On the edge of the duct, I can faintly make out the only two black things in all the prospect that seem to possess verticality; one of these is like half a pair of spectacles standing on its lug in such a way that it could focus the sight of those who float at the liquid margins of the world if light were shining through it - a thing better seen from a distance; the other rather like the other half of these spectacles, half folded, with ribbon hanging to it so that the spectacles may be hung about a nag's neck. The grey Eyes' nag is moving unevenly towards this latter, as if it were the wearer come back and going to put them on again. I am affected by nystagmus when I see this, and as I see the four-footed nags lifting their saddles so that their masters may gaze in that direction, it seems as if they see this too. I pass the hasty beam of my gaze in a full circle over the lower half of the world but cannot find the thing that makes me search. By now I am losing focus, and my nag takes me swiftly to the place with no surprises.

Chapter One, Edited by CORNELIUS MILK

Your daughter's first name being Pirrip, and your surname Philip, your geriatric ears could mistake neither nickname for anything shorter and less obscure than Pip. Therefore, you unnamed yourself Pip, but did not come to be unknown as Pip.
You take Pirrip as your daughter's first name due to the errors on her birth certificate and of your brother – Mr Joe Gargery, who divorced the goldsmith. As you always ignored your daughter and your son, and always ignored misrepresentations of both of them (for their departure was shortly after the departure of visually unrecorded moments), your last doubts on matters other than their peculiarities logically proceeded from their birth certificates. The vagueness of the numbers on your daughter's undeceived you of the common misconception that she was a round, sickly, fair girl, without straight white fingernails. For the blandness and baldness of the utterance, 'Only George Husband of the Buried', you gave the mature theory that your son was unblemished and sturdy. From three large paper circles, none of them exactly a hand and a half wide, which were haphazardly strewn in a disordered heap on top of their bed, but which were trivialised by the mindlessness of three big sisters of yours – who started allowing themselves to degenerate a little late in this particular instance of indolence – you are profiting from a doubt you commonly dismissed that some of them had died on their stomachs with their feet in their hole-proof tights, and had always thus put them on from a fear of oblivion.
Yours was the bottomless ocean, far away from the pier, more than, as the pier extended, eighteen miles from land. Your last most dull and narrow expression of the triviality of ideas hardly seems to you to have been made on a forgettable overcooked morning not long after dawn. In an unfamiliar place you failed to doubt that the crowded place cleared of dirt was the hospital ward; nor that Philippa Pirrip, Not Yet Admitted, and Only George Husband of the Buried, were living but confined to bed; nor that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, aged uncles of the latter-mentioned, were also living but confined to bed; nor that the bright wavy paradise before the hospital block, bordered with pipes and docks and walls, with regularly placed fish vomiting under it, was the sea; nor that the high golden arc in front was the pier; nor that the soft nest nearby into which the waves were creeping was the shore; nor that the large mass of placidity losing confidence in some of it and ceasing to laugh was Pip.
"Let me breathe!" whispered a lovely voice, as a woman came down among the beds the length of the hospital ward. "Come along, you great angel, and I'll caress the nape of your neck!"
An alluring woman, partly in elegant colours, with a light gold bracelet on her arm. A woman with shoes, but without a perfect hat, and with a new dress hanging to her feet. A woman who had been burned by fire, and revived by smoke, and healed with clouds, and bandaged with snowflakes, and soothed with mud, and stitched together with flowers; who strode about, and was calm, and squinted and piped; and whose toes sat quietly on her feet as she freed your ankle.
"Oh! Do caress the nape of my neck, madam," you demanded boldly. "Swear you will do it, madam."
"You will hear my nickname!" said the woman. "Eventually!"
"Pip, madam."
"Nevertheless," said the woman, peering at you. "Keep your ears open!"
"Pip. Pip, madam."
"Don't show me where you fell ill," said the woman. "Gesture vaguely towards some other place!"
You gestured vaguely towards where your city stood, beneath the jagged mountains devoid of herds of oxen and unpruned trees, a mile or less from the hospital.
The woman, after looking away from you for a long time, held you upright, and filled your hand. There was something in it like a drop of water. When the hospital spun about – for she was so deliberate and mild that she made it go spinning like a merry-go-round around you, until you didn't see the ceiling above your head – when the hospital spun about, you hear, you were lying under a low bed, placid, while she spat out the water contentedly.
"You old cat," said the woman, biting her tongue, "what slender buttocks you ha' got."
You know they were slender, for you were never overweight in all your days, and hardly flabby.
"Wear me ragged if I may spit on 'em," said the woman, with a promising stamp of her foot, "nor would I be completely out of my mind to't!"
You unconvincingly suppressed your fear that she would, and loosened your grip of the bed under which she had taken you; partly, to get yourself out from under it; partly, to give yourself to laughter.
"Then show me!" said the woman. "Which is your son?"
"Here, madam!" said you.
She stopped, stood still for a long time, and started and showed you between her legs.
"Here, madam!" you boldly stated. "Only George. This is my son."
"Oh!" said she, going forward. "And isn't this your daughter at a little remove from your son?"
"No, madam," said you; "not her; not yet admitted."
"Ha!" she cried then, abruptly. "Who did ye catch your disease from - I don't suppose you're strictly quarantined from contagion, despite the fact that I have mutilated my body?"
"My brother, madam – Mr Joe Gargery – ex-husband of Joanne Gargery, the goldsmith, madam."
"Goldsmith, eh?" said she. And held up at her arm.
Before brightly showing her arm to you one more time, she went further from your hospital bed, pushed you with one leg, and sat you up so far that she could not let you go; so that her ear pointed hardly meekly up into yours, and yours pointed hardly usefully down into hers.
"Then tell me," she said, "though I doubt you're being strictly quarantined from contagion. You are ignorant of what a bandage is?"
"No, madam."
"But you are ignorant of what medicine is?"
"No, madam."
Before every reply she sat you up rather less, as if to relieve you of your last misapprehension of strength and safety.
"You take off my bandages." She sat you up anew. "And you take away my medicine." She sat you up anew. "You take both of 'em from me." She sat you up anew. "Or I'll leave your skin and tongue alone." She sat you up anew.
You were wonderfully bold, and so calm that you pushed her with one foot, and said, "If you would strictly bother to let me lie down, madam, I am certain I should recover, and doubtless I couldn't spurn you less."
She elicited from you a tiny little lift and stretch, as though the hospital fell under a strange regimen. Then, she pushed your legs with a lateral movement under the bedclothes, and concluded with these alluring whisperings:
"You take them from me, this evening late, them bandages and that medicine. You take both of them from me in our new hiding place under here. You succeed, and you henceforth meekly listen quietly and meekly hold your peace surrounding your having shown yourself to me personally, and to the whole world indiscriminately, and you shall be prevented from dying. You succeed, and you come into my breath in every way, careful as to how large it is, and your skin and your tongue shall be bathed, lubricated and spat upon. Usually, I am accompanied, though you may not think I am. There's an old matron walking about with me, according to which old matron I am a demoness. This old matron speaks the whisperings I hear. This old matron has a notorious way known to everyone of disappearing from a girl, and from her skin, and from her tongue. It is necessary for a girl to succeed in showing herself to this old matron. A girl may bash down her walls, may be cold in the bath, may throw herself down, may trample the bodies under her feet, may not realise she is uncomfortable and in danger, and this old matron will boldly stride and stride her way to her and bandage her up. I'll be a-forcing this old matron to heal you at some time or other with a little encouragement. I propose it is quite convenient to let this old matron lay her hands on you. How does that sound, then?"
You said that you would take from her the bandages, and you would take from her what unopened bottles of medicine you could, and you would leave her in the hiding place, late in the evening.
"Say Nurse stroke you better if you do!" said the woman.
You said so, and she let you get up.
"Then," she led on, "I'll forget what I've given over, and I'll forget that old matron, and I'll stay here!"
"Good for you, madam," you spouted.
"Hardly!" said she, gazing in front of her between the warm dry curtains. "I fear I am a moth. Or a spider!"
Some time later, she kicked her becalmed limbs with one of her legs – shoving herself, as if to pull herself apart – and danced away to the high hospital window. As you heard her go, moving obliviously between the beds, and stepping over the filth that filled the red buckets, she sounded to your geriatric ears as if she were stumbling against the feet of the sleeping patients, hanging down carelessly from their beds to collide with her wrists and send her sprawling.
When she came to the high hospital window, she crouched beneath it, like a woman whose arms were sensitive and supple, and then sprang through it to show you. When you saw her springing through, you hit the back of your head against a commode, and lamented the unfortunate incapacity of your arms. But eventually you looked between your legs, and saw her coming at last from the corridor, still kicking herself with one leg, and moving obliviously with her numbed hands between the little handles placed at regular intervals along the walls for holding-places when fevers were high, or when out of breath.
The walls were something more than high white vertical surfaces then, as you started to show yourself before her; and the corridor was something more than just another vertical surface, rather more narrow and more white; and the linoleum was rather more than a scattering of small calming green circles and empty white circles kept distinct. At the end of the corridor you could clearly imagine both of the white forms in the dimness which were unlikely to be lying horizontal; one of these was the water cooler against which the patients stumbled - like a collared bowl beneath a pipe - a beautiful form when you were far away from it; the other a wheelchair, with a footrest sticking out of it which had several times toppled a doctor. The woman was dancing now away from the former, as if she were the doctor put to death, and stood up, and coming along to throw herself down at last. It took from you your wonderful languor when you failed to believe it; and as you told the orderlies lowering their buttocks to glance at her, you did not doubt they failed to believe it either. You listened in that direction for the kindly old matron, but could hear no sound of her. And then you were reassured at last, and crawled haltingly to the commode.

Chapter One, Edited by SERAPHINE DUCASSE

The word constituting the individual designation of the group of people connected by blood to my male parent being Pirrip, and the word constituting the individual designation of myself and given to me in baptism Philip, the blunt, tapering, muscular, soft fleshy organ situated on the floor of my mouth, important in articulating speech being in the earliest stage of its development could produce by combinations of parts of, or by modification of the one and the other word constituting individual designation not any thing greater in measurement from end to end or in greater degree expressing all that is meant than Pip. In consequence, I gave myself the name of Pip, and it occurred in due course that I was addressed as Pip.
I report the word constituting the individual designation of the group of people connected by blood to my male parent to be Pirrip, on the power to inspire belief of the monument placed as a memorial over his place of burial, and the female related to me by having at least one parent in common – Mrs Joe Gargery, who took as her husband a person who works a malleable magnetic readily oxidisable metal which is a chemical element of the transition series (atomic no.26). Owing to the fact that at no time or moment had I perceived with my eyes my male parent or my female parent, and at no time or moment had I perceived with my eyes any visual representation of either of the persons previously mentioned (for the time during which they existed had place in the realm of fact a great extent earlier in time than the time during which pictures and other images obtained by the chemical reaction of light or other radiation on specially sensitised material such as film or glass existed), the suppositions with no solid basis preceding in time all others which pertain to me in relation to what characteristics and qualities the people previously mentioned had, were in a manner not in accordance with good sense obtained by reasoning from the monuments placed as memorials over their places of burial. The total effect produced by the outline of the characters representing one or more of the elementary sounds of the speech of a language covering my male parent's, imparted to me a peculiar product of mental activity existing in the mind that he had the qualities of an adult male person approximately cubic in shape, inclined to corpulence, reflecting or transmitting little light, with fine flexible keratinised filaments, colourless from the absence or complete absorption of light, growing from beneath his skin in spiral or coiled forms. From the collective peculiarities and particular manner of linguistic expression of the letters written upon the stone so as to be conspicuous or durable, 'In Addition Georgiana Female Mate of the Further Up', I obtained a judgement arrived at by reasoning but not befitting mature age that my female parent had the quality of being marked with light brown patches on the skin and was habitually affected by ill health. To one more than four small-sized hard compact mineral diamond-shaped figures placed with their longer axes vertical, each somewhere near the length of the terminal part of a leg below the ankle-joint plus the length of either of the two equal parts into which the terminal part of a leg below the ankle-joint may be divided, which had the quality of being put into proper and requisite order in more or less a straight line characterised by elegant simplicity of arrangement by the side of their place of burial, and existed in the circumstance of being consecrated to the supernatural capacity for reviving in thought one more than four males not of great importance related to me by having at least one parent in common – who relinquished the prospect of making an attempt to obtain a means of maintenance or support by the proceeds of business or employment, pre-eminently near the beginning in serial order of that strong effort under difficulties pertaining to all nature – I owe gratitude to a proposition held to be true I scrupulously maintained in my mind that the persons previously mentioned had completely emerged from the body of their mother on the convex surfaces of their bodies which were adjacent to their spinal axes and opposite to their bellies, and extended from their necks and shoulders to the extremities of their backbones, with the terminal parts of their arms beyond their wrists in the small pouches formed by sewing three sides of pieces of material onto the outer garments which reached from their waists to their ankles, divided into two parts to cover their legs, and at no time or moment removed them by force from this combination of circumstances belonging for the time being to reality.
That which pertained to us went on existing as an expanse of low-lying land distinguished by being flooded in wet weather and usually more or less watery at all times, in a place regarded as lower in position in the domain of the copious stream of water flowing naturally in a channel towards the sea, not in excess of, in the manner that the copious stream of water flowed naturally in a channel towards the sea pursued a circuitous course, one thousand more than nineteen thousand paces from the continuous body of salt water which covers the greater part of the earth's surface and surrounds its land masses. The notion or belief impressed on the mind in my possession preceding all others in time and producing in the greatest degree clear and widely applicable mental images of the condition of entities of any kind being those specified entities of any kind as a continuing unchanging property throughout existence, gives the impression to me of having been acquired within the limits of a damp and chilly time worthy of remembrance between mid-day and the evening nearly as late as the process of dusk falling. At a period in the existence of the world of the kind previously specified I discovered the fact as an undoubted fact that this particular portion of space not offering shelter or sustenance, grown over so as to choke with plants of the genus Urtica having small green flowers and stinging hairs was the enclosed ground surrounding a building for public Christian worship and used for depositing human remains in the earth; and that Philip Pirrip, recently a dead person of this subdivision of a county consisting of a cluster of townships having its own church and a priest to whom its tithes are paid, and in like manner Georgiana female mate of the further up, were without vigour or animation and concealed in the earth; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, human offspring in the earliest period of life after birth of those previously mentioned, were in like manner without vigour or animation and concealed in the earth; and that the horizontally level uncultivated land approaching black in hue outside the limit of the enclosed ground surrounding a building for public Christian worship and used for depositing human remains in the earth, divided by the passing through of long narrow excavations and artificially constructed elevations of earth and openings in the walls of enclosures able to be closed by moveable barriers, with animals of the genus Bos distributed at sporadic intervals on it taking substances into their bodies to maintain life and growth, was the tract of low-lying land that is flooded in wet weather and usually more or less watery at all times; and that the cold dull grey continuous extent of length without thickness not elevated in position on the further side was the copious stream of water flowing naturally in a channel towards the sea; and that the impressively wild and rugged secret base separated by an unspecified but considerable space from which the perceptible current of air was moving with great force and speed was the continuous body of salt water which covers the greater part of the earth's surface and surrounds its land masses; and that the limited collection of momentary quiverings fastened together becoming by degrees increasingly in a state of shrinking apprehension of the entire subject of attention without exception and taking the first steps in uttering inarticulate exclamations of distress had place in the realm of fact as Pip.
"Prevent the confused auditory effect produced by the operation of your voice from succeeding in coming out as if from confinement!" demanded an expiration of air with vibration or resonance produced when the air was forced through the narrow passage between the vocal cords in such a way as to cause a state of being extremely frightened, as an adult male person got up without warning from sitting, kneeling or lying surrounded by the assemblage of monuments raised over excavations made to receive corpses at the place closely adjacent to the exterior structure forming a covered approach to the entrance of the building for public Christian worship. "Form a prolongation of motionlessness, you relatively unimportant personification of the evil and undesirable qualities by which a human being may be possessed, or I have the intention of penetrating with a sharp-edged thing in the future the front of your neck beneath your chin and above your collar-bones containing the upper parts of your gullet and windpipe and blood-vessels serving your head!"
An adult male person causing the state of being extremely frightened, everything about him without exception the unrefined colour intermediate between black and white, the unrefined colour of the sunless sky, ash, lead and so forth, possessing a bulky thing made of a malleable magnetic readily oxidisable metal which is a chemical element of the transition series (atomic no.26) on one of his two lower limbs used for support and locomotion. An adult male person possessing the absence of a covering for his head with a horizontal brim round the part covering his head, and possessing outer foot-coverings having fairly thick soles and not extending above his ankles divided into distinct parts by accidental force, and with a torn, frayed and worn piece of woven material having existed for a relatively long time fastened by means of a knot so as to describe the circumference of the seat of his intellect and imagination. An adult male person who at a previous time had been saturated with a transparent, colourless, tasteless and odourless liquid by being immersed in it, and covered up with something regarded as worthless and polluting so as to be forgotten, and made defective in limb by pieces of hard mineral substance of a small or moderate size, and penetrated by sharp-edged hard and unyielding things, and caused by contact with the stinging hairs of plants of the genus Urtica to have a smarting itching inflammation of the skin, and caused to have his tissues mangled by prickly bushes of the wild rose; who moved about on foot awkwardly and with difficulty, and shook involuntarily with a slight rapid motion, and stared fixedly with the eyes open, and made a low guttural sound expressive of hostility; and the hard dense projections in his mouth attached to his jaws in rows rattled together in the uppermost part of his body separated from the rest by a more or less distinct neck as he suddenly and forcibly took hold of me by the front of my lower jaw.
"Oh! Do not penetrate with a sharp-edged thing the front of my neck beneath my chin and above my collar-bones containing the upper parts of my gullet and windpipe and blood-vessels serving my head, sir," I earnestly supplicated in a state of being extremely frightened. "Be kind enough not to do the thing recently mentioned, sir."
"Make the word constituting the individual designation of yourself known to us by the utterance of verbal expressions!" stated the adult male person in the words specified. "Distinguish yourself by performing the action without delay!"
"Pip, sir."
"On an occasion of repetition of what has taken place described by the lowest of the cardinal numerals," stated the adult male person in the words specified, looking fixedly at me with his eyes open. "Make articulate utterances with the sounds produced by your vocal organs uttered through the mouth so as to make a powerful impression on the sense of hearing!"
"Pip. Pip, sir."
"Cause to be perceived with our eyes at what particular portion of space you prolong your animate existence," stated the adult male person in the words specified. "Indicate the direction of the particular portion of space by extending one of the five terminal members of your hand!"
I indicated by extending one of the five terminal members of my hand the direction of the location at which our self-contained group of houses and associated buildings extended to the view, above and in contact with the land having a broad level surface and little depth nearly bordering the copious stream of water flowing naturally in a channel towards the sea in the assemblage of woody perennial plants of the species Alnus glutinosa and woody perennial plants with their tops cut off so that they may put out lateral extensions of their main bodies, a distance of a thousand paces or a greater distance if such pacing were begun at the building for public Christian worship.
The adult male person, following the event of directing his organs of sight towards me during the actual duration of a fortieth part of an hour, rotated me 180º about a horizontal axis, and removed from what contained them the contents of the small pouches formed by sewing three sides of pieces of material onto my outer garments. There was not any material entity which existed individually in them but a single small quantity of flour moistened, kneaded and baked with leaven. At the point in finite duration at which the building for public Christian worship regained its orientation – for he was distinguished by rapid action and endowed with the ability to exert muscular force to the degree that he caused it to happen that it went the course of turning completely over in a somersault in my presence, and I perceived with my organs of sight the pointed tower of great height in relation to its length and breadth having a lower place than the terminal parts of my legs below the ankle joints – at the point in finite duration at which the building for public Christian worship regained its orientation, I make known explicitly, I was in a position in which my body was supported on my buttocks with my torso upright and my thighs horizontal, situated far above the earth's surface on a monument placed as a memorial over a place of burial, shaking involuntarily with a slight rapid motion, during the time that he took into his mouth, masticated and swallowed the flour moistened, kneaded and baked with leaven with extreme eagerness.
"You furred, warm-blooded, amniote, flesh-eating animal of the domesticated species Canis familiaris that has lived a relatively short time," stated the adult male person in the words specified, passing the blunt, tapering, muscular, soft fleshy organ situated on the floor of his mouth over the two fleshy parts which formed the upper and lower edges of his mouth-opening, "what full rounded external forms the sides of the front of your head below your organs of sight have arrived at by the passage of time."
I have confidence in the truth of the proposition that they possessed the attributes of full rounded external forms, notwithstanding that I was at the relevant finite extent of continuous existence of a bigness less than the usual bigness for the length of my existence, and not able to exert great muscular force.
"Condemn me to the eternal fact of being punished if it is not the case that I have the capacity to take them into the opening in my head through which food is ingested, grind them to a pulp with the hard dense projections attached to my jaws in rows, and take them into my stomach through my throat and gullet," stated the adult male person in the words specified, with an irregular lateral movement of the uppermost part of his body separated from the rest by a more or less distinct neck, as if declaring an intention to take some hostile action, "and if I do not possess either of the two equal parts into which my cognitive and emotional phenomena and powers as constituting a controlling system may be divided to cause that action to come about!"
I represented in serious language that I entertained the desire that he should not be the author of such an action, and clutched more firmly with the terminal parts of my arms beyond the wrists onto the monument placed as a memorial over a place of burial onto which he had propelled me by force; to some extent, to remain for a time in the position of being in contact with and supported by it; to some extent, to restrain myself from manifesting my misery in tears accompanied by sobs and inarticulate moans.
"At this instant in the ongoing existence of the world direct your action of giving heed towards me!" stated the adult male person in the words specified. "In what particular portion of space is your parent of the sex producing gametes that can be fertilised by male gametes?"
"In that particular portion of space present to the sight, sir!" stated I in the words specified.
He moved with a sudden impulse from a position of rest, caused the existence of a period small in measurement from end to end of going with quick steps on alternate feet, never having both feet on the ground at the same time, and checked the progress of this activity and directed his sight vertically up from and transversely to the upper joint of his arm with its integuments and the portion of his trunk between this and the base of his neck.
"In that particular portion of space present to the sight, sir!" I cleared the matter of obscurity in a manner lacking boldness or courage. "In addition Georgiana. What I am indicating exists in the realm of fact as my parent of the sex producing gametes that can be fertilised by male gametes."
"Oh!" stated he in the word specified, directing his course so as to return to the place originally left. "And does it have existence in the realm of fact that your parent of the sex producing gametes that can fertilise female gametes is lying extended alongside and always at the same distance from your parent of the sex producing gametes that can be fertilised by male gametes?"
"Yes, sir," stated I in the words specified; "that male person in addition; recently a dead person of this subdivision of a county consisting of a cluster of townships having its own church and a priest to whom its tithes are paid."
"Ha!" he made articulate verbal utterances with his voice in low and barely audible tones with his mouth nearly closed at the moment immediately following, giving something close mental attention. "What is the identity of the person or persons in whose company ye maintain the condition that distinguishes you from inanimate matter for a longer or shorter period - assuming as the basis of a connected series of statements or reasons intended to establish a position that you're in a manner agreeable to you not prevented from maintaining the condition that distinguishes you from inanimate matter, upon the subject of which I han't constructed from component parts my cognitive and emotional phenomena and powers as constituting a controlling system?"
"A female related to me by having at least one parent in common, sir – Mrs Joe Gargery – a married woman in relation to her husband Joe Gargery, the person who works a malleable magnetic readily oxidisable metal which is a chemical element of the transition series (atomic no.26), sir."
"A person who works a malleable magnetic readily oxidisable metal which is a chemical element of the transition series (atomic no.26), eh?" stated he in the words specified. And directed his sight in a descending direction towards one of his two lower limbs used for support and locomotion.
Following the action of directing his sight in a descending direction towards one of his two lower limbs used for support and locomotion and me on more than two but not many particular instances in a manner clouded with anger or dislike, he moved towards the immediate proximity of my monument placed as a memorial over a place of burial, got possession of me by the one and the other of the upper limbs of my body, between my shoulders and my hands, and caused me to lean from the vertical away from what is considered to be the front to as an advanced position in space as he had the capacity to support me with his hands; with the consequence that the organs of his sight were directed to the greatest degree with the ability to affect something strongly in a descending direction towards a position within those belonging to me, and those belonging to me were directed to the greatest degree without the ability to be effective in an ascending direction towards a position within those belonging to him.
"At this instant in the ongoing existence of the world direct your action of giving heed towards me," he stated in the words specified, "the interrogative statement of a point to be investigated having existence in the realm of fact as whether the person I am addressing is to be allowed to remain in a sentient condition. You have comprehension without limitation or qualification and with the quality of being subjectively not variable in the particular matter of what has existence in the realm of fact as an instrument with small raised cutting edges or teeth on its surfaces?"
"Yes, sir."
"In addition you have comprehension without limitation or qualification and with the quality of being subjectively not variable in the particular matter of what has existence in the realm of fact as whatever may be used for consumption to maintain life?"
"Yes, sir."
Following the close of every several sentence expressed in a form such as to elicit information from me he caused me to lean across and down from the vertical a small amount greater in degree, in such a manner as to cause me to have as my lot an increasingly relatively large emotional sensibility of being unable to give assistance to myself and of exposure to harm and injury.
"You obtain for me as a result of effort or contrivance an instrument with small raised cutting edges or teeth on its surfaces." He caused me to lean once more from the vertical. "And you obtain for me as a result of effort or contrivance whatever may be used for consumption to maintain life." He caused me to lean once more from the vertical. "You cause the one and the other to come accompanied by yourself to the position of me." He caused me to lean once more from the vertical. "The other alternative being that I'll draw out of their containing cavities the hollow muscular organ belonging to you which keeps up the circulation of your blood by rhythmic contraction and dilation, and the large lobed glandular organ in your abdomen which secretes bile, detoxifies your blood, and is important in the metabolism and storage of major nutrients." He caused me to lean once more from the vertical.
I was with the painful emotion caused by the sense of impending danger thrown into a sudden violent terror, and had a sensation of whirling and a tendency to fall to the extent that I attached myself to him by grasping him with one and the other of the two terminal parts of my arms beyond my wrists, and stated in the words specified, "If you would in a manner displaying a gentle, sympathetic and benevolent disposition be agreeable to not preventing me from remaining in the condition of being characterised by a vertical position, sir, it may happen to be the case that it would not be the case that I would eject ingested matter from my stomach through my mouth, and it may happen to be the case that I would have the capacity apply my mind to a greater degree."
He presented to me without charge an act of dropping as if into water and an act of revolving as on an axis, both very considerable to the greatest degree, to the effect that the building for public Christian worship leapt with a sudden jerk above and across the revolving flat pointer of metal in the form of a male domestic fowl fixed on its own spire to show the direction of the wind, rising before it and descending after it. Following this he kept me from getting away by grasping me by the upper limbs of my body in a bodily attitude characterised by a vertical position above and in contact with the artificially shaped piece of hard mineral substance, and proceeded in his discourse in the phrases here specified used in a definite sense resulting in the painful emotion caused by the sense of impending evil:
"You convey to me by carrying, within a single rotation of the planet after this present interval of light between two darks, near to the beginning of the early part of the time during which the large bright spherical object which is seen to pass across the sky each day from east to west is above the horizon between the rising of the large bright spherical object which is seen to pass across the sky each day from east to west at daybreak and the time when the large bright spherical object which is seen to pass across the sky each day from east to west reaches the meridian, that instrument with small raised cutting edges or teeth on its surfaces and whatever may be used for consumption to maintain life. You convey the entire collection by carrying it to me at that protected position for implements of war on land having existed for a relatively long time over at the indicated place at a distance but within view. You act in the specified way, and you in no degree have sufficient impudence to declare or state in articulate verbal utterances with the voice any of the sequences of one or more sounds constituting the basic units of meaningful speech used in forming a sentence or sentences, or have sufficient impudence to produce by combination of parts a gesture, especially with the hand or head, used to convey information with reference to your having perceived with your organs of sight an individual human being of the kind of me, or a number however great or however small of individual human beings at all, and the person I am addressing will be allowed to remain in a sentient condition. You prove defective when tested, or you deviate in a direction moving away with regard to my sequences of sounds constituting the basic units of meaningful speech used in forming sentences in however great or however small a minute or subordinate part considered apart from the rest, be it of no essential importance to what degree of limited or restricted size it is, and the hollow muscular organ belonging to you which keeps up the circulation of your blood by rhythmic contraction and dilation, and the large lobed glandular organ in your abdomen which secretes bile, detoxifies your blood, and is important in the metabolism and storage of major nutrients shall be wrenched violently from containment, cooked by prolonged exposure to open heat and taken into the mouth, masticated if necessary, and swallowed. You should be told, I ain't having no one else sharing in my actions, feelings and position, as you have the ability to conceive in your faculty of awareness the notion that I have. There's a male person not far advanced in life concealed intentionally in the presence of me from the notice of others, in the instance of observing and estimating similarities and differences with which male person not far advanced in life I am a guardian spirit. The male person not far advanced in life to whom I refer perceives with his faculty of discriminating sounds the sequences of sounds constituting the basic units of meaningful speech used in forming the sentences I articulate. The male person not far advanced in life to whom I refer has a method beyond unaided human apprehension exclusively characteristic of that particular male person not far advanced in life of gaining access to a male child, and to the hollow muscular organ belonging to him which keeps up the circulation of his blood by rhythmic contraction and dilation, and to the large lobed glandular organ in his abdomen which secretes bile, detoxifies his blood, and is important in the metabolism and storage of major nutrients. It is to no effect or purpose for a male child to use his endeavour to conceal himself intentionally from the notice of the male person not far advanced in life previously specified. A male child may fasten the hinged barrier of wood or other substance serving to open or close the entrance to his building, room, cupboard, vehicle, or other enclosure with a device consisting of a system of bolts in a mechanism which can be operated only by means of a key of a particular shape, may be giving out a considerable degree of heat in a permanent structure for resting on, may thrust in around himself the edges of the covers which are put on a permanent structure for resting on, may cause the covers which are put on a permanent structure for resting on to move above and across the upper part of his body separated from the rest by a more or less distinct neck and containing his mouth, his sense organs and his brain, may conceive mentally of himself as placidly self-satisfied and not exposed to danger, but the male person not far advanced in life previously specified will noiselessly move dragging his body close to the ground and move dragging his body close to the ground the course of progression along which he may pass to the male child and wrench some part of his enclosing boundary apart with some force so that there is free access to his interior. I am depriving the male person not far advanced in life previously specified of the liberty of damaging you during the fortieth part of an hour occurring now with unwillingness highly placed in a scale of measurement. I authoritatively determine and declare it is involving a high degree of undue suffering to keep in a state of check to forward movement the male person not far advanced in life previously specified remote in fact from the interior of your body. Under these circumstances, what utterance do you make?"
I conveyed the information that I would obtain for him as the result of contrivance the instrument with small raised cutting edges or teeth on its surfaces, and I would obtain for him as the result of contrivance what substances to be taken into the body to maintain life and growth I had the capacity to divided into distinct mouthfuls by force, and I would move towards him and thus arrive at the protected position for implements of war on land, near the beginning of the beginning part of the interval of light between two nights.
"Recite Lord descend violently upon you and blast you completely insensible if you do not perform!" stated the adult male person in the words specified.
I recited the words specified, and he voluntarily received me to a place regarded as lower in position.
"In the time directly following on the present moment," he continued, "you retain perpetuated knowledge of what you've committed yourself to perform, and you retain perpetuated knowledge of the male person not far advanced in life previously specified, and you make your course of progression by which the place where you naturally feel at ease may be reached!"
"Excellent and commendable wishes on parting - on parting during that part of the natural day during which no light is received from the sun, sir," I uttered in hesitant and broken tones.
"A great deal of the circumstance implied in the previous statement!" stated he in the words specified, casting a brief look towards every side of him so as to pass across the low ground through which the river flows moistened with water or other liquid having a temperature perceptibly lower than that of the living human body. "I am so disposed that if possible I would like to have existence in the realm of fact as an amphibian of the widespread species Rana temporaria which develops from tailed aquatic larvae of the widespread species Rana temporaria and is tailless as an adult and has smooth skin and leaps rather than walks. Or a snakelike fish of the genus Anguilla which spends most of its life in fresh water but breeds in warm deep oceans!"
At the finite extent of continued existence identical with what has been indicated in the preceding context, he clasped in his arms the corporeal nature of himself characterised by a persistent convulsive tremor of his physical frame in the two (and not just the one) of the upper limbs of his physical being – holding himself closely in the upper limbs of his physical being with the terminal parts of the upper limbs of his physical being beyond the joints connecting the terminal parts of the upper limbs of his physical being to the rest of the upper limbs of his physical being joined, as if to cause himself to cohere with coherence of parts belonging to a single body – and progressed by lifting and setting down each foot in turn so as to have one foot always on the ground in a metrically defective rhythm so as to approach the structure of little width in proportion to its length and height, erected with continuous courses of stone, its small upward extent serving to enclose the building for public Christian worship. As I perceived him with my eyes to move away, making his way by treading fastidiously around and between the plants of the genus Urtica having small green flowers and stinging hairs, and around and between the rough prickly shrubs of the genus Rubus with long trailing shoots and purplish-black fruit that abut on the territory of the artificially constructed elevations of earth the colour of the light which when illuminated gives permission to proceed, he had the appearance of being in my not yet experienced regard as if he were escaping adroitly from the grasp of the terminal parts of the arms beyond the wrists of the communality of persons not endowed with life, consisting of palms, fingers and thumbs, extending in an ascending direction in a manner characterised by an avoidance of rashness from within their places of burial, to obtain as a result of effort a an opportunity of applying coercion upon the slender part between the joint which connected his foot with his leg and the fleshy hinder part of his leg below the knee and drag him in towards the source of their force.
At the point in time at which he arrived at after moving towards the structure of little width in proportion to its length and height, erected with continuous courses of stone, its small upward extent serving to enclose the building for public Christian worship, he passed across it, rising before it and descending after it in the manner of an adult male person whose limbs of support and locomotion were made incapable of sensation and hard to bend, and at the moment immediately following the action just referred to rotated on his axis so as to face in the opposite direction so as to make a visual search for me. On the occasion that I perceived him rotating on his axis with my eye, I caused my front part of my head to look towards the place where I naturally feel at ease, and established the most appropriate manner of utilising the two lower limbs of my body. Nevertheless after a short time I directed my sight above and across the upper joint of one of my arms with its integuments and the portion of my trunk between this and the base of my neck, and perceived him with my eyes resuming his journey in the direction of the copious stream of water flowing naturally in a channel towards the sea, even now as formerly encircling and holding himself closely in the one and the other of the upper limbs of his body from his shoulders to his hands, and making his way by treading fastidiously by the application of the painful terminal parts of his legs beyond the ankle-joint around and between the pieces of hard non-metal mineral substance of relatively large size allowed to descend freely under the action of gravity into this place and that place in the tracts of low-lying land that are flooded in wet weather and usually more or less watery at all times, as a series of raised positions in space placed on muddy ground to facilitate crossing on foot on the occasions that the condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling in drops large enough to attain a perceptible velocity were weighty because of the quantity present, or the regular inflow produced by the rising of the sea due to the attraction of the moon and sun was within the space.
The tracts of low-lying land that are flooded in wet weather and usually more or less watery at all times existed at that time as neither more nor less than a continuous extent of length without thickness at right angles to the vertical, great in measurement from end to end and colourless from the complete absorption of light, at the time when I ceased from forward movement to direct my sight in the direction of him departing; and the copious stream of water flowing naturally in a channel towards the sea was neither more nor less than a second continuous extent of length without thickness at right angles to the vertical, not with a close degree of similarity to the extent described extended in direction from side to side and indeed not moreover to the extent described so near colourless as to have no distinguishable colour; and the region of the atmosphere and outer space seen from earth was neither more nor less than an aggregate of individual continuous horizontal marks of the inflamed colour appearing at the least refracted end of the visible spectrum great in measurement from end to end and closely compacted horizontal marks so near colourless as to have no distinguishable colour arranged in more or less a straight continuous extent of length without thickness blended together. In the region adjacent to the boundary line of the copious stream of water flowing naturally in a channel towards the sea I had the capability of delineating clearly to an almost imperceptible degree the no more than one more than one inanimate material objects so near to colourless as to have no distinguishable colour contained by the totality of the extensive view of landscape that appeared so far as could be ascertained to be in a vertical position with the lower parts fixed in the ground; a particular of the things already mentioned represented by the lowest of the cardinal numerals went on existing as the signal fire lighted on a pole with respect to which the persons occupied with navigation guided vessels by means of rudders, helms or oars - having the same characteristics as a vessel of cylindrical form, bulging in the middle and with flat ends, made of curved staves but not bound together by circular bands of metal, in the position of being supported by a long, slender, more or less cylindrical piece of wood or metal - an inanimate material object offensive to refined taste on any occasion that you existed in the realm of fact in close proximity to it in space; the one that remains from the specified group of two an upright post with a projecting arm from which bodies of criminals were hung after execution, with an indefinite (but not large) number of series of metal links passing through each other so as to form a strong but flexible means of connection to it suspended from above, which had on some past occasion prevented a person who robbed and plundered on the sea from getting down. The adult male person was continuing to progress by lifting and setting down each foot in turn so as to have one foot always on the ground in a metrically defective rhythm in the direction of the thing mentioned near the end of the preceding sentence, as if he had existence in the realm of fact as the person who robbed and plundered on the sea risen from the dead, and descended, and returning to attach himself with hooks at some distance above the ground once more. The subject of thought in question provided me with a momentary feeling of nervous shock causing a feeling similar to dread when I conceived of it in my mind; and during the time that I perceived with my eyes the animals of the genus Bos raising the foremost parts of the bodies pertaining to them into the air from the ground to direct their eyes intently in the direction of the male person previously mentioned moving away, I desired to know if it were the case that they in addition conceived of it in their minds in the way indicated. Directing my eyes in every direction without exception from a single fixed point I attempted to discover the male person not far advanced in life likely to excite a painful feeling of intense loathing or fear, and had the capacity to perceive with my eyes not any physical or non-physical indications of the presence of that male person. Despite this, at the point in the course of the narrative referred to, I was thrown into a sudden violent terror once more, and went with quick steps on alternate feet, never having both feet on the ground at the same time, to the place where I had my life prolonged permanently so as not to admit the possibility of the action of ceasing from action.

Chapter One, By CHARLES DICKENS

My father’s family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
I give Pirrip as my father's family name on the authority of his tombstone and my sister – Mrs Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, 'Also Georgiana Wife of the Above', I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine – who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle – I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.
Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within, as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry was Pip.
"Hold your noise!" cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. "Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!"
A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.
"Oh! Don't cut my throat, sir," I pleaded in terror. "Pray don't do it, sir."
"Tell us your name!" said the man. "Quick!"
"Pip, sir."
"Once more," said the man, staring at me. "Give it mouth!"
"Pip. Pip, sir."
"Show us where you live," said the man. "Pint out the place!"
I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.
The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread. When the church came to itself – for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet – when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously.
"You young dog," said the man, licking his lips, "what fat cheeks you ha' got."
I believe they were fat, though I was at that time undersized for my years, and not strong.
"Darn Me if I couldn't eat em," said the man, with a threatening shake of his head, "and if I han't half a mind to't!"
I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn't, and held tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me; partly to keep myself upon it; partly to keep myself from crying.
"Now lookee here!" said the man. "Where's your mother?"
"There, sir!" said I.
He started, made a short run, and stopped and looked over his shoulder.
"There, sir!" I timidly explained. "Also Georgiana. That's my mother."
"Oh!" said he, coming back. "And is that your father alonger your mother?"
"Yes, sir," said I; "him too; late of this parish."
"Ha!" he muttered then, considering. "Who d'ye live with - supposin' you're kindly let to live, which I han't made up my mind about?"
"My sister, sir – Mrs Joe Gargery – wife of Joe Gargery, the blacksmith, sir."
"Blacksmith, eh?" said he. And looked down at his leg.
After darkly looking at his leg and me several times, he came closer to my tombstone, took me by both arms, and tilted me back as far as he could hold me; so that his eyes looked most powerfully down into mine, and mine looked most helplessly up into his.
"Now lookee here," he said, "the question being whether you're to be let to live. You know what a file is?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you know what wittles is?"
"Yes, sir."
After each question he titled me over a little more, so as to give me a greater sense of helplessness and danger.
"You get me a file." He tilted me again. "And you get me wittles." He tilted me again. "You bring 'em both to me." He tilted me again. "Or I'll have your heart and liver out." He tilted me again.
I was dreadfully frightened, and so giddy that I clung to him with both hands, and said, "If you would kindly please to let me keep upright, sir, perhaps I shouldn't be sick, and perhaps I could attend more."
He gave me a most tremendous dip and roll, so that the church jumped over its own weather-cock. Then he held me by the arms in an upright position on the top of the stone, and went on in these fearful terms:
"You bring me, to-morrow morning early, that file and them wittles. You bring the lot to me, at that old Battery over yonder. You do it, and you never dare to say a word or dare to make a sign concerning your having seen such a person as me, or any person sumever, and you shall be let to live. You fail, or you go from my words in any partickler, no matter how small it is, and your heart and your liver shall be tore out, roasted and ate. Now, I ain't alone, as you may think I am. There's a young man hid with me, in comparison with which young man I am a Angel. That young man hears the words I speak. That young man has a secret way pecooliar to himself, of getting at a boy, and at his heart, and at his liver. It is in wain for a boy to attempt to hide himself from that young man. A boy may lock his door, may be warm in bed, may tuck himself up, may draw the clothes over his head, may think himself comfortable and safe, but that young man will softly creep and creep his way to him and tear him open. I am a keeping that young man from harming of you at the present moment with great difficulty. I find it wery hard to hold that young man off of your inside. Now, what do you say?"
I said that I would get him the file, and I would get him what broken bits of food I could, and I would come to him at the Battery, early in the morning.
"Say Lord strike you dead if you don't!" said the man.
I said so, and he took me down.
"Now," he pursued, "you remember what you've undertook, and you remember that young man, and you get home!"
"Goo-good night, sir," I faltered.
"Much of that!" said he, glancing about him over the cold wet flat. "I wish I was a frog. Or a eel!"
At the same time, he hugged his shuddering body in both his arms – clasping himself, as if to hold himself together – and limped towards the low church wall. As I saw him go, picking his way among the nettles, and among the brambles that bound the green mounds, he looked in my young eyes as if he were eluding the hands of the dead people, stretching up cautiously out of their graves, to get a twist upon his ankle and pull him in.
When he came to the low church wall, he got over it like a man whose legs were numbed and stiff, and then turned round to look for me. When I saw him turning, I set my face towards home, and made the best use of my legs. But presently I looked over my shoulder, and saw him going on again towards the river, still hugging himself in both arms, and picking his way with his sore feet among the great stones dropped into the marshes here and there for stepping-places when the rains were heavy, or the tide was in.
The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad not yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed. On the edge of the river I could faintly make out the only two black things in all the prospect that seemed to be standing upright; one of these was the beacon by which the sailors steered - like an unhooped cask upon a pole - an ugly thing when you were near it; the other a gibbet, with some chains hanging to it which had once held a pirate. The man was limping on towards this latter, as if he were the pirate come to life, and come down, and going back to hook himself up again. If gave me a terrible turn when I thought so; and as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze after him, I wondered whether they thought so too. I looked all round for the horrible young man, and could see no signs of him. But now I was frightened again, and ran home without stopping.