Explanation

A terrifying encounter with an escaped convict in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decaying Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor - these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip's life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble origins to begin a new life as a gentleman. Dickens's haunting late novel depicts Pip's education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his 'great expectations'. This definitive edition uses the text from the first published edition of 1861. It includes a map of Kent in the early nineteenth century, and appendices on Dickens's original ending and his working notes, giving readers an illuminating glimpse into the mind of a great novelist at work.

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quotes (9)
Language

English

ISBN

9780141439563

Number of pages

544

Publisher

Penguin UK

Category

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.
My guiding star always is, Get hold of portable property.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth.
It is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
I'll tell you ... what real love is. It is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole world, giving up your whole heart and soul to the smiter -- as I did!
Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.
In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to scale, as a big-boned Irish hunter.
Pip, dear old chap, life is made of ever so many partings welded together.
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.