Great Expectations a reference to a "knowing man", a possible sketch of Bentley Drummle. Another evokes a house full of "Toadies and Humbugs", foreshadowing the visitors to Satis House in chapter 11. Margaret Cardwell discovered the "premonition" of "Great Expectations" from a 25 September 1855 letter from Dickens to W. H. Wills, in which Dickens speaks of recycling an "odd idea" from the Christmas special "A House to Let" and "the pivot round which my next book shall revolve." The "odd idea" concerns an individual who "retires to an old lonely house…resolved to shut out the world and hold no communion with
Literary Pocket-Book is for the most part delightfully written [...] The 'Miscellanies' consist of a very clever and interesting paper called 'Walks round London;' and various pieces of original poetry [...] We must now shut up the Literary Pocket-Book, recommending it, however, to our readers, partly for its original matter, and partly for its "Lists" [...] which [...] are really invaluable and are to be found in no other publication whatever." "The Literary Gazette", after an 1828 publication of the work, stated, "The first title of this pocket-book, which has been popular for some years, obtained from us a favourable notice on