Exam board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR
Level & Subject: GCSE English Literature
First teaching: September 2015
First examination: June 2017
This edition of Great Expectations is perfect for GCSE-level students: it comes complete with the novel, plus an introduction providing context, and a glossary explaining key terms.
`Hold your noise!' cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. `Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!'
So begins Charles Dickens's 1861 bildungsroman, the story of the orphan Pip who is catapulted from the desolate Kent marshes of his childhood to become a young gentleman in London.
Who is Pip's mysterious benefactor? And what role will the troubling figures of escaped convict Magwitch, decaying bride Miss Havisham and the beautiful but aloof Estella play in his prospects?
Told through the first-person voice of the older Pip, this story of great expectations suggests gains always come at a price. Dickens depicts both the horrors of the early nineteenth-century penal system and the rapid rise and fall of fortunes that Victorian society permitted.
This book is part of a book series called Collins Classroom Classics .
There are 640 pages in this book. This book was published 2019 by HarperCollins Publishers .
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic who is generally regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period.
This book contains the following story:
Great Expectations
Raised by his brother and sister in law in humble circumstances, Pip aspires to a better life. When a mysterious benefactor provides the funds Pip sets off to the city to become a gentleman. However, the money cannot secure for him the girl he loves, and over time Pip realises that happiness must be found in the things he gave up in pursuit of a more sophisticated life.
This book has been nominated for the following award:
Bbc Book Awards
This book was recognised in the Big Read Top 100 category by the Bbc Book Awards.