Charlotte Mitchell

Charlotte Mitchell is a literary scholar whose career has been tied to University College London. She studied and taught in its English department, and she holds an honorary associate professorship there. Penguin Random House introduces her as a lecturer in English at UCL. She has also written a short history of the department for its own website. That history places the college among the first in Britain to admit women to degrees on equal terms.

The work that brings her to WebToTell is editorial, not fiction. An editor of a classic decides how the text is presented and writes the notes that sit behind the story. Mitchell is credited with editing the Penguin Classics Great Expectations. David Trotter, a fellow academic, supplies the introduction.

The novel is one of Dickens's late books. It follows the orphan Pip as an unexpected inheritance changes his life. This edition adds a map of Kent in the early nineteenth century, so Pip's journeys can be followed on the ground. It also has appendices on Dickens's original ending and on his working notes for the book. A reader can see how the author's plans shifted.

For a first visit there is only one book to pick, and it is this one. Read the novel first and use the notes as you go. If you dislike spoilers, leave the introduction until the last page. Then turn to the appendix on the original ending and compare it with the one Dickens finally chose.