Miss Havisham presides over Great Expectations like a great, ill-willed fairy queen. She is, by turns, the novel's resident corpse, its ghost, its fairy godmother, and "the Witch of the place"—a fury dressed up in a tattered, yellowed wedding dress. She stands, in the Dickens pantheon, alongside Scrooge, the Artful Dodger, and Uriah Heep as one of his most memorable characters.

Previous entries in the series can be found here. Sarah, darling! Got your note oh lovely couldn’t possibly make it over for the christening as I’m simply swamped at the moment (you may recall I was left at the altar and have spent the intervening years reeling from the betrayal) yes I remember Wish terribly I could make it but you know how it is being jilted Well we'll set out a piece of…