Charles Dickens at 200

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Since 1861, Great Expectations has been printed with illustrations many times. This 1937 edition features images by Gordon Ross, who signed and numbered each of the 1500 copies. The preface was written by George Bernard Shaw, a great admirer of Dickens, who called this his "most compactly perfect book." Shaw discusses the close of the book, for this edition claims to have printed "the ending which [Dickens] originally wrote and which has not previously appeared in book form." Dickens is said to have made the change, to create a more happy ending, on the advice of his friend and fellow novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton. With the original ending, Pip meets Estella on the streets, and they exchange brief pleasantries. Pip is glad to find that Estella is a different person now, changed from the coldhearted girl Miss Havisham reared her to be. The revised, more commonly used ending, has Pip and Estella meet again at the ruins of Satis House, vow that they are friends, "and will continue friends apart."

Great Expectations. With a new preface by Bernard Shaw and illustrations by Gordon Ross

Edinburgh: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club by R. & R. Clark, 1937

FROM THE LIBRARY OF DOUGLAS SPENCER AND DAISY DAVIS SPENCER, CLASS OF 1924