Great Expectations

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is both his most perfectly constructed novel and one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in literature — the story of Pip, the blacksmith’s boy who dreams of becoming a gentleman and discovers the true costs of social aspiration. From the terrifying opening on the marshes to the unforgettable figure of Miss Havisham rotting in her wedding dress, from the dark comedy of the legal world to the moral revelation of the novel’s conclusion, Dickens writes at the height of his powers. Great Expectations is about class, money, snobbery, guilt, and the discovery that what we imagine we want may be far less valuable than what we already have. Published in a beautiful new edition, this is the ideal entry point for readers new to Dickens and an inexhaustible pleasure for those returning.