Great Expectations
Charles Dickens, 1861.
Before you read: Some frightening moments early on. Fine for older children.
Pip, an orphan raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband, gets a surprise: a secret benefactor will make him a gentleman. In London he learns that money and manners do not make a person good, and that the people he looked down on were the truest friends he had.
Public-domain text. First published in 1861; Charles Dickens died in 1870, so this text is in the public domain in the US, Canada, the EU and India. Summary and notes written by ViralScopeHub.