Great Expectations

'It was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me

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.