Der Waisenjunge Oliver Twist lebt in London unter Gaunern und Bettlern. Immer wieder versucht der alte Fagin, Oliver zum Stehlen zu zwingen. Erst als der gütige Mr. Brownlow den Jungen aufnimmt, erfährt Oliver zum ersten Mal Liebe und Geborgenheit. Doch über Olivers Geburt schwebt ein Geheimnis, das ihn immer wieder in Gefahr bringt ...
Perhaps Dickens's best-loved work, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, a young man with few prospects for advancement until a mysterious benefactor allows him to escape the Kent marshes for a more promising life in London. Despite his good fortune, Pip is haunted by figures from his past--the escaped convict Magwitch, the time-withered Miss Havisham, and her proud and beautiful ward, Estella--and in time uncovers not just the origins of his great expectations but the mystery of his own heart. A powerful and moving novel, Great Expectations is suffused with Dickens's memories of the past and its grip on the present, and it raises disturbing questions about the extent to which individuals affect each other's lives. This edition reprints the definitive Clarendon text. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's new introduction ranges widely across critical issues raised by the novel: its biographical genesis, ideas of origin and progress and what makes a gentleman, memory, melodrama, and the book's critical reception. The book includes four appendices and the fullest set of critical notes in any mass-market edition.