This novel was writen in his later lifePip, a boy of the marshes, is being "raised by hand" by his shrieking harridan of an older sister and her seemingly doltish husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery.
The deserted street could only see occasionally a torpidly-peddling countryman with a worn-out felt cap on his head and a basket of potatoes or turnips on his arm.
And with salaries often as low as a few hundred dollars a month, midwives stationed in the countryside, where there is often little to no electricity and hardly any medical supplies, often migrate back to the cities.
On the afternoon which followed the evening of its release John's rustic solitude was suddenly broken by the arrival overhead of a great swarm of helicopters.
In the country the violin sounded in the room of the peasant; the newly-baked cakes were attacked; even the poorest child said, " It is really delightful here in winter! " Yes, it was delightful.
Well, shock, horror, Neil, I won't be taking my clothes off anytime soon – it's too cold anyway and I don't want to be bitten by all those bugs you get in the countryside.
So I knew that I had no way to win, and knowing that I had no way to win made me seriously consider for a while just quitting the game and moving to the country to raise corgis.