Before You Begin

Before you begin.

On a raw afternoon in the marsh country, twenty miles inland from the sea, a small orphan named Pip is reading his parents' tombstones when a fearful man "all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg" rises up among the graves and seizes him by the chin. That terrified encounter sets in motion one of the most beloved stories in the English language — a tale of a blacksmith's boy who is suddenly told he has "great expectations," and who leaves the forge for the drawing-rooms of London to make himself into a gentleman.

Charles Dickens, the most popular novelist of Victorian England, wrote Great Expectations late in his career, at the height of his powers. Into it he poured his sharpest eye for character: the bride frozen in time amid her decaying wedding feast; the cold, beautiful girl raised to break men's hearts; the gruff lawyer who washes his hands of his clients; the clerk with two entirely separate selves. Around Pip, Dickens built a world of marsh and mist, of London streets and silent halls, and asked a question that never loses its sting: what does it truly cost to rise above the people who loved you?

More than a century and a half later the book endures because its longing is so human — Pip's shame, his hope, his loyalty, and his slow, hard-won wisdom belong to every reader who has ever wanted to be more than they were, and wondered what they left behind to get there.

This illustrated edition gathers the novel into six visual movements — recap plates you unlock as you read, each drawing together the faces, places, and turns of the story so far, with never a glimpse of what lies ahead. Turn the page and step into the marsh, the forge, Satis House, and the foggy city where Pip's great expectations await.