Charles Dickens is one of the greatest and most widely read of novelists writing in English. ""Great Expectations"" is only one of some fifteen novels, all of whose titles are common currency and all of which have been repeatedly dramatized for stage, screen and radio. Lisbeth Zwerger was born in Vienna, where she later studied at the Academy of Art. Internationally renowned as one of the finest contemporary illustrators of children's literature, Zwerger chose ""The Gift of the Magi"" as the first American story she illustrated.