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
Richard Bentley (publisher) and 1840s, at which important writers and critics gathered. In October 1836, Bentley entered the periodical market. He founded "Bentley's Miscellany", which first appeared in January 1837, and selected Charles Dickens, known at the time for his "Pickwick Papers", as editor. Dickens also agreed to contribute a serialised novel to the periodical and to sell two novels to Bentley. The periodical was "an immediate success" – 11,000 copies were sold in 1837 – largely as a result of the serialisation of Dickens's "Oliver Twist", illustrated by George Cruikshank. Dickens became increasingly frustrated at the initial terms of his contract, which