The Complete Works of Charles Dickens (in 30 Volumes, Illustrated): Great Expectations - Softcover

Dickens, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616400277 ISBN 13: 9781616400279

Publisher: Cosimo Classics, 2009

Synopsis

It is impossible to overstate the importance of British novelist CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) not only to literature in the English language, but to Western civilization on the whole. He is arguably the first fiction writer to have become an international celebrity. He popularized episodic fiction and the cliffhanger, which had a profound influence on the development of film and television. He is entirely responsible for the popular image of Victorian London that still lingers today, and his characters-from Oliver Twist to Ebenezer Scrooge, from Miss Havisham to Uriah Heep-have become not merely iconic, but mythic. But it was his stirring portraits of ordinary people-not the upper classes or the aristocracy-and his fervent cries for social, moral, and legal justice for the working poor, and in particular for poor children, in the grim early decades of the Industrial Revolution that powerfully impacted social concerns well into the 20th century. Without Charles Dickens, we may never have seen the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Upton Sinclair, or even Bob Dylan. Here, in 30 beautiful volumes-complete with all the original illustrations-is every published word written by one of the most important writers ever. The essential collector's set will delight anyone who cherishes English literature...and who takes pleasure in constantly rediscovering its joys. This volume contains Great Expectations, which was originally serialized in Dickens's own periodical All the Year Round in 1860-61. The story of the orphan Pip from childhood through changes of fortune and romance, it remains a favorite of Dickens fans to this day.

About this title

Review:

"No story in the first person was ever better told." --kl

From the Publisher:

Great Expectations opens unforgettably in a twilit and overgrown churchyard on the eerie Kent marshes.

There the orphan Pip is disturbed to meet an escaped convict, Magwitch, but gives him food, in an encounter that is to haunt both their lives. How Pip receives riches from a mysterious benefactor, snobbishly abandons his friends for London society and 'great expectations', and grows through misfortune and suffering to maturity is the theme of one of Dicken's best-loved novels.

In Great Expectations Dickens blends gripping drama with penetrating satire to give a compelling story rich in comedy and pathos: he has also created two of his finest, most haunting characters in Pip and Miss Havisham.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cosimo Classics
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1616400277
• ISBN 13: 9781616400279
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 484