Many a time of an evening, when I sat alone looking at the fire, I thought, after all there was no fire like the forge fire and the kitchen fire at home.
– Charles Dickens
Great Expectations, Chapter 34. As gentleman Pip and roommate Herbert experience debt and financial woes, Pip looks into the fire of his London lodgings with feelings of regret and nostalgia. Contemplating what could have been, he wishes he was back around the simple home fires of the village forge he grew up in. Pip’s new high society city lifestyle has not delivered the contentment he had hoped for. He is starting to learn the true meaning of the old saying, “there’s no place like home.”