{"product_id":"2026100012224-secondhand-great-expectations","title":"Great Expectations","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket - cloth\/board in good condition\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFew novels in the English literary canon have captured the anguish of social ambition and the hunger for self-reinvention as masterfully as Great Expectations. The story chronicles the life of Pip, an orphan boy raised on the bleak marshes of Kent by his fearsome sister and her gentle husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. A chance encounter with an escaped convict, a summons to the decaying mansion of the reclusive and eccentric Miss Havisham, and the sudden arrival of a mysterious fortune set Pip on a perilous journey from humble origins into the glittering, treacherous world of Victorian London — all in desperate pursuit of the unattainable Estella, the cold beauty raised to break men's hearts.\n\nCharles Dickens, writing at the very height of his powers, constructs a sweeping critique of Victorian class society, where wealth is mistaken for virtue and gentility masks cruelty. With a narrative voice that balances sharp irony with profound tenderness, Dickens illustrates how self-deception and misplaced shame corrode the soul, while loyalty, gratitude, and honest labour quietly redeem it. This Heron Books edition, introduced by Kenneth Havens, presents one of the most enduring works of 19th-century fiction in an elegant format — and its final revelation about the true source of Pip's fortune remains one of literature's most devastating moral reckonings.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51022612857051,"sku":"2026100012224-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/07c66c1b-4674-460f-98ee-d613e6488907.png?v=1793665303","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100012224-secondhand-great-expectations","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}