书名：Great Expectations远大前程

作者：Charles Dickens
出版社名称：Bantam Classics
出版时间：1986

语种：英语
ISBN：9780553213423
商品尺寸：17.8 x 10.8 x 2.4 cm
包装：平装
页数：560（以实物为准）

Great Expectations《远大前程》（孤星血泪）是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯于1860年到1861年创作的长篇小说，问世百余年来经久不衰，被多次改编成电影、电视剧及舞台剧，深受不同时代的读者喜爱，埃德加·约翰逊曾高度赞扬这部小说，认为《远大前程》在“狄更斯所有作品中结构和语言都堪称是完美的。本书适合狄更斯爱好者或英国文学爱好者品读。

孤儿匹普从小由姐姐抚养，受雇于贵族郝薇香，并且爱上了她的养女艾丝黛拉，一心想成为“上等人”。他小时候好心搭救的一名逃犯在国外发财致富，为报答救命之恩，巧妙安排他去伦敦接受上等教育，进入上流社会。然而命运并不与匹普的希望接轨：艾丝黛拉另嫁他人，逃犯被擒，遗产充公，匹普的“远大前程”转眼化为泡影。

Charles Dickens’sGreat Expectations is at once a superbly constructed novel of spellbinding mystery and a profound examination of moral values.An orphan living with his older sister and her kindly husband, Pip is hired by wealthy and embittered Miss Havisham as a companion for her and her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. His years in service to the Havishams fill his heart with the desire to rise above his station in life. Pip’s wish is fulfilled when a mysterious benefactor provides him with“great expectations” — the means to be tutored as a gentleman.

Thrust into London’s high-society circles, Pip grows accustomed to a life of leisure, only to find himself lacking as a suitor competing for Estella’s favor. After callously discarding everything he once valued for his own selfish pursuits, Pip learns the identity of his patron—a revelation that shatters his very soul.

查尔斯·狄更斯（Charles Dickens，1812～1870），1812年生于英国的朴次茅斯。15岁时，狄更斯在一家律师事务所当抄写员并学习速记，此后，又在报社任新闻记者。在《记事晨报》任记者时，狄更斯开始发表一些具有讽刺和幽默内容的短剧，主要反映伦敦的生活，逐渐有了名气。他了解城市底层人民的生活和风土人情，这些都体现在他热情洋溢的笔端。此后，他在不同的杂志社任编辑、主编和发行人，其间发表了几十部长篇和短篇小说，主要作品有The Pickwick Papers《匹克威克外传》、Oliver Twist《雾都孤儿》、The Old Curiosity Shop《老古玩店》、Hard Times《艰难时世》、Our Mutual Friend《我们共同的朋友》、A Tale of Two Cities《双城记》等。

As a child, Charles Dickens (1812–70) came to know not only hunger and privation, but also the horror of the infamous debtors’ prison and the evils of child labor. A surprise legacy brought release from the nightmare of prison and “slave” factories and afforded Dickens the opportunity of two years’ formal schooling. He taught himself shorthand and worked as a parliamentary reporter until his writing career took off with the publication of Sketches by Boz (1836) and The Pickwick Papers (1837). As a novelist and magazine editor, Dickens had a long run of serialized success through Our Mutual Friend (1864–65). In later years, ill health slowed him down, but he continued his popular dramatic readings from his fiction to an adoring public, which included Queen Victoria. At his death, The Mystery of Edwin Drood remained unfinished.