Great Expectations
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Introduction by George Bernard Shaw Pip, a poor orphan being raised by a cruel sister, does not have much in the way of great expectations--until he is inexplicably elevated to wealth by an anonymous benefactor. Full of unforgettable characters--including a terrifying convict named Magwitch, the eccentric
… More »Introduction by George Bernard Shaw Pip, a poor orphan being raised by a cruel sister, does not have much in the way of great expectations--until he is inexplicably elevated to wealth by an anonymous benefactor. Full of unforgettable characters--including a terrifying convict named Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Havisham, and her beautiful but manipulative niece, Estella, Great Expectations is a tale of intrigue, unattainable love, and all of the happiness money can't buy. " Great Expectations has the most wonderful and most perfectly worked-out plot for a novel in the English language," according to John Irving, and J. Hillis Miller declares, " Great Expectations is the most unified and concentrated expression of Dickens's abiding sense of the world, and Pip might be called the archetypal Dickens hero." George Bernard Shaw (1856--1950) was a leading playwright of the twentieth century. His plays include Man and Superman (1905), Major Barbara (1905), Pygmalion (1913), and Saint Joan (1923). INCLUDES A MODERN LIBRARY READING GROUP GUIDE
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Add a Quote"Mother by adoption," retorted Estella, never departing from the easy grace of her attitude, never raising her voice as the other did, never yielding either to anger or tenderness, "Mother by adoption, I have said that I owe everything to you. All I possess is freely yours. All that you have given me, is at your command to have again. Beyond that, I have nothing. And if you ask me to give you what you never gave me, my gratitude and duty cannot do impossibilities."
MY father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
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Add a CommentOne of my very favorite books - ever.
Rereading for the first time since high school--very long ago. Love the way the man wrote! Will need to try some I missed
This book was not bad - there was a lot of plot twists and a great coming-of-age story but I couldn't enjoy the characters. Pushed to the ends of the moral spectrum, it was hard to find some of them believable but for the most part, this is a good classic to read.
Awesome book! Scotland Forever! Xll!
a story about a boy and how he grows up in a small village and the people around him and how it changes through a unnamed benefactor which is revealed much later in the story and his love to Estella throughout the years. I enjoyed it.
An incredibly formative novel that reveals great character complexity on the part of Pip. A coming of age book of the times.
the story of heartbreak and a young man's life spent pining over a young lady that is eternally out of his reach. filled with mystery, vice, and frustration, the reader cannot help but feel bad for the protagonist "pip."
Brilliant book. I loved how the beautiful Estella was raised to torment all men for the revenge of the eccentric, scorned Miss Havisham.
Dickens is always a rich literary feast. That richness is not always to every reader's taste, of course. However, for those readers willing to devote the time and attention, Dickens returns the investment on many levels. Great Expectations is just such a challenging but rewarding reading experience. The story is sprawling and circuitous, with many seeming detours in plot and character that eventually all converge and resolve, as Dickens always satisfyingly does for the most part. The cast of characters is broad and lively, almost to a fault, but Dickens has an unerring way of taking figures that initially appear to be caricatures or cartoonish and evolving them into intriguing, fully dimensional human beings. The ending is ambiguous, tinged with remorse but possibly some hope, and haunting in all the best senses. (The Penguin edition includes in its endnotes and appendices the original ending devised by Dickens, with a much clearer resolution of Pip's and Estella's relationship - but the more ambiguous one with which the book was published actually makes the book that much more powerful and memorable.)