Dickens’s “Great Expectations” (Christian Guides to the Classics) [eBook]

We hear about the classics and assume they’re great, but many of us are too intimidated to read them on our own. Crossway’s Christian Guides to the Classics series is designed to help readers enjoy the greatest literature in history with the aid of a gifted teacher to answer questions along the way. Popular professor, author, and literary expert Leland Ryken situates each work in its cultural context, incorporates published criticism, includes brief bibliographies for further study, and successfully evaluates the classic text from a Christian worldview through analytic commentary.

In this volume, Ryken guides readers through Dickens’s quintessential coming-of-age novel, Great Expectations. Exploring perennial themes such as love, justice, and heroism, this book stands as the preeminent example of Dickens’s unrivaled ability to conjure realistic characters and palpable settings.

Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) served as professor of English at Wheaton College for over 43 years. He has authored or edited over three dozen books, including The Word of God in English and The Complete Literary Guide to the Bible. He is a frequent speaker at the Evangelical Theological Society and served as literary stylist for the English Standard Version Bible.

“It is hard to imagine a better guide than Leland Ryken to help readers navigate the classics. In an age in desperate need of recovering the permanent things, I am thankful that Crossway and Ryken have teamed up to produce excellent guides to help Christians take up and read the books which have shaped the western intellectual tradition.”
—Bradley G. Green, Associate Professor of Christian Thought and Tradition, Union University; writer-in-residence, Tyndale House, Cambridge