Great Expectations , livre ebook

Original by Charles Dickens Retold by Pauline Francis
ReadZone Books Limited
First published in this edition 2016
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© copyright in the text Pauline Francis, 2016 © copyright in this edition ReadZone Books Ltd 2016
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Printed in Malta by Melita Press
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ISBN 978-1-78322-730-3
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Chapter One     Terror in the Graveyard
Chapter Two    Capture on the Marshes
Chapter Three   Meeting Miss Havisham
Chapter Four    Great Expectations
Chapter Five    Life in London
Chapter Six      Seeing Estella Again
Chapter Seven   Trouble at Home
Chapter Eight   The Shocking Truth
Chapter Nine    More Secrets
Chapter Ten     Friends Forever
Introduction
Charles Dickens was born in 1812, the second of eight children. When Charles was twelve years old, his father went to prison because he owed money. So Charles went out to work to help his family. He never forgot the terrible times when he was poor, and later used his experiences in some of his stories.
In his twenties, Charles Dickens found work writing about London life for newspapers and magazines. Some of these articles were published as a book called The Pickwick Papers . This is how he became famous at the age of twenty-four.
Great Expectations was published as a novel in 1861. It tells the story of a boy called Pip, who steals food to help an escaped convict. A few years later, he goes to the house of an old lady called Miss Havisham, who is the guardian of a beautiful girl, Estella. Pip falls in love with Estella. When Pip is left some money, he is able to give up his blacksmith’s apprenticeship and become a gentleman in London. He accepts the money with delight so that he can marry Estella. Who is Pip’s secret benefactor? And will Estella agree to marry him?
Charles Dickens wrote many famous novels, including Nicholas Nickleby , A Christmas Carol , Oliver Twist and David Copperfield . He travelled widely, especially in America, reading to audiences from his work. Charles Dickens died in 1870 at the age of fifty-eight. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, London.
CHAPTER ONE
Terror in the Graveyard
I was brought up in Kent, in marshlands about twenty miles from the sea. My earliest memory is walking alone in the graveyard where my parents and five brothers were buried. It was a bleak, damp afternoon on Christmas Eve, and the wind blew from the sea across the marshes. I was so afraid that I began to cry.
‘Hold your noise’, cried a terrible voice. A man appeared from behind one of the headstones. ‘Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat.’
The man was dressed in rough grey clothes and had an iron chain around his leg. He was soaked to the skin and had a rag wound around his head. His teeth chattered with cold.
‘Oh, don’t cut my throat, sir’, I pleaded in terror.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
‘Pip, sir’, I said.
‘Show me where you live, Pip.’
I pointed to our village, about a mile from the churchyard. The man caught hold of me and held me upside down, emptying my pockets. I only had a piece of bread on me.
‘Where’s yer mother and father?’ the man asked.
I pointed to one of the graves. ‘There, sir’, I said, still terrified. ‘I live with my sister, Joe Gargery’s wife. He’s the blacksmith.’
‘Blacksmith, eh?’ he said, looking down at the chain on his leg. Then he held me tightly and stared into my eyes. ‘You know what a file is, boy? And wittles?’
I nodded.
‘You bring ’em both to me’, he said, ‘Or I’ll have your heart and your liver.’ Then he placed me on the tombstone. ‘Tomorrow ... early ... over there by that old artillery gun. And you never says a word to anybody, or you’ll die. I ain’t alone ’ere, boy. There’s another man with me and I’m an angel compared to ’im.’
I watched him limp away towards the dark marshes. Then I ran home without stopping.
***
My sister was more than twenty years older than me. She was an angry person, always ready to slap me or her husband, who was a gentle man with curly blond hair.
When I reached home, Joe told me that my sister was looking for me – and she had Tickler with her. My heart sank. This was the cane she carried to beat me. As soon as Joe saw her coming, he told me to hide behind the door. But my sister found me and caned me.
I was starving by the time we sat down to tea. But I did not dare eat my bread and butter. I had to save it for the man in the churchyard. When Joe wasn’t looking, I slid my slice down the leg of my trousers. But Joe was horrified to see that I had eaten it so quickly. Thinking I might become ill, my sister poured a horrible medicine down my throat, one that we called Tar Water.
Then I had to stir the Christmas pudding for an hour. Just before I went to bed, I heard the loud boom of a gun.
‘What does that mean, Joe?’ I asked.
‘Another escaped convict’, he replied. ‘There was one last night.