True Ending...

[Ahera]

Hi,

I have read ''Great Expectations'' and I have always been curious what the real ending could have possibly been, I know that the ending of the book was altered inorder to make it a little less sad but I have been always curious to know the real ending.

I'm glad I found this forum and I can see there are a lot of people who have good knowledge of books around here , hopefully someone will know anything about this....

Even a little information would be really appreciated.

Thankyou.

[HiddenGem]

I am copying this up from a rather useful Dickens collection I have, so excuse any typing arrors I may not have noticed. Before reading this passage you have to understand why it was changed: Much like filmmakers today, Dickens cracked under the commercial pressures of his readers and publishers, and was forced to change his ending into something that resembled a more satisfying denouement. The following takes place right after Biddy asks Pip, "You are sure you sdon't fret for her?" To which he replied, "I am sure and certain, Biddy. This is the final paragraph:

It was two years more, before I saw herself. I had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as being separated from her husband who had used her with great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a compound of pride, brutality, and meanness. I had heard of the death of her husband (from an accident consequent of ill-treating a horse), and of her being married again to a Shropshire doctor, who, against his interest, had once very manfully interposed, on an occaison when he was in professional attendance on Mr Drummle, and had witnessed some outrageous treatment of her. I had heard that the Shropshire doctor was not rich, and that they lived on her own personal fortune. I was in England again - in London, and walking along Piccadilly with little Pip - when a servant came running after me to ask would I stop back to a lady in a carriage who wished to speak to me. It was a little pony carriage, which the lady was driving; and the lady and I looked sadly enough on one another. "I am greatly changed, I know; but I thought you would like to shake hands with Estella too, Pip. Lift up that pretty child and let me kiss it!" (She supposed the child, I think, to be my child.) I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview; for, in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance, that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.

FIN

[XIE323]

Here is the real ending, I liked this one better:



It was four years more, before I saw herself. I had heard of her as leading a most unhappy life, and as being separated from her husband who had used her with great cruelty, and who had become quite renowned as a compound of pride, brutality, and meanness.
I had heard of the death of her husband (from an accident consequent on ill-treating a horse), and of her being married again to a Shropshire doctor, who, against his interest, had once very manfully interposed, on an occasion when he was in professional attendance on Mr. Drummle, and had witnessed some outrageous treatment of her. I had heard that the Shropshire doctor was not rich, and that they lived on her own personal fortune.
I was in England again — in London, and walking along Piccadilly with little Pip — when a servant came running after me to ask would I step back to a lady in a carriage who wished to speak to me. It was a little pony carriage, which the lady was driving; and the lady and I looked sadly enough on one another.
"I am greatly changed, I know; but I thought you would like to shake hands with Estella, too, Pip. Lift up that pretty child and let me kiss it!" (She supposed the child, I think, to be my child.)
I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview; for, in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance, that suffering had been stronger than Miss Havisham's teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.