The English collection
Great Expectations
The novel
Looking back on his childhood in the Kent marshes, Pip tells how he came to want a different life. Dickens turns one boy's ambitions into a searching novel about class, loyalty and the distance between appearing a gentleman and behaving like one.
A way into the book
From the introduction
Pip begins by trying to read his own history from the lettering on his parents' gravestones. He has little knowledge and an active imagination, a combination that will matter throughout Great Expectations. An orphan living with his sister and her blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery, he knows the flat Kent marshes, the forge and the frightening authority of adults. A meeting in the churchyard brings the wider world abruptly close. Dickens makes the child's terror both convincing and strangely comic: even in danger, Pip notices clothes, voices, gestures and the absurd shapes people assume. The novel asks how such a boy learns to imagine a future, and what happens when he begins to despise the life already around him.
An excerpt from the original Read Classics introduction. The Android preview contains the complete introduction and Chapter I.
Inside the illustrated edition
The art of the story · Great Expectations
A world remembered
Violet skies, tidal marshes and a small figure facing the unknown. Sixteen dreamlike paintings accompany Pip’s journey.
the low leaden line beyond was the river
The art of the story · Great Expectations
A light in the darkness
Torchlight catches the water and breaks into colour. Enter the troubled beauty of Dickens’s marsh country.
Light those torches.
The art of the story · Great Expectations
A room outside time
Faded ivory, candlelight and a life held in suspense. A haunting painting of one of literature’s unforgettable rooms.
had lost its lustre and was faded and yellow
The art of the story · Great Expectations
The warmth of home
The glow of the forge, the rhythm of work. Discover the human warmth beneath the novel’s restless ambitions.
when I was pulling the bellows for Joe, and we were singing Old Clem
The art of the story · Great Expectations
Beside the quiet water
Summer light and a listening presence. A moment of stillness opens a different view of Pip’s world.
with the water rippling at our feet
The art of the story · Great Expectations
The world beyond
Morning mist rises over a familiar road. Hope and hesitation share the same soft light.
the light mists were solemnly rising, as if to show me the world
The art of the story · Great Expectations
A small private kingdom
A garden, an old window, the pleasure of tending something. Dickens’s quieter affections find their colours here.
pretending to employ the Aged, and nodding at him in a most devoted manner
The art of the story · Great Expectations
The shape of a dream
Ivy climbs the old brickwork. A house becomes a place where longing and imagination gather.
strong green ivy clasping even the stacks of chimneys
The art of the story · Great Expectations
What ambition costs
Loose papers, lamplight and two friends. A small room holds the weight of larger dreams.
Herbert would also take a sheet of paper
The art of the story · Great Expectations
Weather within and without
Rain sweeps across the riverside. Deep colour and broken light lend the city an unsettled life.
a vast heavy veil had been driving over London from the East
The art of the story · Great Expectations
Listening in the firelight
Three figures, a quiet room, a story to be heard. Let gesture and colour carry the moment.
both looked at Provis as he stood smoking by the fire.
The art of the story · Great Expectations
Behind familiar windows
Weathered timber and curved glass beside the water. An ordinary house invites a second look.
a house with a wooden front and three stories of bow-window
The art of the story · Great Expectations
A gentler understanding
Pale silk and quiet shadows. An intimate painting makes room for vulnerability and compassion.
I want forgiveness and direction far too much, to be bitter with you.
The art of the story · Great Expectations
With the moving river
A small boat beneath an expansive sky. Rose, violet and gold linger on the water.
There was the red sun, on the low level of the shore, in a purple haze
The art of the story · Great Expectations
The strength of kindness
Sunlight through the leaves, the support of an arm. A painting of affection without ceremony.
sitting in the bright warm sunlight, looking at the river
The art of the story · Great Expectations
Into the evening light
Mist softens the edges of a ruined garden. The final painting leaves room for the reader’s own thoughts.
in all the broad expanse of tranquil light
In development
The Android preview
Introduction + Chapter I · No account needed.
The Android app lets you try the typography and read the preview offline. It is not yet available for public download.
For now, you can read the introduction excerpt above. This website does not yet offer the reading sample or an interactive reader.
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