Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
Great Expectations
Unavailable
Great Expectations
Unavailable
Great Expectations
Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

Great Expectations

Written by Charles Dickens

Narrated by Anton Lesser

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

In this, perhaps Dickens’ most profound and personal novel, we are invited to share in the sentimental education of Pip, the poor boy from the village forge who risks losing himself in snobbery and selfishness when he mysteriously inherits a fortune. The story moves from the bleak Kentish marshes of Pip’s childhood to a thrilling climax which mingles tragedy and triumph.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 23, 1996
ISBN9789629544904
Author

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is the most popular and, many believe, the greatest English author. He wrote many classic novels, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and A Christmas Carol. Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities are available from Brilliance Audio.

More audiobooks from Charles Dickens

Related to Great Expectations

Related audiobooks

Classics For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Great Expectations

Rating: 3.898690213125938 out of 5 stars
4/5

7,329 ratings204 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This could be listed with the subtitle of "The Misadventures of Pip." It's interesting, though not something that caught me to focus on it.If I'm understanding this correctly, Joe was abused by an alcoholic father and as such married an abusive woman to take the place of the abusive father. This is not openly displayed in the text, per se, but it is discussed by the narrator on a few occasions. This felt like a book written and published in stages, so the various parts feel a little stilted when pushed together. Though to bring the file up again did connect them some. Also the whole deal with the dying of Ms. Havernsham is kinda creepy.Something I did have to keep correcting myself in my mind was that the use of certain words has changed mightily since this was written. When someone asks is he an intimate, this isn't referring to a date, but to a close friend, for instance.I noted that unless he's given them no first name, Dickens has a habit of referring to characters by their title and first name. Mr. and Mrs. Joe. Mr. and Ms. Cecelia. It's a touch unnerving.I've gotten just about past the half way point. My loan expires tomorrow. I'm not looking to renew. The story isn't real compelling to me, and the "Great Expectations" are two fold: what Pip expects of himself and what others expect of Pip. This is definitely a long winded fictional biography. I'm not into biographies most times. Might be why this isn't my type of book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have a problem with Great Expectations. The problem is, I believe I haven't read it. I have, three or four times, but the very first time, I didn't finish it (we were reading it aloud on a class trip, and the trip ended) and somehow, no matter how often I read it, I think I've never finished it. It's been my secret shame.So I'm writing this review to remind me. I have read Great Expectations. The parts of it I cherish are the sidelights: Magwitch, Wemmick and his Aged Parent. Even the Pockets tumbling up. In the introduction to this edition, John Irving mentions that the language shifts when the plot takes off. Perhaps that's why I stop remembering it: the sidelights fade. I've never had too much use for Mr. Pip (as opposed to young Pip, who is rather charming) -- none of his repentance and retrospective self-deprecation was enough for me.While I see the craft in this book, and the rich imagery that makes it so beloved of English teachers, it is not my favorite Boz. It's well worth reading though, if only for the images -- the ruined wedding feast, the clerk 'posting' bits of toast through his mail-slot mouth, the family of gravestones by the marshes -- that will stick with you, even if the denouement insists on fading.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Enjoyable as an audiobook. Well written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great Expectations is one of the Dickens books I never read because I was sure I had read it. I knew all about spooky Miss Havisham in her wedding dress with her moldy, spider-filled wedding cake, so I must have read it, right? No, I must have watched the dreary 1970s movie version somewhere along the line and missed out on the real thing.Too bad it took so long to get around to this one because Great Expectations is a whale of a good read. It is chock-o-block full of Dickens’s extraordinary characters, it is clever and funny, and there are exciting adventures, like prison breaks, murders, and a kidnapping. Orphan Pip goes from helping escaped convicts on the moors to keeping Miss Havisham company before being taken up by an unknown benefactor and taught to be a London gentleman. All goes awry before adult Pip can win the heart of his beloved Estella, but he learns important lessons and all comes right in the end.As it turns out, all came more right in the end of the version I read than originally planned by Dickens. He changed the original melancholy ending in subsequent editions and mine used the later, happier ending. Having gone back and compared the two, the original seems more integral to the story. Either way, what a wonderful book. I wish I had read it 25 years ago, like I thought I had.Also posted on Rose City Reader.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book. "You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose..." Perfect. I think I've read it four times, but I'm sure I'll read it again.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I hated this book. I know it's a classic and I've met people who love it, but I just can't.

    The point of view gives a very skewed view of women and out motivations and it annoyed me too much to enjoy the other bits. I know there's lot of merit and so on, but it was just hard to for me stomach, especially at the age that I was when I first read it. It brought on emerging feelings about my place in the world and scared the crap out of me. I didn't mean to make it all about the image of women, but sometimes stories that really have nothing to do with us that way scare the hell out of me. This was one of those.

    And yeah, I get it that some find this irrational.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Dickens' descriptions of locations, people and their characters (or lack of it) create a mellow reading experience.They make the plot, at times revolving around Bonkers Chicken predictable twists with a few delightful surprises, more memorable and enduring.His description of Pip's early encounters with the alphabet and numbers is a treasure:"...I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush...""After that I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every evening to do something new to disguise themselves and baffle recognition."Though not as compelling as A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Great Expectations offers fewerannoying personages than his other books and Joe, Wemmick, Herbert, and the Aged givereaders people to care about. Pip and his convict are more of a challenge.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Magnificent, of course. Mr. Dickens is amazing.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Aanvankelijk zeer trage start; breedvoerig en zonder dat duidelijk is waar het verhaal heen wil. Het middelste derde is gevarieerder omdat het zich in Londen afspeelt en verschillende nieuwe personages introduceert. Het laatste derde heeft meer weg van een detectiveverhaal, maar dat gaat ten koste van de psychologische diepgang. Thema: ontrouw ten aanzien van afkomst en vrienden; de waan van geldGlobaal: interessant thema, toch mislukte roman vanwege trage opbouw en gebrek aan humor.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My favorite Dickens novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was the first book by Dickens I have read and, based on this one, I'll definitely read another. At times the vernacular was a little clunky and hard to follow - but that is just because of the change in times and, more than likely, the British influence.

    As much as I enjoyed the book I think I'd rename it to "Great Coincidences" as it is chock full of them. In fact every relationship, except those between Pip and his Joe are pretty much purely coincidental and yet those ties interweave throughout the story and continue to build and pile upon one another throughout the tale. Pip, Miss Havisham, Estella, Jaggers, Magwitch, etc. They were all coincidentally connected. Yet, for all of that, I still enjoyed the story.

    Pip, as a kid was amiable enough and, as an adult, while he clearly had some failings, he grew on me and remained likable and decent to the core. Perhaps his failings made me like him all the more because he seemed to be altogether believable.

    I hope Dickens other works have survived as well as Great Expectations over the years because, if they have, I have a nice new collection of books in my to-read pile.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, an orphan brought up by his abusive sister, who rises from the depths of poverty to the status gentleman, through the machinations of an anonymous benefactor.

    Great Expectations, published in 1861, is classified as Bildungsroman, or Coming of Age. This genre focuses on the psychological and moral growth of a main character, in this case Pip. Dickens depicted Pip as whiny and selfish, ready to turn his back on the people who cared most for him, namely Joe Gargery.

    Charles Dickens is a master at social criticism and character development. Miss Havisham has to be one of the most recognized in English literature. She is obviously insane, while being coddled by those around her, malicious in her intentions, and delights in the selfish creature she created in Estella.

    I thought Great Expectations was a decent book, but the middle part (where Pip learns to be a gentleman) dragged on for longer than I liked. I expect this is due to the original serialization of the novel. Pip was too whiny for me to really care for. However, I did enjoy it overall.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Another read aloud we did this year as part of Home School. I'd read this book in high school but didn't appreciate it as much then. The story is intriguing and suspenseful. We had many great discussions, about Pip, Joe, the Convict, selflessness, sacrifice and true love. A good read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I had little expectations going into this and it was just as I expected. Dickens's novels are just too wordy to keep my interest.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    5 reasons Great Expectations is a great novel1. Pip’s journey It’s a great bildungsroman. At its heart it’s about Pip’s inner journey toward greater self-understanding and molding of his character. He does not get what he expects, but in the journey finds so many other things of greater value. 2. Enduring friendships For me one of the most touching themes is that of friendship - Pip’s and Joe’s and later on with Herbert Pocket. When Pip need his friends the most they do turn up by his side. And Pip will also himself be a true friend to an unexpected person.3. Surprises, surprises You’re not aware of it, but slowly this “bildungsroman” turns into a tightly constructed mystery plot. The second half is full of surprising twists and turns.4. Lessons on wealth Wealth is the vehicle in the story. Everything hinges on what people are in terms of class and money and “expectations”. I like that Pip finds happinness in “working for his profits” rather than living on someone else’s money.5. A wealth of memorable characters You could mention this about any Dickens novel - but just think about Pip himself, Joe and Biddy, Miss Havisham, Estella, Jarvis, Wemming, Magwitch etc, etc.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is classic Dickens. Young Pip, living with his shrewish sister and her dull, but kindly husband falls comes upon Miss Havisham who, upon being jilted years ago has entombed herself in her huge house with the beautiful Estella with whom Pip immediately falls in love,.Miss Havisham tells Pip that he has "Great Expectations" and throughout the book he rises and then falls in business until he finds contentment back where he started from - a sadder but wiser man. If you've never read this doorstop of a book, it's worth your while for a vivid picture on Victorian England and the vivid characters who inhabit it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am giving this audiobook edition 4* but downgrading my rating for the book itself to 3 ½ stars. I found Pip's devotion to Estella romantic but unconvincing and Pip himself I don't care for very much. This is my third or fourth time reading this novel and I keep hoping that I will discover why so many people think it is Dickens greatest. I like David Copperfield so much that I guess I just wish to feel the same fondness for this... Oh well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've discovered that listening to Dickens in the car is actually a reasonable way to get through a big old book. Maybe something about listening to it in chunks reflects the original publication in episodes. This has the usual cast of thousands (I may exaggerate, but not by much!) and they are a varied lot. Pip is the hub of the story and it starts with his meeting Magwich in the churchyard as a young boy. He helps the convict with food, but then gets involved in the chase to catch him again. It's an important meeting that has echoes through the rest of Pip's young life. In an unconnected event, Pip gets invited to Miss Haversham's and meets Estella. This is a very odd setup (understatement). In the short term it gives Pip some heartache and ideas above his station. This, again, has repercussions through the story and is a source of some considerable upheaval. Pip becomes Joe's apprentice, but his ideas of being a gentleman and winning Estella blind him to both Joe's goodness and the charms and affection of Biddy. He, in fact, turns into a snob and acts quite badly in this phase. Then comes the big turning point, Pip comes into his Great Expectations. The assumption is that the expectations are from Miss Haversham, certainly that's what everyone seems to think. And Pip becomes even worse. He goes to town and sets up an expensive establishment with Herbert, who is a Haversham relation of some description. They live a bit too high and end up in debt quite a lot. Pip neglects Joe in this period and gets a nice superiority complex going. Then the crisis comes, when Pip discovers who his benefactor is and it's not who you thought. That sets Pip & Herbert off on a bit of a madcap trip, in which they try and get a convict out of the country without being caught. Herbert turns up trumps in this phase, having seemed a bit weak and easily lead until this point. It doesn't turn out well, and Pip looses everything. It is at this point that Joe, once more, does the decent thing and turns up to sort Pip out once more. Not that he deserves it. And he then misses his chance to actually be nice to Joe for once and acknowledge what he owes to him. The ending comes upon you quite abruptly, and is slightly disatisfying. I know it was originally set that pip returned, found Estella, but that she had remarried. In this version, she is not yet married and there is a possibility that they will finally get together. Only I'm not entirely sure that is a good idea. Thy have both changed, with Estella having come down off her high horse and Pip having learnt stability and hard work since they were children. I'm just not convinced the possibly happy ending is justified. I felt, as I often do with Dickens, that he spends 2/3 of the book setting it up and then crams the final third with all the story. It works though, and the pace sits will with the episodic listening.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This particular Dickensian tale wreaks havoc with the mind, but it was a fun read just the same. It had extremely good usage of dialect, and good details to keep you thinking you were there.The story goes as follows: There is a boy named Pip who is being raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband (whom I had visualized looking like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast with an English accent) in a rural English village because his parents died. So he’s walking around in a graveyard when he is assailed by a convict who has escaped from a “Hulk”, or prison ship. And by threats of a fictitious young man who would find and kill Pip if he didn’t do as the convict commanded, Pip brought him food and a file so he could escape. The convict runs away. Soon after, Pip is hired by an insane rich person to play. For her. Some woman literally hired him to come to her house, and on arrival she said:“Play.”And so Pip was given a ton of cash to play cards with the eccentric Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter while she used said daughter, Estella, to toy with his heart, as she had had her heart broken as a young woman and was (as I’ve already said) insane. After a few weeks of this, a mysterious benefactor has just given Pip a huge sum of money and commanded him to go to London where he will be tutored. He does this. This causes him to act like a jerk to his family. After a few years, Pip meets his provider, and good Mr. Dickens betrays you. He led you on! He never said it, but he hinted at it! Nice ol’ Charlie just destroys a mental investment of 300 pages! And for that I can never forgive him. I’m not allowed to spoil your reading of the book, so I won’t. The story kind of ends here, because if I go on, it is impossible not to reveal what could be the biggest twist in any 19th century writing! I’m serious!Now, as for what I didn’t like... There were too many loose ends. Dickens left a whole bunch of people unaccounted for. They used modern vocabulary, particularly “fashionable crib” and “a cool four thousand”. Even Pip is confused! He thought Joe detected the temperature of the money somehow! And it was difficult figure out how to pronounce the name of Pip’s rival Drummle... Could it be said as: Drumlee? Drummleh? Drummel? At the end of the day, this would bring in maybe 3 out of 5 stars.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is my least favorite Dickens. It's hard to enjoy it when you don't like any of the characters. I do love the last line, however:"I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her."I don't love it because I understand it (do they actually get together?!), I just love it because in the TV show Beauty and the Beast, Vincent reads it to Catherine and his voice melts my bones.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Great Expectations is a good book, but not awesome. Story is reasonably fast moving even though language is flowery and dialogues are noteworthy. There is undercurrent of humour and irony in whole narrative though never really explicit. Characters are engaging and some are even haunting too. That said, it always remains a mystery why this is considered popular classic and not others. There is not much substance to story but whole lot of emotional content without being melodramatic. Overall, I am glad that I read this, though I wouldn't have missed anything if I didn't.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    With Great Expectations, I have now read or re-read every Dickens novel in the last year (minus two novels I had read in the last couple of years). Great Expectations was a book I studied in year 12, too many years ago, so I know the book well. I was pleased to to find some parts of the book were very familiar, like a favourite jacket, and a little surprised that other parts seemed to be completely new - like I was reading for the first time. The benefit of years, and a better knowledge of Victorian England and social conditions of the era made the book more meaningful now. I had enjoyed it years ago, and I enjoyed it a little more now with the benefit of that better context.At the end of the Dickens marathon, I find it interesting how some authors survive, or thrive, while others, popular in their time, fade away. I find that Dickens is a fine author, but wonder why Trollope, for example, hasn't become the icon of his era?I also notice that in all his many many pages, there is not one single depiction of a "normal" happy marriage. David Copperfield's marital relationship goes close, the couple are not unhappy, but the wife is painted as a child in an adult role and you could not imagine it as a satisfying relationship for either party. Recent biographies have made it clear that Dickens was, to be generous, a "difficult" husband and father. It is sad to think that he may never have experienced the joy of a fulfilling personal relationship.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A masterpiece in the study of corruption, guilt, revenge, obsession, ambition, class snobbery and redemption. Dickens, I dare say, at his best. The characters are brilliant both as individuals and as symbols -- Miss Haversham, Magwitch, Estella, Joe, and of course Pip. This is about as gritty as one can get. (I'm always surprised when someone says to me, "Your novels are so dark!" I can only assume they didn't read Dickens, or Hardy, or George Elliott. Snort.)In Miss Haversham's rotting mansion, Satis House, (word play on satisfy? Stasis?) Dickens created the perfect Gothic setting to explore the corrosive power of self-pity, revenge and narcissism. As though no one save her has ever been hurt by love and its misuse, Miss Havisham nurses her pain and uses everyone around her as props for her own revenge. Her body decays, the wedding dress she never removes decays, the wedding feast decays, the house decays around her like a rotting crust. A portrayal of decadence which has no parallel, and which symbolizes Dickens' feelings about the aristocracy. Much has been written about this book, and its many layers of meaning, and it all adds pleasure to the book, but really, it's one of those novels that is just such a pleasure to read. Enjoy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Back in high school, I always found Dickens to be rather tedious, but in my adulthood, I gained a greater appreciation of his work. Audiobooks were the key--I discovered that his prose style worked far better for me read aloud that on the page. And so, despite owning the paperback, I listened to the audiobook instead.I wasn't wowed by Great Expectations, but I enjoyed it. Most interesting to me was the glimpse of (lower) middle class life during the time period, something that many novels avoid, preferring to focus on the affairs of the very wealthy or very poor.As is typical with Dickens, there are a number of unlikely coincidences and connections between characters. These are less satisfying to the modern audience than they no doubt were to the original readers. They are also typical of a serial format--modern television shows also tend to let loose those sorts of revelations, to sate an audience hungry for twists.Slow to get going and without a great deal of action, I continued to listen because of the interesting characters and a desire to find out what happened to Pip, even as he got less sympathetic throughout the course of the novel.I'm glad this was not my first introduction to Dickens, but I'm glad to have experienced it nonetheless.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The writing is stellar. The narration is first-rate. The story is, um, Dickensian, which I now understand to mean brilliant and peopled with billions of fascinating characters. However, I just don't like Pip, and that keeps me from giving this one five stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book Two, where Dickens takes the twentysomething Pip to London and raises him with 'great expectations' is startling in how accurately it captures what it means to be a twentysomething - except I'm talking about how accurately it captures that sense in 2012. So Dickens is indeed, as it turns out, the writer everyone has told me he is: the fantastic chronicler of the human condition. I'm thoroughly impressed if I do say so myself. Still, the book does drag a bit here and there, so he still isn't that unparalleled talent I want him to be.

    At least I now know the basis for Miss Havisham, though - Jasper Fforde, you prepped me but also ruined me a little for the great classics.

    More about what I mentersay at RB: wp.me/pGVzJ-q8
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderful story and John Lee is the perfect narrator for this book. I would have given it 5 stars, but when you are paid by the word, as Dickens was, the stories can sometimes be a bit loooooooong.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I loathe this book. Why does the man have to describe every. single. thing. The story itself was torture.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Great Expectations was much better than I expected. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it when it came up on a class syllabus, but I'm really glad I read it. There's so much going on in it I'm not sure where to jump in. The biggest complaint I've heard about this book is its slow pace. Yes, it is a very slow read. This is by no means an action adventure, or a crime drama, or anything of the sort. It's good old fashion literary fiction. That being said, if you sit down with it with a cup of tea on a rainy day, you're going to love it.It is most definitely on my re-read shelf.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My favourite Dickens. Masterful descriptions and eccentric characters. The story of a coming of age, of overcoming adversities and finding out that many ambitions were misplaced.