"Great Expectations" opens unforgettably in a twilit and overgrown churchyard on the eerie Kent marshes. There, the orphan Pip is disturbed to meet an escaped convict, Magwitch, but gives him food, in an encounter that is to haunt both their lives. How Pip receives riches from a mysterious benefactor, snobbishly abandons his friends for London society and "great expectations", and grows through misfortune and suffering to maturity is the theme of one of Dicken's best-loved novels.
In "Great Expectations", Dickens blends gripping drama with penetrating satire to give a compelling story rich in comedy and pathos: he has also created two of his finest, most haunting characters in Pip and Miss Havisham.
On a personal note I must add that this is one of my favourite of Dickens' novels and, indeed, one of my "all time" favourite books.
Contains the original black and white illustrations by Charles Green.
NB: I now regard this as a "finished" eBook. If you find
any errors,
please let me know, either by posting to this thread, or by sending a PM to "Harry T".
Enjoy!
EDIT: 27 Dec 07
Added the original illustrations by Charles Green. Converted capitals to italics as appropriate to match the printed version. Added the original ending as an appendix to the book. Created a proper MobiPocket version of the book with full-size pictures, library information, working table of contents link, etc. Uploaded v3.
EDIT: 22 Jan 08
Thoroughly proof-read against a printed version; many minor errors corrected. Added a list of characters. Uploaded v4.
EDIT: 23 Jan 08
I suppose it was inevitable that after saying it had been "thoroughly" proof-read that I should immediately spot four additional errors (two instances of missing commas, hyphens used in place of dashes, "again" spelled as "a gain". Now fixed. Uploaded v5. Hopefully this one will last a little longer than the last version!
EDIT: 18 Feb 08
Corrected about a dozen minor errors, largely found by MR user "dynabook" (for which many thanks!). Uploaded v6.
EDIT: 17 Mar 08
Had to recreate the book due to paragraph end problems. I've re-applied most of the corrections found in earlier releases, but it's possible that I've missed a few. I need to re-proof-read the book. I didn't like having to re-create it from scratch but unfortunately it was only practical way to sort out the problems. Uploaded v7.
EDIT: 6 Apr 08
MR user "Jellby" has done an absolutely wonderful job of proofing the book against a scanned 1st edition that's available online at Stanford University, and has found several errors, and literally dozens of words which should have been either capitalised or in italics, and weren't. (The PG text I originally used to create the book had no italics marked). I've applied all these changes, and the book is now hugely better as a result. Many, many thanks to Jellby for doing this! Uploaded v8.
EDIT: 17 Oct 09
Replaced the cover for consistency with the rest of the MR Dickens series. Tidied up the HTML source of the book to remove some minor errors - this has no visible effect for the reader. Uploaded v9.
Previous download count: 909
This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws.
If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.
To report a copyright violation you can
contact us here.