Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) (original 1861; edition 2002)

Great Expectations was much better than I expected. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it when it came up on a class syllabus, but I'm really glad I read it. There's so much going on in it I'm not sure where to jump in. The biggest complaint I've heard about this book is its slow pace. Yes, it is a very slow read. This is by no means an action adventure, or a crime drama, or anything of the sort. It's good old fashion literary fiction. That being said, if you sit down with it with a cup of tea on a rainy day, you're going to love it.

It is most definitely on my re-read shelf. ( )

This book, while incredibly dull to read, brings up an interesting theory that fate dictates who we are as individuals and how much happiness we have. It was fate that let Pip into his fortune, but then his own doing that got him out of it. While the concept of hard work argued that this was the true path to happiness, and Ms. Havisham proved that money did not make you happy, Pip was still unhappy being poor. I really began to think, because of this novel, what role money should really play in our lives.

My favorite Dickens story. Of course I always read it with the alternate ending! ( )

This is the story of Philip Pirrip (Pip) who grows up in a small village near London. He is orphaned as a child and is raised by his sister and her husband Joe Gargery. Pip helps an escaped convict Magwich, hiding in the marshes. Years later, Pip is the benefactor of a fortune from an anonymous donor who sets him up as a gentleman in London. Ther are many characters in the story who revolve around Pip Including miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella, who Pip loves.
Mr Jaggers and Wemmich handle his legal affairs in London. Great things are expected of Pip and his fortune, hence the title. However, Pip and his friend Herbert Pocket manage to squander the money and Pip ends up in debt...
Good story but a little long. The dialogue is hard to follow at times as the accents of the characters are quite strong. Great characters. ( )

Like many people, I read this decades ago in high school, and the image of Ms. Haversham, lounging in her decaying bridal dress, wearing just one shoe, the clocks stopped at ten-to-nine, all while her wedding cake slowly decomposed, has stuck with me all these years.

But I couldn't remember much about it. I thought Pip did get his "great expectations," but I couldn't be sure. I rarely re-read books, and I wasn't planning to do so this time. I just wanted to refresh my familiarity with the plot for a book club. But he grabbed me from the first page. I couldn't put it down. The further I got into it, the less able I was to stop reading and go to sleep.

Re-reading the book was an eye-opener. There was so much more to it than I saw around age 13. So many rich characters, a plot that turns on how we choose to deceive ourselves, resolution that is not a modern-day "happy ending," although it feels as though it's the right and fitting working out of things.

And the way that just about every character is woven into the essence of the plot? Gosh, Dickens was a clever writer. He has had such an influence on the evolution of the novel that I suspect it's hard to fully appreciate his contributions.

I scanned some reviews in which people dismissed the book as a huge, boring snooze. Not surprisingly, they were young and bored to begin with. It's not a book best read in high school. In mid-life or beyond, we have perhaps more of the experience required to really understand it.

It's a terrific read. ( )