{"product_id":"great-expectations-isbn-9780451531186","title":"Great Expectations","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the agony of Charles Dickens’ disenchantment with the Victorian middle class comes a profound novel of spellbinding mystery...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eAn orphan living with his older sister and her kindly husband, Pip is hired by wealthy and embittered Miss Havisham as a companion for her and her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. His years in service to the Havishams fill his heart with the desire to rise above his station in life. Pip’s wish is fulfilled when a mysterious benefactor provides him with “great expectations”—the means to be tutored as a gentleman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrust into London’s high-society circles, Pip grows accustomed to a life of leisure, only to find himself lacking as a suitor competing for Estella’s favor. After callously discarding everything he once valued for his own selfish pursuits, Pip learns the identity of his patron—a revelation that shatters his very soul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith an Introduction by Stanley Weintraub\u003cbr\u003eand an Afterword by Annabel Davis-Goff\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e.As a child, \u003cb\u003eCharles Dickens\u003c\/b\u003e (1812–70) came to know not only hunger and privation, but also the horror of the infamous debtors’ prison and the evils of child labor. A surprise legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and “slave” factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years’ formal schooling. He taught himself shorthand and worked as a parliamentary reporter until his writing career took off with the publication of \u003ci\u003eSketches by Boz\u003c\/i\u003e (1836) and \u003ci\u003eThe Pickwick Papers \u003c\/i\u003e(1837). As a novelist and magazine editor, Dickens had a long run of serialized success through \u003ci\u003eOur Mutual Friend \u003c\/i\u003e(1864–65). In later years, ill health slowed him down, but he continued his popular dramatic readings from his fiction to an adoring public, which included Queen Victoria. At his death, \u003ci\u003eThe Mystery of Edwin Drood\u003c\/i\u003e remained unfinished.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eStanley Weintraub\u003c\/b\u003e is the author or editor of more than fifty books of biography, culture history, and military history, including \u003ci\u003eThe London Yankees\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWhistler\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVictoria\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eUncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert\u003c\/i\u003e. He retired from Pennsylvania State  University as Evan Hugh Professor Emeritus and director of Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eAnnabel Davis-Goff\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dower House, This Cold Country, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Fox’s Walk. \u003c\/i\u003eAll three novels were selected by the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e as Notable Books. She is also the author of \u003ci\u003eWalled Gardens\u003c\/i\u003e, a family memoir, and is\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eeditor of \u003ci\u003eThe Literary Companion to Gambling. \u003c\/i\u003eShe now teaches literature at Bennington  College.Chapter I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy father's family name being Pirrip, and my christian name Philip, my\u003cbr\u003einfant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than\u003cbr\u003ePip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI give Pirrip as my father's family name, on the authority of his tombstone\u003cbr\u003eand my sister – Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw\u003cbr\u003emy father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for\u003cbr\u003etheir days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies\u003cbr\u003eregarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their\u003cbr\u003etombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea\u003cbr\u003ethat he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the\u003cbr\u003echaracter and turn of the inscription, \"Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,\"\u003cbr\u003eI drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To\u003cbr\u003efive little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were\u003cbr\u003earranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of\u003cbr\u003efive little brothers of mine – who gave up trying to get a living exceedingly\u003cbr\u003eearly in that universal struggle – I am indebted for a belief I religiously\u003cbr\u003eentertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in\u003cbr\u003etheir trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of\u003cbr\u003eexistence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOurs was the marsh country, down by the river, within as the river wound,\u003cbr\u003etwenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the\u003cbr\u003eidentity of things, seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw\u003cbr\u003eafternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that\u003cbr\u003ethis bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip\u003cbr\u003ePirrip, late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were\u003cbr\u003edead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and\u003cbr\u003eRoger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and\u003cbr\u003ethat the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes\u003cbr\u003eand mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes;\u003cbr\u003eand that the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant\u003cbr\u003esavage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the\u003cbr\u003esmall bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was\u003cbr\u003ePip.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hold your noise!\" cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among\u003cbr\u003ethe graves at the side of the church porch. \"Keep still, you little devil,\u003cbr\u003eor I'll cut your throat!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with\u003cbr\u003eno hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A\u003cbr\u003eman who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by\u003cbr\u003estones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who\u003cbr\u003elimped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in\u003cbr\u003ehis head as he seized me by the chin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Oh! Don't cut my throat, sir,\" I pleaded in terror. \"Pray don't do it,\u003cbr\u003esir.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Tell us your name!\" said the man. \"Quick!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Pip, sir.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Once more,\" said the man, staring at me. \"Give it mouth!\"","brand":"Signet","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302027153637,"sku":"NP9780451531186","price":7.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780451531186.jpg?v=1767728462","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/great-expectations-isbn-9780451531186","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}