狄更斯(1812—1870)，英国十九世纪文豪。《远大前程》是他的主要作品之一。

孤儿匹普从小由姐姐抚养，受雇于贵族郝薇香，并且爱上了她的养女艾丝黛拉，一心想成为“上等人”。他小时候好心搭救的一名逃犯在国外发财致富，为报答救命之恩，巧妙安排他去伦敦接受上等教育，进入上流社会。然而命运并不与匹普的希望接轨：艾丝黛拉另嫁他人，逃犯被擒、遗产充公，匹普的“远大前程”转眼化为泡影。整部小说情节扣人心弦又感人至深，希望由萌生而至幻灭的过程唤起一代又一代读者的共鸣。不少西方评论家将其推崇为狄更斯最出色的作品。

匹普是个孤儿，从小跟姐姐、姐夫生活。他在当地贵族郝薇香小姐家遇到了其养女艾丝黛拉后，对她心生爱慕，但美丽高傲的艾丝黛拉却对他报以嘲笑和挖苦。匹普后来受一位不愿透露姓名的恩人资助，到伦敦学做绅士。金钱使匹普染上了上流社会的恶习，迷失了纯朴的天性。艾丝黛拉也嫁作他人妇。在经历了人生的大起大落之后，匹普两手空空地回到家乡，最终和结束了不幸婚姻的艾丝黛拉走到一起。

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Y father's family name being Pirrip,and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

I give Pirrip as my father's family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister—Mrs.Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,' I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine -- who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle -- I am indebted for a belief I religiously enter tained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.

Ours was the marsh country, down by the river, within,as the river wound, twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression of the identity of things,seems to me to have been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip, late of this parish,and also Georgiana wife of the above, were dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham,Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it,was the marshes; and that the low leaden line beyond,was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the small bundle of shivers growing afraid of it all and beginning to cry, was Pip.

'Hold your noise!' cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch.'Keep still, you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!'

A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man With no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.

'O! Don't cut my throat, sir,' I pleaded in terror. 'Pray don't do it, sir.'  'Tell us your name!' said the man. 'Quick!'

'Pip, sir.'

'Once more,' said the man, staring at me. 'Give it mouth!'

'Pip. Pip, sir.'

'Show us where you live,' said the marl 'Pint out the place!'

I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.

The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside-down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread. When the church came to itself—for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet—when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously.

'You young dog,' said the man, licking his lips, 'what fat cheeks you ha' got.'

I believe they were fat, though I was at that time under sized for my years, and not strong.

'Darn Me if I couldn't eat 'em,' said the man, with a threat ening shake of his head, 'and if I han't halfa mind to't!'

I earnestly expressed my hope that he wouldn't, and held tighter to the tombstone on which he had put me; partly,to keep myself upon it; partly, to keep myself from crying.P3-5