Another reread, loved it the first time around, loved it all over again!

LOVED !

Maybe I need a break from the classics, simple nothing special as story goes.

if your serious about reading or lituature this book is a must read! prepare to be transported to a different time and place, Victorian England, a era forever known as Dickensian London! Dickens so encapulates this, he make a time period his own. that even the speech and laugage used in his books are how we think everyone spoke like back then. most Americans think of two dialects as Victorian "stuffy noblalty brittish" and Dickensian. I think the writing style was innovative and unique for the time like Mark Twain in his era. but the humor is lost on modern ears.

you start the book thinking it's a coming of age story about Pip. interesting enough. a good relatable protagonist. he spends so much time talking to and about minor charaters that you start to think this book is overrated and dragging a bit. then dickens the master ties the loose end and tells 5 or more charaters life stories before you even relize it. that moment of reconition is awe inspring. most authors take 300 pages to tell one person's story. Dickens tells many in 500 pages and it seems to short when he's done. his characters are so well devoloped that you feel as deeply for minor characters as you do Pip himself. I believe that everyone reading could possibly have a different favorite character. astounding from a first person narration. this character devolement and interweeving story telling is Dickens' gift to lituature, often mimicked never matched. only downside is the ending. someone must have really hurt Charles Dickens for him to write the original ending, and the rewritten one is only marginally more satisfying. sorry for the fervent enthusiasm but this is a top 5 for me! Dickens makes a Butcher from Georgia feel at home is Victorian London.

i'm not crying you're crying

n  "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."n

In Brief:

Probably Dickens' most critically-acclaimed novel, Great Expectations is the bildungsroman of the orphan Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, who is also the novel's narrator. As a boy, he unwittingly aids the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in trying to make his getaway. Shortly thereafter, the elderly and uber-eccentric spinster Miss Havisham summons him to be the playmate of her adopted daughter, the exquisite but aloof Estella.

Pip comes into a fortune from an anonymous benefactor which permits him to obtain a genteel education and entry into a world of commerce. Pip assumes that Miss Havisham is the source of his great expectations.

Pip was unaware, though, that Miss Havisham harbors some deep-seated resentments toward all males arising from being jilted on her wedding day by her fiance' Compeyson, who turned out a fraud. She keeps her ruined mansion as it was on that fateful day, wearing her wedding dress all the time and looking "like the witch of the place." She raises Estella to break all men's hearts, including Pip's.

The novel is definitely Dickens' most Gothic work, with its dark mood, haunted by a graveyard, a fire, prison ships, poverty, and of course the most macabre of all Dickens' thousand plus characters by far, Miss Havisham, who must have inspired, at least in part, the haunting Norma Desmond from the Hollywood film "Sunset Boulevard."

A revelation and a delight---those were my reactions on reading, then on finishing, Great Expectations, first read, and not enjoyed while in high school, only slightly remembered from that time(vague recall about who his actual patron might be).

This second experience, oh so many years later, has reawakened the joy of reading the Victorian serial novel. I looked forward to picking this book up each time I did so. I chuckled and laughed with some of Dickens words, names and descriptions, enjoyed the characters he developed, and the variety of emotions he could elicit. What a master.

Among my favorites---Pip's progress toward self knowledge itself, Wemmick and the Aged One, Herbert and so many in that little village, who are all drawn so well. And Dickens' descriptive skills--of the marshes, the boats on the Thames, Newgate, the death masks. So many details that complement and forward the action.

Now I want and plan to read more of Dickens as soon as I'm able. As always it's the scheduling that is the hardest part.

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.

This is such a widely read and classic book that I won’t be writing too much on it, as so much has already been said.

Probably my favorite thing about Dickens’ writing his is use of plot builders (I just recently learned this term), which are subplots that don’t seem relevant to the main plot at the time of their introduction. Then, chapters and chapters later, things connect in a seemingly impossible way that Dickens still manages to make feel entirely plausible. This, plus detailed settings, social commentary, well developed characters, and meaningful character growth, makes for an excellent read. Well worth the reread!

It is very difficult to know where to start with this review of Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ – a novel that has been for many years and almost undoubtedly always will be one of my very favourite novels.

Perhaps one day when I can find the time and the inspiration, I will write a lengthy, well thought out, elegantly constructed and truly insightful in depth review – perhaps managing to convey and capture a modicum of the brilliance of ‘Great Expectations’ and the literary genius of author Charles Dickens.

In the meantime, I will take the easy option and just say that ‘Great Expectations’ is almost definitely the greatest novel by one of the greatest novelists in the English language ever to have put pen to paper. ‘Great Expectations’ is an absolute joy to read from start to finish – it is funny, moving, compelling, exciting, thought provoking, intelligent and insightful. It has unforgettable and well-drawn characters (who can forget – Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, Joe, Estella et al?) along with so many unforgettable scenes forever etched in the memory. Dickens provides us with brilliant and perfectly paced narrative, along with enlightened social and political commentary. Basically there is something for everyone here.

Everything about ‘Great Expectations’ is done to perfection. Beyond that, I will say little more – other than that if you only ever read one book by Charles Dickens – then this must be it.

I guess I’ll try to pick this up again next year.
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Not saying I’m out of my reading slump, but I’m marking this as “currently reading” just to feel more motivated to pick it up as soon as I can.
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I love classic literature, Shadowhunters's The Last Hours trilogy is totally not the reason why I want to read Great Expectations.

Well, after all these years of loving and obsessing over literature in a somewhat unruly manner, I can finally say that I have read one of Dickens seemingly most popular and best-loved novels. This was a novel that I was initially in no haste to read, but now that I have, I've realised why people love it so.

Personally though, this wasn't my favourite Dickens, but it was a beautiful read despite that. I knew the basic outline of the plot, as I have admittedly watched a couple of TV adaptations over the years, but obviously those were not as satisfying as the book. We follow Pip throughout his life, and on the way we meet many interesting and quite memorable characters. Pip himself was at times a rather difficult character to relate to, he was inconsiderate rather often, which wasn't a joy to read about.

I favoured how the book is split into three parts, as it was easier to digest, however, I found that in parts of the book not a lot happened. I enjoyed reading about Pip growing up and the happenings during his childhood, but part two was a little slow, and I found myself wanting a little more. Part three was where things definitely became more interesting, and I loved the intensity of the ending.

I love a Dickens novel, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his works very soon.