Penguin Classics e-books give you the best possible editions of Charles Dickens's novels,
including all the original illustrations, useful and informative introductions, the
definitive, accurate text as it was meant to be published, a chronology of Dickens's life
and notes that fill in the background to the book. This Penguin Classics edition of Great
Expectations also includes Dickens's alternative ending to the novel.
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 thetrue nature of his 'great expectations'.
