SYNOPSIS

In an armchair, with an elbow resting on the table and her hand leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or ever shall see.

  —Great Expectations

Satis House tells the full story behind one of literature’s most eccentric, contradictory, and iconic characters, interpreted for the first time by a female author. What Charles Dickens sketched out for readers was only the beginning.

The world knows Miss Havisham as the recluse in the faded wedding dress and mother of an adopted daughter she molds into her agent of revenge. Satis House explains how she got there, how she survived, and who helped her.

Dickens summarizes Miss Havisham’s tragic past. Satis House pulls on those threads and reveals her family’s many secrets, bringing to life her proud and wealthy father, the half-brother she didn’t know she had, and the charming stranger who defines her future. It begins when Miss Havisham is nine years old, follows her through young adulthood, courtship, and heartbreak, and ends just after she adopts Estella, setting the stage for the indelible character we meet in Great Expectations.