Many of Charles' Dickens' novels first appeared as weekly episodes in magazines in serial form. This is much harder to do than simply writing a novel due to the fact that just one bad episode could put people off from buying the next edition. To keep this from happening with Great Expectations, every episode had to leave the reader with a reason to purchase the next episode. To do this the writer Charles Dickens had to make readers curious or interested and desperate to find out what will happen to the characters they've, hopefully, if the serial is well written,...
was such a successful series writer was because he didn't treat his readers like children. He didn't lay things out in black and white. He said this is the information now you sort through it and draw your own conclusion as to what it means. He paid attention to detail when writing the first episode of Great Expectations without flooding it with so much information as to overcomplicate it. It doesn't become a chore to read and would have left readers desperate to purchase the next episode to see the story develop and answer all the questions they have.