Great Expectations

Not easy reading by any means, but well worth the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. In case I missed any nuance Dickens was intending, I read the book's Spark notes. It turned out that I picked up on most of the action in the book. The Spark notes were a fun addition for the professional analysis that I missed not reading with a classroom.

This book is wonderfully written by Charles Dickens from it's irony, it's themes and it's characters. The themes Pip learns of gratitude and friendship can apply to anyone's life; while we might yearn for a more luxurious life, Pip teaches us that "money doesn't buy happiness." From the contrast of the saintly Joe, to the ice-cold Estella, Great Expectations brings the true roller coaster ride of the 1800's.

From a orphan boy to a gentleman. Pip's benefactor saw more than just an ordinary boy

Read this book in college and Pip is still with me.

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Classic - never read

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a classic about Pip, a poor boy who is given a chance to rise in the social ladder. As a young boy, Pip lived a miserable yet honest life with his harsh sister and her kindly husband Joe. One day, Pip is sent to Ms. Havisham, an eccentric and wealthy old woman. There, he falls in love with Estella yet she is haughty towards him. The novel details Pip’s efforts to become more than the blacksmith that he was “destined” to be. I recommend this book to older teens who are curious as to if Pip succeeds in becoming wealthy and wooing Estella. I rate this book a 2 out of 5 because I thought it was unnecessarily wrong and Pip was not a lovable character at all. Catherine P., grade 11, of the Yorba Linda Teen Book Bloggers

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✅ I had to read this in high school and found it tedious and pointless. Then, when I was in grad school, I was working in the lab running samples, which involved sitting and waiting for the machine to run for 7-1/2 minutes before I changed the sample. Someone had dropped a copy of GE in the hall outside my lab, where it lay for three days. Desperate for something to occupy my mind, I picked it up and started to read. I was amazed at how much better it had become in that time! The movie is also fine, the 1946 one, with Alec Guinness and John Mills. Check them both out!

I would consider Great Expectations to be the ultimate coming-of-age story in literature. At each stage in Pip’s young life, he becomes more complete, his childish fears and fantasies gradually replaced by the concerns and conflicts and aspirations of a youth burgeoning into young manhood. And yet the spirit of the little boy, flummoxed by the irrational treatment he receives from various adults, remains constant as he struggles to maintain his equilibrium and understand who he is and what is to become of him.
I recall seeing it as a Victorian morality story when I first read it oh so many years ago. What I had forgotten and what especially delights me on reading it now is Dickens’ droll humor and his razor-sharp depictions of characters and their foibles. His protagonist’s character develops gradually, as we get to understand the various aspects of Pip’s persona; but when he introduces a minor character, we are instantly treated to a 30 second piece of theater, complete with sounds, lights, costume and acting cues. We can practically smell the breath that emits from them. And it’s done with seemingly effortless ironic humor.
"A man who has 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."
Even his minor characters are seldom one-dimensional; they lead complex lives, even though we only get to peek into them briefly. A wonderful example of this is his account of the two totally separate lives led by the clerk Wemmick and the marvelous transformation that he undergoes during his journey from his “castle” to his humdrum working life. As always in Dickens, many of the characters are archetypes of their time and place, early 19th century England; to a degree, the characters are an integral part of the setting, icons that define the society they inhabit.
Conditioned are we as readers have become to fast-paced narratives, it’s remarkable that a novel written over 150 years ago can be so absolutely delightful and absorbing.