Great Expectations

With an essay by George Bernard Shaw. " What do you think that is?' she asked me, again pointing with her stick; 'that, where those cobwebs are?" " I can't guess what it is, ma'am." " It's a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!" Great Expectations , Dickens's funny, frightening and tender portrayal of the orphan Pip's journey of self-discovery, is one of his best-loved works. Showing how a young man's life is transformed by a mysterious series of events - an encounter with an escaped prisoner; a visit to a black-hearted old woman and a beautiful girl; a fortune from a secret donor - Dickens's late novel is a masterpiece of psychological and moral truth, and Pip among his greatest creations. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.