Coming-of-Age : Well, this one's a freebie. Pip is a scared little six-year-old at the beginning of the novel; he's a grown-up man at the end, and the whole book is about how he gets from point A to point B. In fact, Great Expectations is pretty much your classic Bildungsroman : a fancy German word for a novel entirely devoted to telling a coming-of-age story. Gothic fiction : Creepy house.
Creepy old lady. Long-lost prisoners. To counter the lack of humour in A Tale of Two Cities , Dickens set out to provide character comedy, situation comedy, and especially like W. Thackeray 's Vanity Fair social satire. Dickens makes us laugh at a society that values wealth and class, that condones snobbery and social injustice, that transports felons for relatively minor crimes, and that has allowed a great national institution, the theatre, to deteriorate.
Although the utterances and actions of many of the characters make us laugh, each character evokes a different kind or quality of laughter. Like many of Wilkie Collins 's novels, Great Expectations introduces us to figures from the criminal underworld, in this case a lawyer and his nefarious clients, in particular, the escaped convict Abel Magwitch, the swindler Compeyson, and the murderess Molly Magwitch.
The reader must puzzle out what the relationship of such characters is to Miss Havisham, and if her eccentricity about Satis House's clocks and her wedding dress is somehow associated with them in the past. Charles Lever's A Day's Ride , which began in All the Year Round in July, , concerns a class and a lifestyle that Dickens personally held in contempt but that fascinated many of his readers.
Indeed, the very title of the novel may be meant ironically because the collapse of Pip's great expectations leaves him with no alternative but the bourgeois course of working for a living. Magwitch, the "warmint" who "grew up took up," whose memory extended only to that period of his childhood when he was "a-thieving turnips for his living" down in Essex, but in whom a life of crime had only intensified the feeling of gratitude for the one kind action of which he was the object, is hardly equalled in grotesque grandeur by anything which Dickens has previously done.
The character is not only powerful in itself, but it furnishes pregnant and original hints to all philosophical investigators into the phenomena of crime. In this wonderful creation Dickens follows the maxim of the great master of characterization, and seeks "the soul of goodness in things evil. The style of the romance is rigorously close to things. The author is so engrossed with the objects before his mind, is so thoroughly in earnest, that he has fewer of those humorous caprices of expression of which formerly he was wont to wanton.
Some of the old hilarity and play of fancy is gone, but we hardly miss it in our admiration of the effects produced by his almost stern devotion to the main idea of his work. There are passages of description and narrative in which we are hardly conscious of his words, in our clear apprehension of the objects and incidents they convey.
The poetical element of the writer's genius, his modification of the forms, hues, and sounds of Nature by viewing them through the medium of an imagined mind, is especially prominent throughout the descriptions with which the work abounds.
Nature is not only described, but individualized and humanized. Altogether we take great joy in recording our conviction that Great Expectations is a masterpiece. We have never sympathized in the mean delight which some critics seem to experience in detecting the signs which subtly indicate the decay of power in creative intellects. We sympathize still less in the stupid and ungenerous judgements of those who find a still meaner delight in willfully asserting that the last book of a popular writer is unworthy of the genius which produced his first.
In our opinion, Great Expectations is a work which proves that we may expect from Dickens a series of romances far exceeding in power and artistic skill the productions which have already given him such a preeminence among the novelists of the age. My sister, Mrs. In addition to his ability to twist a phrase and infuse it with clever, dry wit, Dickens is able to brings similar skill across the entire emotional range.
When he tugs on the heart-strings, he does so as a maestro plucks the violin and you will feel played and thankful for the experience. For now my repugnance to him had all melted away, and in the hunted, wounded, shackled creature who held my hand in his, I only saw a man who had meant to be my benefactor, and who had felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously, towards me with great constancy through a series of years.
I only saw in him a much better man than I had been to Joe. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one.
Dickens never bashes over the head with the emotional power of his prose. In fact, it is the quiet, subtle method of his delivery of the darker emotions that make them so powerful. Combine his polished, breezy verse with his seemingly endless supply of memorable characters that is his trademark and you have the makings of a true classic There are so many unique, well drawn characters in this story alone that it is constantly amazing to me that he was able to so regularly populate his novels with such a numerous supply.
To name just a few, Great Expectations gives us: - the wealthy and bitter Miss Havisham, - the good-hearted but often weak social climbing main character Pip, - the good-hearted criminal Magwitch, - the truly evil and despicable Orlick and Drummle, - the virtuous, pillar of goodness "Joe" Gargery - the abusive, mean-spirited, never-to-be-pleased Mrs.
Joe Gargery, - the cold and unemotional Estella, - the officious, money-grubbing Mr. Pumblechook, and - the iconic Victorian businessman Mr. The only criticism I have for the book is that I tend to agree with some critics that the original "sadder" ending to the story was better and more in keeping with the rest of the narrative.
However, as someone who doesn't mind a happy ending, especially with characters I have come to truly care for, that is a relatively minor gripe. View all 71 comments. Shelves: classics. Boring, dull, lifeless, and flat. This is so drawn out and boring I kept having to remind myself what the plot was. Best to get someone else to sum up the story rather than undergo the torture of reading it. View all 64 comments. This book, however, I don't know why I wasted my time with this.
Aside from the plot being boring, that Pip guy protagonist is the most annoying character in all of Dickens' books I've read. He seems to notice all of the useless details of the people around him. I would rather sit next to Uriah Heap than this Pip guy. Seth This book was absolute torture and truly, truly does suck. Jan 04, Matt rated it liked it Shelves: classic-novels. Admittedly, I can be a bit dismissive of the classics. By which I mean that many of my reviews resemble a drive-by shooting.
Even though I should expect some blowback, I still get a little defensive. I console myself with the belief that I have relatively decent taste. Indeed, I have two principled reasons for not liking many certified classics.
Strike that. I have one paranoid reason, and one semi-principled reason. The paranoid first. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to read so many so-called classics? A conspiracy of English majors and literature majors and critics all over the globe. These individuals form an elitist guild; like all guilds and licensing bodies, their goal is to erect barriers to entry.
This snooty establishment has elevated the most dense, inscrutable works to exalted status, ensuring that the lower classes stay where they belong: in the checkout aisle with Weekly World News and Op Center novels. What if they are wrong? Am I the only one who thinks it possible that true greatness lies within Twilight?
Okay, moving on. My principled objection to various classic novels is that I love reading, and have loved to read from an early age I also loved to complain from an early age. To that end, classics are the worst thing to ever happen to literature, with the exception of Dan Brown. Every drug dealer and fast-food marketer knows that you have to hook kids early in life. Forcing students to consume classics too soon is akin to the neighborhood dope peddler handing out asparagus and raw spinach.
The problem is worst in high schools, where English teachers seem intent on strangling any nascent literary enjoyment in the crib. At least, that was my experience. When my teacher tried to shove Dickens down my throat, I started to lose interest in the written word, and gain interest in the girls on the cheerleading chess team.
Great Expectations was one of the first classics to which I returned. Returned with a shudder, I might add. Heck, I liked it even. So there. Save your hate mail. I do not come here to condemn Dickens, merely to damn him with faint praise. In many ways, Great Expectations is prototypical Dickens: it is big and sprawling; it is told in the first person by a narrator who often seems resoundingly dull; it is peopled with over-eccentric supporting characters with unlikely names; and its labyrinthine structure and unspooling digressions defy ordinary plot resolutions.
The central character, the first person narrator, is an orphan surprise! It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pocket-handkerchief. On every rail and gate, wet lay clammy, and the marsh-mist was so thick that the wooden finger on the post directing people to our village — a direction which they never accepted, for they never came there — was invisible to me until I was quite close under it.
Then, as I looked up at it, while it dripped, it seemed to my oppressed conscience like a phantom devoting me to the Hulks. Pip helps Magwitch out of his shackles, and steals him a pie and some brandy. Later, Magwitch is recaptured, though Pip remains fearful that his role in the attempted escape will be discovered.
Later, young Pip is taken to the home of the wealthy old Miss Havisham, to play with her adopted daughter, Estella. She was left at the altar as a younger woman, and now whiles away her days in her crumbling wedding dress, all the clocks in her house stopped at Nevertheless, Pip falls in love with Estella.
This begins the long period of insufferable Pip, who will constantly struggle to rise above his station, while simultaneously racking up debts and alienating the people who truly love him. At some point, Pip is approached my Mr. Jaggers, a cunning lawyer with many clients who end up at the end of a noose he also has a compulsive propensity towards hand-washing. To receive his money, Pip is told he must travel to London, become a gentleman, and retain his name.
Pip does so, believing all the while that his benefactor is Miss Havisham. Of course, this being a Dickens novel, there is a lot more swirling about. Everywhere you look, there are colorful satellite characters who seem all the more lively for orbiting Pip. Though unlikeable at times, Pip is mostly dull. Mainly, I attribute this to the first-person narrative.
It is easy to look out onto the world, and harder to look inward. Thus, Pip is better at dramatizing the people he meets than in understanding himself. There is also Herbert Pocket, who becomes friends with Pip, even though their relationship begins with near-fisticuffs.
Pocket comes from a huge, dysfunctional family, that Dickens describes with apparent glee. Character lists may become necessary. Of course, Dickens hates randomness, and it is worth bearing in mind that most of the people you meet, even the secondary personages, will tie back into the main story. Great Expectations involves a bit of a twist. If it is possible to spoil something published in The bigger and messier the better. I think this has something to do with payoff. Usually, when you read a novel, it moves towards some sort of climax, a set piece of action or emotional upheaval and resolution.
With Dickens, though, you are moving towards a lesson. He was a great moralizer and critic, and he used his novels as a canvas on which to make his points. Great Expectations is no exception. It is a homily directed at a Victorian England stratified by class and family background, where station was defined even more by lineage than by wealth.
Against this backdrop, young Pip goes out into the world, abandons his family and faithful old Joe, makes horribly inaccurate judgments about people, and finally learns that there is no place like home. View all 25 comments. Feb 27, Maureen rated it it was amazing. Another reread, loved it the first time around, loved it all over again! I took me nearly three whole months to finish it. Not because it was bad, but because it dragged and dragged and there are far more intriguing books out there than Great Expectations.
The good stuff: An exciting cast of characters, most of them very weird, extravagant and almost to completely ridiculous. By far my favourites are Joe - because he's such a goodhearted person - and Miss Havisham - because I totally look up to her dedication to melodrama.
What also got me hooked were the huge revelations in this book. There were a few things that I did not see coming. The bad stuff: Too many words, too many pages. I was completely demotivated to ever finish this, which is why I made myself write a term paper about it so that I would actually pick it up again and read all of it.
I worked. Honestly, though, this book was originally published in a Victorian Periodical. Imagine watching your favourite TV Show and waiting for a new episode every week. Well, it was like that with this novel.
It was published in several instalments. The readers needed to be entertained enough so that they would buy next weeks magazine copy. This also means that Charles Dickens needed to fill the pages every week so that the readers got what they paid for.
And I'm afraid it also reads like that. If this novel was pages shorter, I might have enjoyed it more. There was so much going on that I didn't care about, so many details that could have been omitted. Overall a fine classic and a well-plotted story that bored me with its obsession for things unimportant. I can't wait to watch the adoption with Helena Bonham Carter, though!
Find more of my books on Instagram View all 19 comments. Note: this 2 stars is a 25 year ago high school required reading memory. I may do a reread of this some day so the two star is subject to change. View all 63 comments. How Great Expectations changed my own expectations Great Expectations changed my life. Up until Grade 11, I was simply an okay student. And no wonder. I barely remember doing any homework.
But something happened in Grade 11, and I think it had to do with Great Expectations. The book was assigned for English class, and we were supposed to start reading it over the Christmas break.
I procrastinated. Suddenly, I got excited about the past. Suddenly, I got excited about school. My grades improved. Oliver Twist. After that, I began reading Dickens on my own. I read Bleak House one summer. Ditto David Copperfield. University, perhaps? My loss. But my lifelong love of reading probably began around this time. Rereading this book over the past week has brought back that rush of excitement and discovery. Even in this format, I was enchanted again.
Joe, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, Estella, et al. What do I remember from my first reading? The idea of this woman who stopped her life from continuing at the exact time she was jilted was truly inspired.
For Dickens to make her a symbol of someone literally stuck in the past was sheer genius. All the details are there: the faded wedding gown; the stopped clocks; the spoiled reception table. I think my original edition had pictures of the mice and insects crawling in and around the wedding cake. Is there a more humble and modest portrait of working class life than Joe Gargery, the blacksmith?
I think not. Which: yeah, this is Dickens. The big climactic attempted escape by boat was okay, but a little old-fashioned. It was also hard for me to picture. I think the mysterious mood of dread and foreboding Dickens created was more important than the actual action.
What do I appreciate now? What happens midway through the novel, as Pip avoids Joe and the forge once his expectations have risen, is telling. We know it. We feel it. And we know Pip will eventually have to deal with that avoidance. And the dialogue is rich and dramatic. Jaggers perfect name! Herbert Pocket. Abel Magwitch. He gives them specific traits, tics, sayings, obsessions.
View all 47 comments. I was really mad when I finished this book last night. I have to say I enjoyed this much more than the other Dickens' books I've read which is funny because someone told me it was written for kids so I should read it because I would like it better probably and I did. It just felt too long and I kind of saw the twist of who was Pip's benefactor coming but at the same time I think the way everything is told and developed is really good. I think I mostly felt it was long because I had to read slowe I was really mad when I finished this book last night.
I think I mostly felt it was long because I had to read slower than I would have otherwise because the writing was more complex and I wanted to make sure I was understanding what was happening and fully understanding each sentence.
I think the last sentence or two of this book was really beautiful and so well written but it made me really mad to have it end that way despite the fact that it was a really good ending because it was ambiguous. I know it seems like no matter what happens with a book I complain and I think that's just my disposition as a person. Most of the characters were so unlikable though, especially Pip, so many times through out the book I wanted to throttle him.
Anyway definitely the best Dickens book I've read thus far, and I would say this ones a 3. View all 13 comments. Great Expectations. What a superb title this is; wonderful, in the best and truest sense of the word. It is upbeat, exciting, and full of intrigue. It quickens our pulse and gives us a little thrilling frisson.
We want to meet them. We want to share their anticipations and their pleasure. We are hooked into the story by these first two words. Perhaps most significant of all is that it is a short, memorable title.
Great Expectations is one of Charles Great Expectations. It was also serialised in the US — oddly a few days before - and on the continent. The silver lining in this cloud is that there are a plethora of illustrations by other artists, both contemporaneous and later. By now Dickens was a master of his craft. He had abandoned the lengthy titles, which sometimes took up half a page and which are rarely used in full.
He had also learned, wisely, that his public liked optimism. They do not attract us in the same way, nor are they timeless in appeal, whereas the title Great Expectations could have been coined yesterday. In other ways too this novel stands head and shoulders above some of the others which precede it. It is so weighty that it is in danger of toppling over, and many readers struggle with the complexity of it.
There are several interwoven plots, and although it contains some of his finest writing, Dickens makes few concessions to those who prefer one strong thread to follow. Conversely Great Expectations has a streamlined plot which moves along at a good pace. We are mesmerised by the forceful characters, and crave desperately to unravel the mysteries. In Great Expectations Dickens returns to one of his favourite themes: the story of a young man, and how he grows and learns through his various experiences.
Yet the difference in execution between these two is startling. It has a myriad of cameos, both comic and grotesque. It has a strong social conscience, humour, and tragedy. But it also has all the faults of a young writer fully on display.
It is overful of hyperbole, with a cardboard hero who is well nigh a saint. It is overwritten. With Great Expectations Dickens has reached his pinnacle. He has written a novel full of heartbreak and obsessions of various kinds, and the reader is putty in his hands. He has learned to control his expostulations; his declamatory outbursts, his overt theatricality, and therefore has written a much more gripping and persuasive novel. This is a novel with everything you could want. There is adventure, excitement, horror and passion.
There is madness and vast wealth beyond imagination, and a benefactor who is to remain mysterious until the denouement. There are vicious crimes, wife-beating and murders, duplicity and depravity, malicious cruelty, and characters crazed by love and obsession. There is humour, ridicule, absurdity - and overwhelming sadness and grief.
It is, in short, a perfect Dickens novel. It is a gothic masterpiece. You will thrill to the horrors of Satis House and its half-crazed inhabitant.
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