Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Read Free Book Online

well, I am sure.”
    “I work hard and, yes, I do well.”
    “I often think of you,” said Estella.
    “Do you?” I replied.
    “I think about what I threw away,” she said. “I did not know true worth. Suffering was my teacher.
    “My own heart has been bent and broken into a better shape, I hope. Tell me we are still friends.”
    “We
are
friends,” I said, rising from the bench. “You have always had a place in my heart.”
    “We will continue to be friends then,” said Estella, smiling.
    The evening mists were rising. I took her hand in mine, and we went out of that ruined place. I knew we would never part again.

Charles Dickens was born in England in 1812. Dickens loved to write. When he was a teenager, he became a newspaper reporter. His experiences at the paper later helped him to develop realistic characters, conversations, and settings in his books. One of his early works,
The Pickwick Papers
, brought him worldwide fame when he was only twenty-four years old.
    Dickens is one of the most highly regarded writers in English literature. He wrote nineteen novels and many nonfiction books. Some of his best-known works are
A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist
, and A
Tale of Two Cities
. Dickens died in 1870.

Monica Kulling was born in British Columbia, Canada. Ms. Kulling is the author of the Stepping Stones adaptations of
Little Women, Les Misérables
, and
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Her credits also include three picture books, many poems published in
Cricket
magazine, and several poetry anthologies. She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her partner and their two dogs, Sophie and Alice.

If you loved this story,
don’t miss these other exciting
Stepping Stones classics :

by Victor Hugo
adapted by Marc Cerasini
    I looked up at the stage. A horrible creature was peeking through the hole in the wall. A creature with only one gleaming eye!
    Its face was ugly. Perhaps the ugliest I had ever seen. The monster was so horrible that some people turned and ran away. But bolder people leaned forward for a closer look.
    “It’s Quasimodo, the hunchback,” a man in a tall hat shouted.
    “Its the mad bell ringer,” screamed an old woman.

by Victor Hugo
adapted by Monica Kulling
    I could hear Javert and his men running behind us.
    Suddenly the lane ended with a stone wall! We couldn’t go forward and we couldn’t go back. And Javert’s men were closing in on us! There was only one way to go—up. I had been a strong climber in prison. But Cosette couldn’t climb the wall by herself. And I wouldn’t make it up the wall with her on my back.

by Charles Dickens
adapted by Les Martin
    “T he boy will be hung someday,” Mr. Bumble said sourly. But Mr. Bumble did not want to wait that long. He wanted Oliver out of the orphans’ home quickly. Before others followed Oliver’s evil ways.
    First he locked Oliver away in a dark room. Then he went to Mr. Sowerberry, the local undertaker. He asked Mr. Sowerberry to take Oliver on as a helper.