Great Expectations
First published 1860 · English · 512 pages
- Novels
- Children's
- Philosophy
A novel following Pip, an orphan raised by his sister and her kindly blacksmith husband in the Kent marshes. A frightening meeting with an escaped convict, and visits to the eccentric Miss Havisham and her proud ward Estella, change his sense of who he is. When a mysterious benefactor offers him a path to London and a gentleman's life, Pip must learn what ambition, loyalty and affection are really worth. It is a story of growing up, class and conscience, told with humour and gothic atmosphere.
Quotes
Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home.
In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.
We need never be ashamed of our tears.