Great Expectations (A Norton Critical Edition) [Paperback]

Charles Dickens (Author), Edgar Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 1999

This Norton Critical Edition, edited by the pioneer of Great Expectations scholarship, presents the most thorough textual edition of the novel (1861) available.

The newly established text is based on all extant materials and is accompanied by several textual essays.

"Backgrounds" provides readers with an understanding of Great Expectations's inception and internal chronology.  A discussion of the public-reading version of the novel is also included.  A wonderfully rich "Contexts" section collects thirteen pieces, centering on the novel’s major themes: the link between author and hero and, relatedly, Victorian notions of gentility, snobbishness, and social mobility; the often brutal training, at home and at school, of children born around 1800; and the central issues of crime and punishment.

"Criticism" gathers twenty-two assessments of Great Expectations, both contemporary and modern, which offer a range of perspectives on Dickens and his novel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Both a brilliant contribution to scholarship and an excellent reading edition with helpful notes and secondary material: -- Fred Kaplan, City University of New York Graduate Center

Edgar Rosenberg has brilliantly demonstrated that there is no need to be boring in order to be serious. -- Sylvere Monod, University of Paris-Sorbonne

I think the Norton Great Expectations is an editorial masterpiece. No one who teaches this novel or presumes to study it ... should hereafter select any other edition. [Rosenberg's] breathtaking allusions to other monuments of Western culture stretch readers to wider horizons and more comprehensive judgments of Dickens's place in our literary heritage. -- Robert L. Patten, Rice University

Rosenberg is the wittiest and sprightliest of Dickensian commentators, so his editorial matter, lightly carrying a heavy load of scholarship, is a joy to read. -- Philip Collins, University of Leicester

This is a magisterial work, absolutely stuffed with superb scholarship, wonderful quips, and massive common sense. -- David Paroissien, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

This monumental edition ... is destined to be seen as a landmark. .. a benchmark against which all future editions are to be measured. -- Michael Hollington, University of New South Wales

[Rosenberg's editorial] work is immensely learned, and yet the learning is carried with a delightful delicacy and penetration . . .. Game, set, and match to Rosenberg. -- Robin Gilmour, University of Aberdeen

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one of the most acclaimed and popular writers of all time. His many works include the classics The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Hard Times, Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers and many more.

A native of Germany, Edgar Rosenberg received his Ph.D. at Stanford University and since 1965 as been Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cornell University. He is the author of From Shylock to Svengali and some fifty pieces of short fiction, translations, and articles in journals ranging from Esquire to Commentary to The Dickensian. He has taught at San Jose State College and Harvard University, has been Visiting Professor at Stanford University and the University of Haifa, and has received Guggenheim, Fulbright, Bread Loaf, and Stanford Fiction Fellowships as well as the Clark Distinguished Teaching Award at Cornell.

Product Details

• Paperback: 748 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (January 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393960692
• ISBN-13: 978-0393960693
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Greatest Novels Ever Written, June 5, 2004

By 

Anne Rice "Anne Rice" (Little Paradise, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Expectations (A Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

Why do I come here to "review" this? It isn't anyone's book club selection, no. But tonight I want to talk about this incomparably rich and wonderful book, and how as a fourteen year old kid I simply sank into it, taking it slowly week by week, glorying in its mysteries, its great grotesque portrait of Miss Havisham in her rotting bridal finery, its often painful recounting of a young boy's awakening to a seductive world beyond the blacksmith's forge to which destiny has condemned him. This book was about me. It was about wanting to learn, wanting to transcend, wanting to achieve while anything and everything seems hopelessly beyond one's dreams. Of course life changes for Pip. And the world Pip enters was a world that dazzled me and only made my adolescent ambitions burn all the more hurtfully. I think this book is about all who've ever tried for more, ever reached for the gold ring -- and it's about some, of course, who've gotten it. It's also a wondrous piece of storytelling, a wondrous example of how in the first person ("I am, etc." ) a character can tell you more about himself than he himself knows. What a feat. And a very strange thing about this book, too, was the fact that Dickens said more about Pip and Pip's dreams than Dickens knew he was doing. Dickens himself didn't quite realize, I don't think, the full humanity of the character he created. Yet the character is there -- alive, captivating, engaging us throughout with full sympathy. Go for it. If you never read anything else by Charles Dickens, read and experience this book. Afterwards, David Copperfield will be a ride in the sunshine, I assure you. And both books will stand by you forever. For whom am I writing this? For myself perhaps just because Pip meant and still means so much. For some one perhaps who's unsure about this book and needs a push to dive into a classic. Oh, is this book ever worth the effort. -. Enough. Read it, know it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Norton Critical strikes again, June 30, 2008

By 

Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Great Expectations (A Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

The folks at Norton Critical Editions have once again put together an excellent book, with incredibly helpful notes and interesting articles to help readers understand and appreciate the text.

If you are going to buy some version of Great Expectations, buy this one.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent but print is too small, January 16, 2010

By 

SoCal (Southern California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Great Expectations (A Norton Critical Edition) (Paperback)

The edition is excellent. However, the type face is much, much too small to make the book enjoyable to read.