Final answer:
Charles Dickens revised the ending of Great Expectations before the first publication.
Step-by-step explanation:
The correct answer is A. Before the first publication. Charles Dickens revised the ending of Great Expectations before it was first published. Originally, the story had a more pessimistic ending where Pip and Estella didn't end up together. However, Dickens was persuaded by his friend to change the ending to a more hopeful one. The revised ending was included in the first book edition, which was published in 1861.
Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens' second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person.