Lean's advice on the art of literary adaptation: “Choose what you want to do in the novel and do it proud. . . . Don't keep every character and just take a sniff of each one.” Economical in structure yet epic in atmosphere, Lean's version of Great Expectations does Dickens proud, paring down the book's sprawl while taking its larger premise in all seriousness. From the desolate churchyard where young protagonist Pip first encounters the convict Magwitch to the lavishly cobwebbed chambers of Miss Havisham, the film vividly renders a world of contrasts and portents, pathetic fallacy and apt exaggeration. Amidst these romantically creepy settings and among an array of wonderfully peculiar characters, Pip makes his unlikely way from poverty to wealth, but finds that life defies expectations. Most critics still agree with Andrew Sarris's assessment: the film is “the most felicitous adaptation of a Dickens novel ever.”