Great Expectations (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #16]

by Charles Dickens

Overview

"Dickens’ most compactly perfect book." —George Bernard Shaw
"‘Great Expectations’ has the most wonderful and most perfectly worked-out plot for a novel in the English language." —John Irving
"The most unified and concentrated expression of Dickens’s abiding sense of the world." —J. Hillis Miller
"Unparalleled in the whole range of English fiction." —Algernon Charles Swinburne

Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, "Great Expectations" traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own 'great expectations' in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most important discovery of all — the truth about himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788892536913
Publisher:	Centaur Classics
Publication date:	01/05/2016
Sold by:	StreetLib SRL
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is probably the greatest novelist England has ever produced, the author of such famous books as A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and Oliver Twist. His innate comic genius and shrewd depictions of Victorian life — along with his indelible characters — have made his books beloved by readers the world over. Dickens was born in Landport, Portsea, England and died in Kent after suffering a stroke. The second of eight children of a family continually plagued by debt, the young Dickens came to know hunger, privation, and the horrors of the infamous debtors' prison and the evils of child labor. These unfortunate early life experiences helped shape many of his greatest works.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington