Great Expectations
Classic Fiction · No. 6 — A blacksmith's boy, a secret fortune, and what 'gentleman' really means.
- Classic Fiction
- 36 min
- Ages 15–99
- 6 chapters
About this audiobook
In a misty churchyard, young Pip helps a terrifying escaped convict — and that one frightened act of kindness quietly decides his whole life. Summoned to play at the ruined Satis House, where Miss Havisham stopped every clock on her broken wedding day and is raising beautiful Estella to break hearts, Pip learns to be ashamed of his rough hands and of good, gentle Joe the blacksmith. When a mysterious fortune makes him a London gentleman, Pip assumes Miss Havisham is behind it. The truth — that his benefactor is Magwitch, the convict from the marshes — turns everything Pip built his pride on upside down, and teaches him where a gentleman actually keeps his worth.
Why it's worth a listen
One frightened act of kindness to an escaped convict in a misty churchyard quietly decides a poor boy's whole life. It holds the most unforgettable images in Dickens — the clocks stopped at twenty to nine, the wedding cake gone to cobwebs — and a hero honest enough to admit his own snobbery. It asks the question at its heart: what truly makes someone a gentleman — money, manners, or kindness?
A question to keep
What truly makes someone a gentleman — money, manners, or kindness?
Chapters
- The Iron on the Leg
- The House of Stopped Clocks
- Great Expectations
- The Midnight Visitor
- The River and the Fire
- A Question to Keep