''Jack Maggs'' (1997) is a novel by Australian novelist Peter Carey.

Plot summary

Set in 19th century

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, ''Jack Maggs'' is a reworking of the

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

novel ''

Great Expectations ''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...

''. The story centres around Jack Maggs (the equivalent of Magwitch) and his quest to meet his 'son' Henry Phipps (the equivalent of Pip), who has mysteriously disappeared, having closed up his house and dismissed his household. Maggs becomes involved as a servant in the household of Phipps's neighbour, Percy Buckle, as he attempts to wait out Phipps or find him in the streets of London. He eventually cuts a deal with the young and broke up-and-coming novelist Tobias Oates (a thinly disguised Charles Dickens) that he hopes will lead him to Phipps. Oates, however, has other plans, as he finds in Maggs a character from whom to draw much needed inspiration for a forthcoming novel which he desperately needs to produce.

Critical reception

Hermione Lee Dame Hermione Lee, (born 29 February 1948) is a British biographer, literary critic and academic. She is a former President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a former Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Pr ...

called the book "an imaginative and daring act of appropriation". ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' found the plot device of writing letters to be a weight on this story: "His incessant letter-writing, though, used to explain his past to his boy (and to us), proves a cumbersome device." Caryn James wrote well of this novel, a parallel to the works and life of Dickens: many authors try "to fill in the gaps of great novels. . . . usually with shabby results. Carey is up to something more sophisticated, and his relation to Dickens's work is playfully skewed." She said that "Carey's invention and uncompromising fidelity to character are sustained almost to the finish". However the "ending carries a heavy load of Dickensian sentimentality". What she found most convincing about the plot is "the depiction of how Maggs has been brain-washed by centuries of upper-class English propaganda." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' also had a strongly positive review of this novel, remarking that "Carey's memorable characters can stand proudly in the pantheon beside those of Dickens." Themes in the novel are well handled: "the thin line between respectability and ruin, the corrupting power of money and the cruelty of class distinctions are themes that Carey rings with adroit authority." The story begins with the return of Maggs to London in 1837; though successful in Australia, he is a dead man if identified. Though he left Australia as a successful man, his stay there began in the penal colony decades earlier.

References

Awards and nominations

* 1998

Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the will of Miles Franklin (1879–195 ...

, winner * 1998

Commonwealth Writers Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

, South-East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book, winner * 1998

, Overall Best Book Award, winner * 1997

The Age Book of the Year ''The Age'' Book of the Year Awards were annual literary awards presented by Melbourne's ''The Age'' newspaper. The awards were first presented in 1974. After 1998, they were presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. Initially, two awar ...

Fiction Prize, winner {{Peter Carey 1997 Australian novels Novels by Peter Carey (novelist) Miles Franklin Award-winning works Parallel literature Novels set in London University of Queensland Press books