# Great Expectations

**Author:** Charles Dickens
**Lexile:** 1150L
**Grade range:** Grades 9–12
**Age range:** 14–18
**First published:** 1861
**Page count:** 544
**Genre:** Classic Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780141439563`
**ISBN-10:** `0141439564`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/great-expectations
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Charles Dickens follows the orphan Pip from a humble Kent childhood through a mysterious inheritance that lifts him into London society and the burdens that come with it. As Pip pursues the cold Estella and learns the true source of his fortune, the novel weighs ambition against gratitude and social rank against worth. A staple of ninth- to twelfth-grade and AP English curricula, it is one of Dickens's most assigned works for its tight plotting and study-ready themes.

## Themes

- ambition
- social class
- coming of age
- class
- loyalty

## Content notes

- period violence

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)
- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)

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