Dickens in America (Missouri). They are reading "Great Expectations" and some think the novel is too long. Miriam explains to them how the book originally came out in installments. She then does a short performance of Miss Havisham talking about love. Dickens had a chance encounter with Chief Pitchlynn of the Choctaw tribe and discussed American Indian conditions with him. Miriam meets two American Indians, from separate nations, Dana Klar and Noel Frazer, both from the Buder Center for American Indian Studies. They meet at an Indian burial mound and compare conditions now and what they were like in 1842. Dickens wanted to
Miss Havisham that "James Payn, a minor novelist, claimed to have given Dickens the idea for Miss Havisham – from a living original of his acquaintance. He declared that Dickens's account was 'not one whit exaggerated'." Although it is documented Dickens encountered a wealthy recluse called Elizabeth Parker on whom it is widely believed he based the character, whilst staying in Newport, Shropshire, at the aptly named Havisham Court. "Miss Havisham's Fire" (1979, revised 2001) is an opera composed by Dominick Argento with a libretto by John Olon-Scrymgeour, based on Dickens' character. The entire story is told in flashback during an inquiry