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Great Expectations: Part 2: Mandarin Companion Graded Readers Level 2
Great Expectations is hailed as Charles Dickens' masterpiece. A gripping tale of love and loss, aspiration and moral redemption, the story follows the young orphan Xiaomao (Pip) from poverty to a life of unexpected opportunity and wealth.
In Part 2, Xiaomao (Pip) leaves his life of poverty behind to seek his fortunes in Shanghai and win the heart of the beautiful yet cold-hearted Bingbing (Estella). Xiaomao's world is turned upside down when his mysterious benefactor is revealed and his deepest secrets are brought into the light of day.
Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.
Level 2 is intended for Chinese learners at a low intermediate level, equivalent to roughly two to three years of formal study. Most learners who have been able to fluidly read Mandarin Companion Level 1 should be able to read this book. This series is designed to combine simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline that helps learners grow their vocabulary and language comprehension abilities. The more they read, the better they will become at reading and grasping the Chinese language.
In Part 2, Xiaomao (Pip) leaves his life of poverty behind to seek his fortunes in Shanghai and win the heart of the beautiful yet cold-hearted Bingbing (Estella). Xiaomao's world is turned upside down when his mysterious benefactor is revealed and his deepest secrets are brought into the light of day.
Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.
Level 2 is intended for Chinese learners at a low intermediate level, equivalent to roughly two to three years of formal study. Most learners who have been able to fluidly read Mandarin Companion Level 1 should be able to read this book. This series is designed to combine simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline that helps learners grow their vocabulary and language comprehension abilities. The more they read, the better they will become at reading and grasping the Chinese language.
- GenresChina
102 pages, Paperback
First published July 20, 2011
29 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Charles Dickens
13.1k books31.7k followersCharles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was a writer and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.
Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. His 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted, and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London and Paris, is his best-known work of historical fiction. Dickens's creative genius has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for its realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of psychological depth, loose writing, and a vein of saccharine sentimentalism. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters.
On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work on Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day he died at Gad's Hill Place. Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral "in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner," he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A printed epitaph circulated at the time of the funeral reads: "To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England's most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, 9 June 1870, aged 58 years. He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." His last words were: "On the ground", in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he lie down.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 17, 2019
A very dynamic short novel. It gets the reader to read something that's both simple and interesting. One of the best learners series. If you have already reached HSK3 level, this little beauty is for you.
July 21, 2017
Despite the limited vocabulary and the brevity, I really enjoyed this book. I think splitting it in two was a good idea - the extra length made it read more like a real story. Even though they only had 450 characters (plus 100 more say that you learn over the course of the book) they did a good job of making do with what they had, and I'd say the dialogue was reasonably good. I've never read the original "Great Expectations", but this one had me on the edge of my seat.
January 5, 2020
Loved this one! Such a great series, and Great Expectations Pts 1 and 2 are the most interesting of the series!
June 3, 2020
我喜欢这本书。我可以懂很多的字，也我学习了很有用的字。我也觉得照片很好，也如果我不可以懂，我可以看照片。
January 19, 2021
Had to finish! Great read for struggling readers in chinese.
March 5, 2022
Either the original story wasn't that good or a lot got lost in translation. Great for language learning though!
May 22, 2023
this book was more entertaining than the first, although i dislike the characters even more.
November 18, 2024
It's a fun book. Although the resolution takes a long time, there is a lot of good action in the middle. I'm sad that I'm almost done with Mandarin Companion's Level 2 Books! They're all so good.
April 16, 2025
Popsugar reading challenge 2025: Two books with the same title (2)
July 28, 2016
Despite the fact that the grammar and vocabulary are basic, the story is surprisingly moving and dramatic. Note: the language is still very authentic, even though it's relatively simple and geared towards learners. I'm moving on to the Chinese Breeze series of graded readers, since this series doesn't have anything else appropriate for my level, but I hope this company is able to produce more materials in the future. If you're at a low-intermediate level or above of Chinese, I highly recommend this book, along with Part 1 of the same story.
April 10, 2022
You'd think that I wouldn't read such an easy book in Chinese, but it turns out I'm actually pretty bad at Chinese, and this book was actually readable for me! Not only did I understand it properly, the story itself is still really great; I mean, it's based off of Great Expectations. If you don't really like trying to read Difficult Chinese Literature™, this is a great thing for intermediate level Chinese readers.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews