Great Expectations
Edition: First Signet Classics Printing (1)
Publisher: Signet Classics
Published: 2009-02
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Number of pages: 508
ISBN-13: 9780451531186
Copyright date: 2009
Description: Charles Dickens's Great Expectations is at once a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mystery and a profound examination of moral values. An orphan living with his older sister and her kindly husband, Pip is hired by wealthy and embittered Miss Havisham as a companion for her and her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. His years in service to the Havishams fill his heart with the desire to rise above his station in life. Pip's wish is fulfilled when a mysterious bene- factor provides him with "great expectations"—the means to be tutored as a gentleman.

Thrust into London's high-society circles, Pip grows accus- tomed to a life of leisure, only to find himself lacking as a suitor competing for Estella's favor. After callously discarding everything he once valued for his own selfish pursuits, Pip learns the identity of his patron—a revelation that shatters his very soul.

From the agony of Dickens's disenchantment with the Vic- torian middle class comes a work that gives an added dimension to his matchless genius.