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Miss Havisham takes on the London Gentleman: An OWC audio guide to Great Expectations

The third season of the Oxford World’s Classics Reading Group has now come to a close, but the fun isn’t over yet. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst will be answering your Dickens questions LIVE on Twitter on Friday 25th September at 3pm GMT (11am EST). Tweet your questions to @owc_oxford with the #OWCReads hashtag and Robert will answer them on Friday.

Perhaps Dickens’s best-loved work, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, a young man with few prospects for advancement, until a mysterious benefactor allows him to escape the Kent marshes for a more promising life in London. Despite his good fortune, Pip is haunted by figures from his past – the escaped convict Magwitch, the time-withered Miss Havisham, and her proud and beautiful ward, Estella – and in time uncovers not just the origins of his great expectations, but the mystery of his own heart.

A powerful and moving novel, Great Expectations is suffused with Dickens’s memories of the past and its grip on the present, and it raises disturbing questions about the extent to which individuals affect each other’s lives. In this Oxford World’s Classics audio guide, listen to Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Professor of English at Magdalen College Oxford, explore this timeless piece of literature.

Featured image: London by Montaplex. CCo Public domain via Pixabay.

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