Great Expectations

Exam board: AQA, Edexcel, OCRLevel & Subject: GCSE English LiteratureNext exam: June 2026This 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. âHold your noise!â cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch. âKeep still, you little devil, or Iâll cut your throat!âSo begins Charles Dickensâs 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 Pipâs 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.