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    Great Expectations
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    Great Expectations
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    Great Expectations
    Ebook678 pages11 hours

    Great Expectations

    By Scott McKowen, Arthur Pober and Charles Dickens

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    The bestselling Sterling Classics series continues with Charles Dickens's Great Expectations--one of the most popular novels of all time. When Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip, is approached by an escaped convict and forced to steal food and supplies, he little realizes how this act will alter his life. This handsome, unabridged edition, with striking illustrations by Scott McKowen and questions for discussion by the esteemed educator Arthur Pober, will find a treasured place in any family's library.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSterling Children's Books
    Release dateSep 4, 2012
    ISBN9781454903475
    Author

    Scott McKowen

    SCOTT MCKOWEN is an award-winning illustrator and graphic designer. He works in scratchboard, an engraving medium in which white lines are carved into a black surface with a sharp blade. McKowen has illustrated a number of titles for a wide range of publishers. Based in Stratford, Ontario, he operates the design studio Punch & Judy Inc., which creates theatre posters and graphics for leading performance art companies across North America.

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    Reviews for Great Expectations

    4/5

    226 ratings203 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wow. Just...wow. I can't even begin to explain how good this book was. But I'll try :PFor those who don't know the basic story, Pip is an orphan raised by his sister and her husband. One day at the age of seven, as he discovers the graves of his dead parents and siblings, he is threatened by a convict into stealing some food and a file to feed and free the man. Pip, frightened half to death, does as he is told.Much later in life, he becomes suddenly wealthy at the hands of his benefactor, a person who's name he his not allowed to know. Assuming it to be Miss Havisham, the crazy old lady he's been visiting lately, as a scheme to make him a gentleman for her adopted daughter Estella, he leaves his old life, and the only people who have ever cared for him, thoughtlessly behind in pursuit of the old lady's beautiful daughter.What a beautifully told story. Dickens's prose is near magical and, though definitely not modern, extremely easy to follow. I loved Pip, despite his horrid faults. He's arrogant and selfish, but that's the point. Dickens wrote about the tragedies he saw every day: people desiring material wealth at the expense of those around them, heartless people wanting only to hurt others, the taking for granted of beautiful friendships, the judgement of good people based on looks or wealth alone (hmm, this kind of sounds like today). Though Pip is the main character and the one who we are supposed to identify with the most, he embodies most of these traits. He is a truly flawed character that reminds me of most people I know. Through him, we make the same mistakes he does but we also learn as he learns. To judge Pip's character is to judge your own. When Pip comes into his inheritance, he officially rises to a position higher than Joe, his sister's husband and the only one who loved him through most of his childhood. Pip becomes wealthy and educated, he starts to look down upon Joe's simple, blacksmith ways. He disregards Joe's feelings, hurting him terribly, because Joe does not fit into his new society. Joe embarrasses Pip so Pip will not stand his company. How many teenagers/young adults does this remind you of? Though most people treat it as a normal symptom of growing up (and I'll admit to being guilty of it myself), it's a real eye-opener to truly see the effects of one's thoughtless behavior. That's what this entire book is about: thoughtlessness. It is my belief that Dickens wanted people to think about others and to realize what is really important, and that's the people you share your life with. It's nice to have money, but money comes and goes. Your parents, siblings, children, aunts and uncles only have so much time before they're gone, so treasure them.I admit that I'm a very materialistic person. It's gotten me into a lot of trouble financially and I'm not proud of my situation at the moment. I think it's fantastic that I found this book, focusing so much on moving away from materialistic wealth and towards true riches, at a second hand store for only $.10. Normally, when I finish a book, I put it back on the shelf. This one, however, I'm leaving out on my desk where I will see it everyday. Great Expectations will act as a reminder for me as to what kind of life I want to start living.I don't think this review did this book justice, but I don't care. At the moment it's late and after finishing this book, I feel I need to have a long heart to heart with my mom.
    • 5/5
      Victorian literature was another revolution, replacing the romantic literature of the past that had romanticized the upper classes. Victorian literature was written for the people. Magazines became very popular with the English people and catered to all classes of readers. The popular magazines provided an outlet for many writers who wrote their novels in month-to-month sections, much like a serial. The pressure of social problems tended to create a new awareness of and interest in human beings and relationships; thus, characterization became a dominant quality in literature.Dickens was a master at creating characters and bringing them to life. Great Expectations houses some of the greatest characters of all time. The timeline of Pip as he grows from the loneliness of a little orphan boy into the complicated world of a young adult has proven to be one for the ages. He encounters the likes of Magwitch, Miss Haversham, Jaggers, Wemmick, and Estelle along the way.
    • 3/5
      I was pleasantly surprised about how much I enjoyed this book when I read it as a Freshman. The characters and the plot are fascinating, and as the main character develops his priorities with all of the expectations that society places on him, one really thinks hard about what a 'gentleman' is essentially.
    • 1/5
      Pontificating, proselytizing protagonist surrounded by brainless supporting characters, all written by an author who is full of himself. After this, I have no respect for Dickens and all the "masterpieces" he believes himself to have created. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's self-important authors who write stories in which their condescension shines through.
    • 3/5
      I have to confess that I kept putting off snapping the binding on this book because it started to feel like I had a college assignment that I truly didn't want to read. However, I am glad that I read "Great Expectations." It was actually my second time through as I realized when I started reading...I discovered that this book was one of the classics that I read in between college and dental school when I was bound and determined to read as many of the classics as possible. I have to confess that it was definitely a different experience reading as a seasoned adult versus a naive 20 year old. "Great Expectations" follows the classic Dickensian plot of an orphan who comes of age and learns valuable life lessons along the way. Written in the first person by Pip, you are constantly coming in contact with characters that you love or hate with very little in between gray. There are definite high points in the story...love the scenes with Miss Haversham and low points...did not enjoy the years when Pip is an apprentice with his brother-in-law Joe.
    • 5/5
      My first recent attempt to read Dickens and I loved it. I've enjoyed various movies made from Dickens' works but previously thought I wouldn't enjoy actually reading one. I was so wrong! I admit there were times I didn't totally understand everything that was being said - the slang and older British sayings - but what a writer! I enjoyed his humor and lesson taught. It begins with Pip as a young boy being raised by his abusive sister and her humble, quiet, faithful, plodding husband, Joe. He makes comparisons between his simple life with that of Miss Havisham's weathly one and decides that being wealthy was more important. When given an opportunity for wealth, he pursues it but in the course of time, comes to realize what really is more important. I really enjoyed it immensely and am looking forward to reading more of his works.
    • 5/5
      I've had a interesting relationship with Dickens over the years. I've really enjoyed some of his books (A Tale of Two Cities) and didn't like others (Oliver Twist), but Great Expectations is the first that I've truly loved. The plot follows Pip from his time as a young orphan through his maturing into a young gentleman. All of the main characters are deeply flawed: the violent criminal Magwitch, selfish Miss Havisham, haughty Estella. But each of them has redeeming qualities or aspects of their lives the reader can identify or sympathize with. In addition to that, the plot is so richly developed that, though at its core it's a coming of age story, it feels so much more complicated than that. It was a book I could dive deeply into. Its lessons were diverse as well: the danger of refusing to open your heart to anyone, the importance of valuing the people who care for you, the unimportance of wealth in the large scheme of things. It's a book that resonates with readers for so many reasons. Great Expectations reminded me, once again, that sometimes books become classics for a reason.
    • 5/5
      Everywhere I went while reading this book, I heard, “You’re reading Great Expectations? I love that book! It’s one of my favorites!” Which led me to have great expectations about it.Of course, now, after finishing the book, I see where having great expectations can lead…how one could and should find happiness in one’s own backyard or enormous TBR stack… I’ve given away the plot here, but this book is so much a part of American high school life that I can’t be giving away much. How did I get through high school without reading it? My hs English teachers chose the heartbreaker, David Copperfield, so it’s not my first Dickens. I can see that Dickens can tell a story. Who wouldn’t love this book? It’s the Harry Potter of its time.
    • 4/5
      This novel is full of expectations - and what we learn from the tale is that most of the characters expect too much and are therefore disappointed. This isn't a tragedy necessarily, but there are tragic things that happen. Pip is our hero and he is a sympathetic one. I couldn't help liking and identifying with him. Yet, despite the warnings that he has in the people around him, he persists in believing that he has 'great expectations' - that what he expects will happen to him will be good and work out exactly to make him happy. In the end, Pip finds that what he had was worth more than all the expectations he hoped for. This is a novel to consider and go back to - there are so many layers.
    • 1/5
      This could be listed with the subtitle of "The Misadventures of Pip." It's interesting, though not something that caught me to focus on it.If I'm understanding this correctly, Joe was abused by an alcoholic father and as such married an abusive woman to take the place of the abusive father. This is not openly displayed in the text, per se, but it is discussed by the narrator on a few occasions. This felt like a book written and published in stages, so the various parts feel a little stilted when pushed together. Though to bring the file up again did connect them some. Also the whole deal with the dying of Ms. Havernsham is kinda creepy.Something I did have to keep correcting myself in my mind was that the use of certain words has changed mightily since this was written. When someone asks is he an intimate, this isn't referring to a date, but to a close friend, for instance.I noted that unless he's given them no first name, Dickens has a habit of referring to characters by their title and first name. Mr. and Mrs. Joe. Mr. and Ms. Cecelia. It's a touch unnerving.I've gotten just about past the half way point. My loan expires tomorrow. I'm not looking to renew. The story isn't real compelling to me, and the "Great Expectations" are two fold: what Pip expects of himself and what others expect of Pip. This is definitely a long winded fictional biography. I'm not into biographies most times. Might be why this isn't my type of book.
    • 4/5
      I have a problem with Great Expectations. The problem is, I believe I haven't read it. I have, three or four times, but the very first time, I didn't finish it (we were reading it aloud on a class trip, and the trip ended) and somehow, no matter how often I read it, I think I've never finished it. It's been my secret shame.So I'm writing this review to remind me. I have read Great Expectations. The parts of it I cherish are the sidelights: Magwitch, Wemmick and his Aged Parent. Even the Pockets tumbling up. In the introduction to this edition, John Irving mentions that the language shifts when the plot takes off. Perhaps that's why I stop remembering it: the sidelights fade. I've never had too much use for Mr. Pip (as opposed to young Pip, who is rather charming) -- none of his repentance and retrospective self-deprecation was enough for me.While I see the craft in this book, and the rich imagery that makes it so beloved of English teachers, it is not my favorite Boz. It's well worth reading though, if only for the images -- the ruined wedding feast, the clerk 'posting' bits of toast through his mail-slot mouth, the family of gravestones by the marshes -- that will stick with you, even if the denouement insists on fading.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable as an audiobook. Well written.
    • 5/5
      Great Expectations is one of the Dickens books I never read because I was sure I had read it. I knew all about spooky Miss Havisham in her wedding dress with her moldy, spider-filled wedding cake, so I must have read it, right? No, I must have watched the dreary 1970s movie version somewhere along the line and missed out on the real thing.Too bad it took so long to get around to this one because Great Expectations is a whale of a good read. It is chock-o-block full of Dickens’s extraordinary characters, it is clever and funny, and there are exciting adventures, like prison breaks, murders, and a kidnapping. Orphan Pip goes from helping escaped convicts on the moors to keeping Miss Havisham company before being taken up by an unknown benefactor and taught to be a London gentleman. All goes awry before adult Pip can win the heart of his beloved Estella, but he learns important lessons and all comes right in the end.As it turns out, all came more right in the end of the version I read than originally planned by Dickens. He changed the original melancholy ending in subsequent editions and mine used the later, happier ending. Having gone back and compared the two, the original seems more integral to the story. Either way, what a wonderful book. I wish I had read it 25 years ago, like I thought I had.Also posted on Rose City Reader.
    • 5/5
      Great book. "You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose..." Perfect. I think I've read it four times, but I'm sure I'll read it again.
    • 5/5
      wonderful tale, with very bad people (a few) and very good people (several). I loved the audio version, and when I tried reading a very little bit from the library book, found the written version much harder to like...
    • 1/5
      Extremely boring and dull.
    • 4/5
      I just want to take a moment and bask in the accomplishment of finishing this book. I first tried in about 15 years ago when my sister was reading it for school. I got bored and ended up asking her for a major plot point because I was curious but not enough to read the book.So what to say about a classic that's become a major part of our culture, inspiring multiple screen adaptations, and been the bane of many a student's existence? Like David Copperfield, it's a coming of age story told in first person by Pip, a young man who has been "brought up by hand" by his sister after their parents' deaths. He lives with her and his uncle Joe, a blacksmith, and only intends to follow in that business after an apprenticeship. Then Miss Havisham, the local rich - and extremely eccentric - lady takes an interest in him, and seems to be putting him in the path of her young charge, Estella, with whom he falls hopelessly in love. A mysterious benefactor gives him money to become a gentleman, and then his life truly takes a turn.Like many of Dickens' novels, Great Expectations is convoluted, wordy, full of memorable secondary characters (Miss Havisham, Mrs. Pocket, Wemmick, and Mr. Jaggers immediately spring to mind), somewhat maudlin, but exploring class and other serious themes at the same time. Even though I knew one of the major twists of the novel, I found myself turning pages with even more interest and a bit of a critical eye that I don't usually have on a first reading because I'm just working out the plot itself. Differences in class and what it really means to be a "gentleman" especially struck me, and I kind of wanted to bring out my undergrad English paper on the same theme in Oliver Twist for comparison's sake. I liked Pip and enjoyed seeing his progression throughout the story, though I wanted to shake him for falling for such a heartless girl who told him straight out the first time they met that she would break his heart. On the other hand, don't people do that all the time?
    • 5/5
      To be frank, I really didn't expect (I had low expectations?) to enjoy this--having tried twice to get through [Bleak House] and find Dickens unbelievably wordy. But this book was a joy to listen to in the car! Of course, Prebble gave his customary 5 star performance.This audio version contains the original, unpublished ending, as a coda to the book. I found it interesting to hear hoe Dickens first thought to end the book versus how it actually ended. I can't decide which I like better, but I suspect the original ending is more realistic and perhaps less maudlin. Which is to say, the published version goes down more easily? :-)
    • 5/5
      Like any classic, this one took a bit more concentration to really get into... but oh the clever twists and turns of the story! The clear moral Dickens is trying to teach, and how it hits your gut the way Pip himself has to learn it!--it breaks your heart, but in a good way. Dickens fully convinced me of the "goodness" of his main character, despite his initial mistakes and apparent flaws--mostly because of the beautiful friendship that arises between him and Herbert, and of what he does to try to save Magwitch. Dickens is a master of description: Wemmick and his castle is one of my favorite character/settings of all time. That and the depressing scene he sets up in Miss Havisham's house are both done SO WELL. What originality! How soul-wrenchingly believable, despite its apparent unbelievability. I mean, really: a bride who wastes away in her bridal clothes, and lets her wedding cake rot? Are you kidding?? But this story is "true" in a deeper sense of the word.
    • 5/5
      What can I say? I'm a sucker for Dickens and Victorian literature! Great Expectations touched me; I laughed, I cried, I triumphed, and I suffered along with Pip all the way to the two endings of the book (though I preferred the original).
    • 4/5
      One of the most mysterious historical novels I've ever read, great atmospheres
    • 5/5
      I felt inspired to finally read this classic novel because I wanted to add some depth to my reading of Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones, in which Great Expectations plays a central role. I am absolutely loving it! The characters are fabulous. Miss Havisham is one-of-a-kind -- makes me appreciate Dickens anew. This would make a great book to read out loud, and if I can carve out enough time, I'd love to read it out loud to my daughter.
    • 5/5
      What larks! So many wonderful moments, but I'll choose the week when Pip's getting ready to go to London, organises his new clothes to be delivered to Pumblechook, drinks wine with him as gentlemen, escapes the interminable handshakes, returns home, so nearly a newborn gentleman... and pauses en route for a drunken snooze under a hedge.
    • 3/5
      What an exciting story! This book seems to be one that everyone will love, no matter what type of books you enjoy reading. There is action: Pip has an encounter with a convict in the marshes near his house one day. The convict asks Pip to bring him some food, and a file. After Pip does this for him, the convict (Abel Magwitch) swears to himself that he will help Pip throughout his life. Magwitch, who is later called "Uncle Provis" to hide his real identity, pays for Pip to go to London to become a gentleman. There is also some adventures in the story: for example, Pip's adventure to London. Also when he is trying to sneak Magwitch back to his house...by boat. And of course, its a love story too. Pip falls in love with Estella, the adopted daughter of a rich old woman who is bitter because she got stood up 20 years ago on her wedding day. Miss Havisham (the rich old woman) has "trained" Estella to break the hearts of every man she meets. Poor Pip is the victim of Estella's heartlessness. Overall the book is very good and not hard to read at all. It is an enjoyable book despite its length.
    • 3/5
      For years, I have been in conversations with people who aren't English majors, who don't read that often, and can still reference this novel. Previously, I haven't had a clue what they meant, but now, I can really see how much this novel has affected society. I can also tell you first hand that it is a perfect representation of society now, even though it was written as long ago as it was. I know quite a few people who I could relate to Estella, Pip, Havisham, and even Jaggers. Now, I can take part in, and understand when these names come up in conversation in relation to real people. It is one of those things that helps make the story entertaining and believable. Verisimilitude is key in any novel, because it keeps people interested. I started replacing the characters in the novel with people I actually knew, because they fit to the character so well. I think that if they knew that, they might be slightly angry, but it helped me enjoy the book a lot more than I otherwise would have. I like being able to relate things I read to real life. With this, I can. Charles Dickens might as well have had a pen and paper and traveled with me throughout my life. The same story would have been exactly the same for most parts, just in a different age, and new names for the characters. I did enjoy this book, and I'd seriously recommend it. If for nothing else, so that you can make sophisticated jokes to people that they will never understand unless they themselves have read this fantastic piece of literature.
    • 4/5
      Great Expectations is one of the more accessible of Dickens' novels. It is still dark and depressing, but the cast of characters is more varied. There's even a pinch of fancy and fun though it is tinged with derangement. It gets billed as a coming of age novel quite often, but I think it is much more complex than that. It is about hopes and dreams and let-downs more generally. I read it 3 times (all in school) and found it more enjoyable and more memorable than many assigned reads.
    • 5/5
      The first black and white film is the best.
    • 2/5
      Bah, Dickens. At least its not as bad as david copperfield.
    • 5/5
      ‘Great Expectations’ has been somewhat of a literary journey of discovery. I started with a mild dislike of Dickens as Pip finds himself contemplating the gravestones of his parents. This stemmed from my one abortive attempt at reading ‘The Pickwick Papers’My dislike gently fades as Pip embarks on achieving his great expectations introducing some marvellous characters, in particular, Miss Havisham and Wemmick with his Aged P. By the time I find myself reading the chapter entirely devoted to Pip’s exploration of his feeling for Estella I found myself, thoroughly enjoying, the language, the plot and the characterisations involved. This book is a delight and will be remembered more so as the highway that led to my final understanding and appreciation of 19th Century language and Dickens' work in particular.
    • 5/5
      Love this book. Was expecting it to be really difficult, but it was easy to read and I couldn't put it down.