Dickens had two endings for this novel - one of continued disconnection and destruction and the other of healing and HEA. Despite the fact this may have been forced on you in school or uni, and you may have only skimmed it, it’s a worthy realism novel and deserves (and rewards) a dedicated read.

The supreme Dickens' tragi-comedy, the tale of Pip and his great expectations, the bitter Miss Haversham, her ward Estella and other great characters. I could not put this down, a Dickens tour-de-force, and a must-read if you intend to read only a few of his works. I gave this a Four Star 8 out of 12.

2009 read

It's a classic. It's a great story. That first scene of Pip in the graveyard, menaced by, or some say 'befriending' the escaped convict - the tension, the sinister backdrop/inferences, the reader's mind wondering what could happen to Pip. What an opener.

Yes Pip’s expectations met my expectations in this brilliant Classic. I’ll be reading more Dickens over the years as I have the full set.

Great Expectations was initially published in All the Year Round, a weekly periodical founded and owned by Charles Dickens. There were nine monthly instalment's, running from December of 1860 until August 1861.

In the novel, Pip, like Dickens himself, dreams of becoming a gentleman. However, Pip comes to realise that there is more to life than wealth and station.

The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. Something that I was taught at an early age.

It is frustrating being slapped around the head by classics that leave you trouserless in a lukewarm puddle. Because the failure, as Mr. Gass points out, is never with the book. You are to blame, always. I am to blame for not embracing Great Expectations with the same open-armed ever-lovingness with which I embraced Little Dorrit and David Copperfield and so on down the line. My reasons, thus: the second act loses the momentum and powerful perspective established in Part One, as Pip becomes a priggish late teen and the manoeuvrings of the cast of characters replaces the exacting and beautiful childhood reflections. The story doesn’t bounce, build or blow up for me. The plotlines hinge on a series of not-that-interesting revelations about Pip and Estella’s parentage. The characters (Joe excluded) don’t have that heaviness, that heart-crushing quality about them—instead, an all-purpose grimness pervades the novel, lending it a faux-gothic tone that doesn’t transform into swinging emotional lurches and surges. Also, Pip’s narration isn’t as interesting as an omniscient Dickens third-person panorama. Pip, as a writer, is a dull bugger. For me. Remember, I am at fault, always.

No soy mucho de amores y sus derivados trágicos. Esta es una de las pocas del género que me he leído, y la verdad es que me gustó mucho. Me encariñé mucho con el chico, su trama y ese amor tortuoso con una chica dedicada tb quererlo, pero no. Había visto el film en mi juventud y la verdad es que ahora después de leer el libro, creo que sí le fue bastante fiel a la historia del libro. No tengo mucho más que decir, prefiero dejar la reseña a los amantes del género. Lo aconsejo mucho, para esos días lluviosos y melancólicos en los que desea uno darse la oportunidad de entender al amor...el que no es complicado, sino más bien trabajoso.

It is almost hard to believe that Dickens stays the same when you read him on several occasions in your life. Somehow, the words and their meanings seem completely different. Obviously, it is my life experience that has changed, not the story. I find that to be one of Dickens' major achievements: the storytelling excellence that captures a teenager's need for complicated plots as well as the cynical grown-up's wish for reflection on human behaviour.

Great Expectations has both, and I found myself deeply engaged in the development of the immature character of the narrator, amazed at the techniques Dickens used to show the treachery and snobbery of the person who is in charge of telling the story - not an easy task, but wonderfully mastered. How is Pip going to show his faithlessness towards Joe if he is telling the story from a perspective where he is unaware of it? Dickens does it not so much through flashback moments (as in David Copperfield), but rather by describing the setting in a way that gives the reader more knowledge than the narrator. Very interesting.

And yes, I enjoyed the drama of the plot as well. There is no one like Dickens to make you shiver in the face of convicts, or shake inside Newgate prison!

Hard times ahead, picking another Dickens to read or re-read!

Update on the night I am wrapping up Bleak House: it is now my son's turn to start Great Expectations, and he is reading it for the first time, a young teenager. I can't wait to disagree with him in the same pleasant way we disagreed on David Copperfield.

I had many "great expectations" of this novel, having read so many great reviews. But I was totally disappointed. It is rather a hard business to be disappointed in a work of a literary giant, which is also a work that was much acclaimed by many readers over the years, and I tried my best to like it. But, despite my trying, it wasn't an enjoyable read.

This book is one of the popular works of Dickens and is widely read. And everyone is more or less aware of the storyline and the characters. The sinister household of Miss Havisham is not something to be easily forgotten. The creepy feeling you get when you enter the household with Pip will stay with you for quite a while. Apart from the odd old lady, there is Magwitch, the convict who contribute heavily to the eerie feeling you get all along. If I liked one thing in this novel, it is this eerie, foreboding sensation that enveloped the story giving it a suspenseful touch.

As to the story, I felt it so nonsensical, to be honest. Begging pardon from the fans of this novel, I have to say I couldn't make head or tails of it except that it was a coming-of-age story and of a young boy's metamorphosis from one who is selfish and ambitious to a genuinely good and kind man. If this was the "great expectation" that we were to look for, I wasn't impressed.

The characters were alright, and I liked some of them, especially the eccentric ones despite my apathy toward the story. But Dickens's writing, something I always admired, surprisingly worn me out. It was too verbose and took ages to come to a point. Perhaps, it may be due to my lack of interest in the story, but, for the first time, I felt tired reading his elaborate writing!

On the meritorious side, however, it touches on certain isolated social sections and brings to light those who are unobtrusive. I always have admired Dickens for his boldness in digging deeper into society. But if there were other merits to this novel, I was honestly blind to them. So, for all these reasons, I couldn't enjoy this great novel by Dickens. To me, it is my least favourite Dickens.

Oh, the beauty and the agony tears at me as I think about this stunning story.

The characters are vivid and the settings so well written that I was transported to the graveyard alongside young Pip and his convict, fear streaking through me as it was for that small boy torn by a near-impossible decision. And I’m there with Pip and kind-hearted Joe in the forge. I can feel the fire on my skin and taste hot metal on the back of my tongue. In my mind, I hear the crackling of the decades-old crinoline of Miss Havisham’s skirts rustling against the marble floors of the mausoleum she calls home. Amid the stopping of Miss Havisham’s clock, the cool radiance that is Estella vibrates from the pages, bringing her to life.

If you haven’t read Great Expectations, I encourage you to do so. Yes, it was first published in 1861, and the syntax is more eloquent than that we’ve become accustomed to, but once this tale grabs hold, you will forget the language and year it was written and be all in with these new friends. The love, the heartbreak and the lessons still hold true today. Some choices, once made, can leave long-reaching scars on the hearts of those we never knew we touched. A good deed can ripple through time to places never imagined. The consequences of our actions must be accounted for, and there will always be outcomes we could never have anticipated.

Great Expectations is the real deal! The deliciously-satisfying prose is the whipped cream on the proverbial sundae that is Dickens. The plot and subplots (and sub-subplots) are astounding! The way he can weave this tangled web yet keep the interest of the reader while giving nothing away until the perfect moment … and BAM! He has you, and you sigh with the perfection of it all.

You’ve missed a gorgeous piece of literature if you don’t dive into this book!

There is a reason that some books and authors are called “classics” and this book is a prime example of it.

The characters come vividly to life with all their flaws and their better sides, their desires and motives are depicted convincingly together with a whole society of ages past .

There are enough plot twists and surprises to satisfy even the modern reader while the language of the book although sounding peculiar today is itself worth noting.

The morals of the era are quite different from ours but in essence the author builds the story on the fundamentals of human nature, love, hope, hate, friendship and the fine moments and shortcomings of humans. And in this sense the book, as many other books and plays, is both old and modern.

Sometimes the book will appear slow paced to the modern reader but this is only to be expected considering how many years ago it was written.

It’s never late to read it!

thank god it's over

A young, amiable boy Philip Pirrip with the unlikely nickname of Pip, lives with his older, by twenty years, brutal, ( no motherly love, that's for sure ) unbalanced married sister, Georgiana, his only relative which is very unfortunate, strangely the only friend he has is Joe, his brother-in -law . She, the sister, beats him regularly for no apparent reason, so the boy understandably likes to roam the neighborhood for relief, thinking about pleasant things, the dreams of escape...anything is better than home. One night while visiting the graves of his parents, a desperate, fugitive convict finds him, and threatens the boy in the dark, disquieting, neglected churchyard cemetery, the quite terrified juvenile fears death , the man , a monster in his eyes... he complies with the demands... Pip provides the criminal with food, stealing from his sister but always with the threat of discovery and vicious punishment, the whipping, he knows will follow . Later this has surprising consequences in the future when Pip becomes older, if not wiser. An unexpected invite from the eccentric, man -hating Miss Havisham the riches person in the area, (who is nuttier than a Fruitcake) changes Pip prospects for the better. How weird is Miss Havisham? This recluse still wears her wedding dress, that is literally falling apart, repairs can only do so much decades after being jilted at the altar, she can never forget the unworthy, treacherous fiance who took advantage of the naive woman, for financial gain and move on...sad . Mysterious money given to the lad arrives, from who knows where but Pip is happy and doesn't ask too many questions , would you in his bad situation? So he goes to London to become a gentleman, the poor boy now can have a real life, is happy for the first time and even better has a chance, maybe, a hope, to be honest a miracle would have to occur to win the affection of Estella, the beautiful, intelligent, however somewhat arrogant girl... Miss Havisham foster daughter. Unusual ending keeps this always interesting, as we the reader follow lonely Pip , in his almost fruitless struggle for success, yet this famous classic has one of the most original characters ever imagined in literature . Miss Havisham...you begin by laughing at this pathetic woman until the melancholy shows and your heart changes little by little, you feel...and realize the anguish , the hurt deep inside her, and sympathy goes out to the unhappy lady, her pain is real. A "person" that cannot be forgotten.