Kathy Acker: Great Expectations

Open Book Publications, 1982, softcover, 128 pages, 13.5 x 21 cm

First Edition.  Good condition, shows signs of age and wear.

Acker's Great Expectations rewrites Dickens through plagiarism, autobiography, sexuality, violence, and literary theft. Published in 1982, it belongs to her key early period, when appropriation became not just a method but a form of attack. The first chapter announces itself directly: Plagiarism.

The rear cover carries praise attributed to Alain Robbe-Grillet — a detail that sits perfectly within the book's own unstable authorship. Whether taken as endorsement, mask, literary joke, or suspect quotation, it adds another layer to the object: Acker's plagiarism reflected back onto the commercial surface of the book itself.