Great Expectations (World's Classics)

by Charles Dickens (Author), Margaret Cardwell (Editor), Charles Dickens (Author), Charles Dickens (Author), Charles Dickens (Author), Kate Flint (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  1994

  $4.20

  Great Expectations charts the progress of Pip from childhood through often painful experiences to adulthood, as he moves from the Kent marshes to busy, commercial London, encountering a variety of extraordinary characters, ranging from Magwitch - the escaped convict, to Miss Haversham - locked up with her unhappy past, and living with her ward, the arrogant, beautiful Estella. In this compelling story, Dickens shows the dangers of being driven by a desire for wealth and social status. Pip must establish his own sense of self against the plans which others seem to have for him, and thus discover a firm set of values and priorities. Whether such values will allow one to prosper in the complex world of early-Victorian England is, however, the major question posed by Great Expectations . This edition uses the text of the Clarendon edition, with a new introduction and explanatory notes. The appendices give the original, discarded ending, Dickens's brief working notes, and the serial instalments and chapter divisions in different editions.

• Used

  Paperback
  1991

  $3.26

• Used

  Hardcover
  1979

  $13.98

• New

  Paperback
  1992

  $6.93

  Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own 'great expectations' in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most important discovery of all - the truth about himself.