Chapter 59 (original)
Original: Pip glimpses a remarried Estella in London; they part. Believed by many critics (Shaw, Garis) to be truer to the book's moral arithmetic.
Read in Books4Free →The Debated Endings
From Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Dickens revised the ending at Bulwer-Lytton's urging. Critics from George Bernard Shaw onward have debated whether the published reunion betrays the novel's logic.
Chapter 59 (published)
Revised: "I saw no shadow of another parting from her" — the ambiguous, possibly hopeful close. Endlessly debated for sincerity vs. concession.
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