This has got to be the most verbose and disgusting tale of misogyny in the English language. If there's anything worse, I don't want to know about it.

We have poor little Pip, who is "in love" with Estella just by looking at her, because she's pretty. So he spends the entire rest of the book feeling entitled to her. She never leads him on. She's never even nice to him. So of course she is breaking his heart.

And it's all Miss Havisham's fault that he's obsessed with her and that the feelings are not mutual - because Miss Havisham raised her to be aloof. Apparently if she were raised different, then when Pip fell in love with her by looking at her, she would've been appreciative, and grown up to be his obedient wife.

Reading this, and realizing it's been popular for over a hundred years, I wonder just what the fuck is WRONG with people?

Then I read that this story was based on Dickens' life. He was shunned by some girl, and never got over it. He had no idea what love meant, and how it was different from obsession. He went on to leave his wife after she gave him 10 children, and have an affair with a teenage girl. Thank goodness his lust was reciprocated by that girl child, or we'd have yet another autobiographical novel about a friend-zoning wench.

My first book of the new year and my first incursion deep into the Dickensverse is Charles Dickens' thirteenth novel Great Expectations. First serialized in the weekly publication All the Year Round in 1860-1861, the experience of reading this tale progressed a bit like Dickens' protagonist, beginning with wonder and anticipation, getting bogged down by the cruel mean world and finally just making me want to run home, to an author who wasn't paid per word.

Great Expectations begins big. On Christmas Eve of 1812, seven-year-old orphan Philip Pirrip, otherwise known to himself as "Pip," investigates the churchyard where his parents are buried, in County Kent on the desolate marshes where the River Thames winds inland to London, a carriage ride of five hours away. Pip has been raised by his much older sister Georgiana and her husband, a blacksmith named Joe Gargery. Both Pip and Joe have bonded over daily abuses by the sister, "Mrs. Joe Gargery," a woman of some renown for raising young Pip up "by hand." This includes beatings with a stick she calls the Tickler whenever she's in a foul mood, which she is most of the time.

In the churchyard, Pip is accosted by a shackled convict escaped from a nearby prison barge. The man threatens Pip with unspeakable acts unless the boy brings him a file to remove the chains and some "wittles" to snack on. Terrified of the repercussions if he fails to act and terrified what will happen if Mrs. Joe catches him raiding the pantry, Pip makes good on his promise to the convict, whose trail is being pursued by soldiers. Pip, Joe and Joe's insufferable uncle Mr. Pumblechook tag along with the hunting party and are present when the man is captured, having given away his position by getting into a fight with a fellow escapee.

Pip is to be apprenticed by Joe when he reaches age, but his fortunes take a turn one day when Mr. Pumblechook notifies Mrs. Joe that Pip has been requested up town by Miss Havisham. I had heard of Miss Havisham up town--everybody for miles round had heard of Miss Havisham up town--as an immensely rich and grim old lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led a life of seclusion. Pip is dressed in his finest suit, overnights with his uncle and the next day is delivered to Satis House, where they're greeted at the gate by Estella, the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham. She allows only Pip to see the lady of the house.

She was dressed in rich materials--satins, and lace, and silks--all white. Her shoes were white. ANd she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on--the other was on the table near her hand--her veil was but half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on, and some lace for her bosom lay with those trinkets, and with her handkerchief, and gloves, and some flowers, and a Prayer-book, all confusedly heaped about the looking glass.

Pip is instructed to play with Estella and over a game of cards, the girl renders him to tears over his course hands, thick boots and standing as a common laboring-boy. Pip returns home and dedicates himself to improving his station in life. A church clerk named Mr. Wopsle with delusions of grandeur as a stage actor has a great-aunt who operates a tutorial service; this learning does nothing for Pip except introduce him to another relation of Wopsle's, a benign young girl named Biddy. Upon his return to Satis House, Pip is challenged to a boxing match by a pale young boy also brought to play; Pip knocks him down. His torment by Estella continues.

Sometimes she would coldly tolerate me; sometimes she would condescend to me; sometimes, she would be quite familiar with me; sometimes, she would tell me energetically that she hated me. Miss Havisham would often ask me in a whisper, or when we were alone, "Does she grow prettier and prettier, Pip?" And when I said Yes (for indeed she did) would seem to enjoy it greedily. And sometimes, when her moods were so many and so contradictory of one another that I was puzzled what to say or do, Miss Havisham would embrace her with lavish fondness, murmuring something in her ear that sounded like "Break their hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!"

When time comes for Pip to be bound to Joe as an apprentice, Miss Havisham requests to meet Joe. She rewards Pip handsomely for his services to her with a gift of five-and-twenty pounds. While the men are out of the house, Mrs. Joe is struck on the head and left infirm. The most likely suspect is a malcontent named Orlick who worked in Joe's forge as a journeyman. To help care for Mrs. Joe, Biddy moves into the house. Four years into Pip's apprenticeship, while hoisting a pint at the Three Jolly Bargemen, Pip and Joe are approached by a feared London attorney named Mr. Jaggers, who informs Pip that a mysterious benefactor is about to change the boy's life.

"I am instructed to communicate to him," said Mr. Jaggers, throwing his finger at me, sideways, "that he will come into a handsome property. Further, that it is the desire of the present possessor of the property, that he be immediately removed from his present sphere of life and from this place, and be brought up as a gentleman--in a word, as a young man of great expectations." My dream was out; my wild fancy was surpassed by sober reality; Miss Havisham was going to make my fortune on a grand scale.

Whew! This covers the first act of the novel. Acts two and three see Pip off to London, where it's been decided he will board with young Herbert Pocket, the pale young gentleman who challenged Pip to a fight long ago. Herbert mentors Pip in the gentlemanly arts and the boys proceed to run up debt on Pip's allowance of 500 pounds a year. There's intrigue at the law practice of Mr. Jaggers and some buffoonery at the Pocket home. Estella re-enters Pip's life and tries to warn him that she is incapable of love and will only end up hurting him. He ignores her. When he turns twenty-three, Pip learns the identity of his benefactor and is kicked even further down the gutter.

Great Expectations features prose that shines like leather shoes given a polish by a devoted butler. The character descriptions are wonderful and so are the names of characters.

Bentley Drummle, who was so sulky a fellow that he even took up a book as if its writer had done him an injury, did not take up an acquaintance in a more agreeable spirit. Heavy in figure, movement, and comprehension--in the sluggish complexion of his face, and in the large awkward tongue that seemed to loll about in his mouth as he himself lolled about in a room--he was idle, proud, niggardly, reserved and suspicious. He came of rich people down in Somersetshire, who had nursed his combination of qualities until they made the discovery that it was just of age and a blockhead.

Dickens is an assured wit who finds ways to needle the human race whenever he gets the chance. Kindness and humility are ultimately rewarded. Greed and exaltation lead to misery. There is richness in poverty and poverty in riches. This might all be familiar to anyone who's ever heard of A Christmas Carol. The words Dickens crafts are frequently a delight but in this novel there's simply too many of them. 183,833 words to be exact. My experience with 19th century novels published in serial format and authors paid by the word is that you need a good pain reliever. Reading what was originally a serial now preserved in novel format was tedious.

One major weakness I found with the story is how Pip is reduced to a submissive protagonist. When you're Pip, cool shit just happens to you; you meet an escaped convict, you're invited to hang out with a rich old lady, you're asked to kiss a beautiful girl, you're given money, you're sent to London. For a laboring boy, Pip sure was born under a good sign. His goals are to become a gentleman and to possess Estella, neither of which I wanted him to succeed at. As far as I was concerned, failure could not come quicker. There's mystery as to the identity of his benefactor and who all the characters are, but Pip doesn't figure out much for himself; it's always somebody else helping him along.

Dickens described Great Expectations as a "grotesque tragi-comic conception." That's accurate. My memory of the contemporized 1998 film version with Ethan Hawke & Gwyneth Paltrow had me reading the signposts wrong. The real romance in the story is not between Pip and Estella, but between Pip and Herbert. It's a bromance and the more English literature I read, the more import I see placed on the stoic camaraderie between men, whereas the American version would probably tend more toward the romance between a man and a woman. Estella never becomes much more than an exotic creature at the zoo in this text, something to throw peanuts at.

I don't rule out a return to the Dickensverse but with a much shorter book and hot tea spiked with something medicinal like vodka.

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."

(Book 876 From 1001 Books) - Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.

On Christmas Eve, around 1812, Pip, an orphan who is about seven years old, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard, while visiting the graves of his parents and siblings.

Pip now lives with his abusive elder sister and her kind husband Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. The convict scares Pip into stealing food and a file. Early on Christmas morning Pip returns with the file, a pie and brandy.

During Christmas Dinner that evening, at the moment Pip's theft is about to be discovered, soldiers arrive and ask Joe to repair some shackles. Joe and Pip accompany them as they recapture the convict who is fighting with another escaped convict.

The first convict confesses to stealing food from the smithy. A year or two later, Miss Havisham, a wealthy spinster who still wears her old wedding dress and lives as a recluse in the dilapidated Satis House, asks Mr Pumblechook, a relation of the Gargery's, to find a boy to visit her.

Pip visits Miss Havisham and falls in love with her adopted daughter Estella. Estella remains aloof and hostile to Pip, which Miss Havisham encourages. Pip visits Miss Havisham regularly, until he is old enough to learn a trade.

Joe accompanies Pip for the last visit, when she gives the money for Pip to be bound as apprentice blacksmith. Joe's surly assistant, Dolge Orlick, is envious of Pip and dislikes Mrs Joe. When Pip and Joe are away from the house, Mrs Joe is brutally attacked, leaving her unable to speak or do her work. Orlick is suspected of the attack. Mrs Joe becomes kind-hearted after the attack. Pip's former schoolmate Biddy joins the household to help with her care.

Four years into Pip's apprenticeship, Mr Jaggers, a lawyer, tells him that he has been provided with money, from an anonymous benefactor, so that he can become a gentleman. Pip is to leave for London, but presuming that Miss Havisham is his benefactor, he first visits her.

Pip sets up house in London at Barnard's Inn with Herbert Pocket, the son of his tutor, Matthew Pocket, who is a cousin of Miss Havisham. Herbert and Pip have previously met at Satis Hall, where Herbert was rejected as a playmate for Estella.

He tells Pip how Miss Havisham was defrauded and deserted by her fiancé. Pip meets fellow pupils, Bentley Drummle, a brute of a man from a wealthy noble family, and Startop, who is agreeable. Jaggers disburses the money Pip needs. ...

عنوان: آرزوهای بزرگ؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ (علمی و فرهنگی، دوستان، افق) ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1975میلادی

با ترجمه: ابراهیم یونسی، تهران، سال انتشار 1351، با ویرایش، چاپ هفتم، با شابک 9789646207486؛ سال 1391، انتشارات دوستان

ترجمه: محسن سلیمانی انتشارات افق 1387؛ این نسخه، متن چکیده و کوتاه شده

آرزوهای بزرگ را می‌توان به نوعی زندگی‌نامه خودنگاشت «دیکنز» نیز دانست، که همچون آثار دیگرش، تجربیات تلخ و شیرین وی از زندگی و مردمان را، نمایان میسازد؛ داستان «آرزوهای بزرگ»، وضعیت سیاسی اجتماعی دوران خود ایشانست، و نویسنده حقایق اجتماعی را با بیانی لطیف به تصویر کشیده است

چکیده داستان: «پیپ» هفت ساله، زندگی محقر و فروتنانه‌ ای را در کلبه‌ ای روستایی، با خواهری بدخلق و سختگیر، و شوهر خواهرش «جو گارگِری»، آهنگری پرتوان اما مهربان، و نرم‌خو، می‌گذراند؛ او که روزی برای سر زدن به قبر مادر و پدرش، به گورستان می‌رود، ناگهانی با یک زندانی فراری محکوم به اعمال شاقه، به نام «آبل مگویچ»، روبرو می‌شود؛ آن زندانی، داستانی ترسناک، برای کودک سر هم می‌کند، تا او نانی برای رفع گرسنگی، و سوهانی برای رهایی خویش، از غل و زنجیری که به دست و پایش بسته‌ است، برایش بیاورد؛ «پیپ» هم از روی ناچاری و هم از دل‌رحمی، او را یاری می‌کند

زمانی از آن رویداد می‌گذرد، و «پیپ» کوچک، توسط زنی میانسال و ثروتمند، موسوم به «میس هاویشام (یکی از استادانه‌ ترین شخصیت‌های آفریده شده توسط دیکنز)» اجیر می‌شود، تا گهگاه برای همنشینی، و سرگرم‌ نمودنش، پیش او برود؛ «هاویشام» که در گذشته‌ ای دور، و به هنگام عروسی، معشوقش او را بیرحمانه ترک گفته، از آن زمان، به زنی دلسرد، و انتقام‌جو، بدل گشته‌ است؛ او «اِستِلا»، دخترکی زیبا، اما گستاخ و مغرور را، به فرزندی پذیرفته است، تا به او بیاموزد، که چگونه مردان را به بازی گرفته، و بدانسان انتقام خویش را، توسط او، از مردان بستاند؛ «پیپ» کوچک در آن خانه، به «استلا» دل می‌بندد، و تحت تأثیر توهین‌ها، و آزارهای دخترک، نخستین آرزوهایش، مبنی بر ترک زندگی محقر، و روستایی، و زیستن چون نجیب‌ زادگان، در او نقش می‌بندد؛ «پیپ»، سال‌ها نزد «جو گارگِری» شاگردی می‌کند، تا به عنوان یک آهنگر، امرار معاش نماید، اما رویدادی دیگر زندگی او را دگرگون می‌کند؛

حقوقدانی در «لندن»، به نام «جَگرز»، به او خبر می‌دهد، که یک ولینعمت ناشناس، هزینه ی تعلیم و تربیت او را، برای رفتن به «لندن»، و آموختن فرهنگ افراد متشخص، پذیرفته، و پس از آن، ثروت کلانی به او خواهد رسید؛ به این ترتیب، قهرمان نخست داستان، روستا و شوهر خواهر دوست‌ داشتنی خود را، ترک می‌کند، تا به آرزوهای بزرگ خویش، که یافتن تشخص، و لیاقت، برای دستیابی به «استلا» است، برسد

او در دوره ی زندگی در «لندن»، بسیاری از آداب و رسوم زندگی شهری، همچون طرز رفتار، لباس پوشیدن، و مشارکت در انجمن اشخاص فرهیخته، و با فرهنگ را، می‌آموزد، و «استلای» محبوبش نیز، که اکنون مردان بسیاری خواهان او هستند، با تجاربی مشابه، دست و پنجه نرم می‌کند؛ «پیپ» این‌بار به «استلا» اظهار عشق می‌کند، ولی «استلا» به او می‌گوید، که لیاقت عشق «پیپ» را ندارد، و به «بنتلی درامل»، مردی پست‌ فطرت، دل‌بسته‌ است؛ «پیپ» که همیشه خانم «هاویشام» را، ولینعمت مرموز خود می‌پنداشته، در پایان، به این موضوع پی می‌برد، که ولینعمتش «مگویچ»، همان زندانی فراری ست، که در کودکی یاریش داده بود؛

او همچنین درمی‌یابد، که «مگویچ» پدر «استلا» است؛ اما زمانی این راز برملا می‌شود، که «مگویچ» طی یک درگیری دستگیر، و زخمی شده، و در بستر مرگ افتاده، و تمام اموالش توسط دولت ضبط شده‌ است؛ از طرفی «استلا» نیز، با «درامل» ازدواج کرده، و بدرفتاریهای بسیاری، از او دیده‌ است؛ «پیپ» که به هیچ‌یک از آرزوهای خود نرسیده، به کلبه ی محقر روستایی خود، پیش «جو» بازمی‌گردد؛ هرچند «دیکنز» تصمیم داشت، تا «پیپ» را در رسیدن به «استلا» عاقبت ناکام بگذارد، و داستان را به صورتی غم‌ انگیز به پایان برساند، اما به توصیه ی دیگران، پایان آنرا با درس گرفتن «استلا»، از شکستهای زندگی، و بازگشتش به نزد «پیپ»، تغییر می‌دهد، تا به مذاق خوانشگران آن زمان خوش بیاید

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 21/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 30/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

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.

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.

Charles Dickens falls far down my list of preferred Victorian authors. I think he is overrated. His characters are one-dimensional, being either all bad or all good. His writing style requires too much effort to read. His stories are sensationalistic. All that said, this novel, with its suspense as well as twists and turns, is enjoyable, which is good, because I bought several fancy editions before reading it. (I have a book-buying problem.)

"In an arm-chair, with an elbow resting on the table and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever seen, or shall ever see."

Early in the novel, young Pip, a poor orphan whose parents and many brothers are dead, has two turning points in his life, which structure everything that follows. First, he meets an escaped convict in a cemetery. Second, a weird, vengeful, wealthy woman sends for him, very oddly, out of nowhere to entertain her and her adopted daughter at their house.

"Break their hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!"

"Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read..."

As a consequence of these turning points, everything in Pip's life changes. His ambitions and life goals (or expectations) change, his living arrangements change, he gets new romantic interests, he meets new people and friends. And a key question is how all this affects his behavior and his relationships to those humble people who truly care about him and who have long been his supporters.

"Ever the best of friends."

"But how could I, a poor dazed village lad, avoid that wonderful inconsistency into which the best and wisest of men fall every day?"

MEMORABLE QUOTES

"It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home."

"She said the word often enough, and there could be no doubt that she meant to say it; but if the often repeated word had been hate instead of love—despair—revenge—dire death—it could not have sounded from her lips more like a curse."

"Better ... to have left her a natural heart, even to be bruised or broken."

"The death close before me was terrible, but far more terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after death."

“I have been bent and broken, but–I hope–into a better shape.”

Dickens, like Shakespeare, lives in a genre all of his own. We have the term Shakespearian just as we have the term Dickensian, because they aren’t simply writers. They mastered the creative form of storytelling, and shaped history by doing so. Knowing this, I have always fought this feeling of trepidation about starting my Dickensian journey. What if I don’t like his writing? What if the length of his books makes the experience draining? What if…?
Well, I can finally tell you from my own “Great” experience, that Charles Dickens is worth more than the praise he has already received. Praise that has outlasted time itself, and the countless number of books that have been published since. My “great expectations” for this book, and for Dickens as a writer, not only met those expectations, but surpassed them.
This book was a thrill to read. The humor paired so well with the more dark aspects of the story. “Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs, because the admission that he or she did know it would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.” I laughed at that line for about 5 whole minutes.
His descriptions made it feel like I could reach out and touch the yellowed fabrics of Miss Havisham’s rooms. “But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow.”
The characters were unique and felt like they belonged outside of just your everyday fictional character. “‘Here’s Mr. Pip, aged parent,’ said Wemmick, ‘and I wish you could hear his name. Nod away at him, Mr. Pip; that’s what he likes. Nod away at him, if you please, like winking!’’... “‘If you’re not tired Mr. Pip–though I know it’s tiring to strangers–would you tip him one more? You can’t think how it pleases him.’”
The way Dickens uses similes and metaphors to make the ordinary extraordinary, was a literary device that I fawned over from the beginning. “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.”
I wish I could share every quote that I fell in love with, but I might as well just transcribe the whole thing. Here are two more quotes that I fell in love with, “Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.”
“Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.”
Something else that took me by surprise, besides watching all of the mysterious events unravel, was how eerie and ominous the book became the more it progressed.
Reaching the last few pages of this book, there was a textual note at the bottom which read, “ *Here begins Dickens’s new ending, as rewritten just before initial publication.” This “new ending” was so gratifying to read and made the whole story come together so perfectly. I wondered how Dickens could have written it any other way. Then the original ending had an editor's note which read, “At the urging of his friend, the novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton, Dicken changed the original unhappy ending of Great Expectations to a “more acceptable” one…” Then, after reading the original ending scene I became utterly speechless. I had no words, because Dickens holds them all.
I find it miraculous that people can write these funny looking lines called letters, form groups of them into what is known as sentences, and be able to saturate them with human emotion. This book made me feel, and feel deeply. This is the start of a very passionate love affair, between me and the works of Charles Dickens.

I hated this book a lot less than every other Charles Dickens' book I was forced to read in school. I know he was paid by the word and that's why he goes on so. If I had my way I would like to appoint an editor for all these over-wordy books to turn them into something somewhat more readable. But that would be a bit like kicking a holy cow in the ribs, wouldn't it?

دیکنز نویسنده‌ای رئالیست است. او در عصر ویکتوریایی به طرز شگفت‌انگیزی آثاری برجسته با سبک اجتماعی خلق کرد. او در آثارش با زبانی قدرتمند از دغدغه‌های اجتماعی روز سخن می‌گوید. دیکنز به خوبی قشر فقیر و طبقات پایین اجتماع را می‌شناسد.آرزوهای بزرگ را می‌توان به نوعی زندگی‌نامهٔ خودنوشت شخص دیکنز نیز دانست که همچون آثار دیگرش تجربیات تلخ و شیرین او از زندگی و مردم را نمایان می‌سازد...
والدین چارلز نسبت به او بی توجه بودند و این مسئله او را بسیار آزار می‌داد. چارلز بیشتر وقت خود را بیرون از خانه و با خواندن کتاب‌های گوناگون می‌گذراند. تجربه‌های او از دوران گوناگون زندگیش در داستان‌ها و مقاله‌هایش بازتاب یافتند و آزردگی ناشی از وضعیت خود و مردمان طبقه ی كارگر، یكی از درونمایه‌های اصلی آثار اواست.
دیکنز به عنوان پدیده ادبی دوران خود شناخته می‌شد و به دلیل واقع‌گرایی ، سبک نگارش، توصیف های منحصر به فرد ، خلق شخصیت‌های به یاد ماندنی و نقادی اجتماعی مورد تمجید واقع شده است.
آرزوهای بزرگ از بهترین آثار دیکنز است که در نگارش این رمان از درونمایه‌های تقابل اشراف و طبقه فرودست، عشق و وحشت، قتل و جنایت می‌گوید.
او در این کتاب به واسطه اعمال و رفتار شخصیت‌ها صفات بد مثل طمع، کینه، سنگدلی و خساست را در مقابل صفات نیکویی مثل قناعت، جوانمردی، بخشش و فداکاری را نشان می‌دهد. این همان تصویر آرمانی و واقع‌گرایانه‌ای است که باعث درخشش آثار دیکنز در جهان شده است.
این رمان نشان می دهد که مالکیت و ثروت نمی توانند درون شخصیت ها را تغییر دهند و پیدا کردن خود واقعی، نیاز به طی کردن مسیری طولانی دارد، مسیری که البته در نهایت انسان را به آگاهی می رساند....
بسیاری از آثار دیکنز نخست در قالب داستان‌های دنباله دار درنشریه‌ها چاپ می شدند و او اغلب، طرح و سیر تکاملی کاراکتر‌های خود را براساس بازخورد‌ها اصلاح می‌کرد. شاید اگر اینگونه نبود، با پایان بندی مطلوب تری در این کتاب روبه رو می شدیم ...آنچنانکه مد نظر خود نویسنده بود....

خواندن آثار دیکنز به زبان اصلی و ترجمه تفاوت‌هایی دارد. چرا که منتقل کردن سبک زبانی و صنایع ادبی خاص دیکنز به فارسی کمی مشکل است و به همین دلیل ، ترجمه ی عنایت الله شکیباپور به هیچ عنوان توصیه نمی شود ، چون نتوانسته نثر توانمند و بازی های کلامی نویسنده را به خوبی انتقال دهد...

”I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose had shrunk to skin and bone.”

n  n
How do you do Miss Havisham? She makes many lists of the twenty greatest characters from Dicken’s novels.

I hadn’t ever met Miss Havisham officially, although I knew of her. I have heard of her circumstances, discussed her in English Literature classes, and even referenced her in a paper. She is a tragic figure tinged with true insanity; and yet, someone in complete control of her faculties when it comes to talking about HER money. She was jilted at the altar and like a figure from mythology she is suspended in time. She wears her tattered wedding dress every day and sits among the decaying ruins of her wedding feast.

We meet our hero Pip when in an act of charity born more of fear than goodwill he provides assistance to a self-liberated convict named Abel Magwitch. It was a rather imprudent thing to do similar to one of us picking up a hitchhiker in an orange jumpsuit just after passing a sign that says Hitchhikers in this area may be escaped inmates. Little does he know, but this act of kindness will have a long term impact on his life.

n  n
Pip and the Convict.

Pip is being raised by his sister, an unhappy woman who expresses her misery with harsh words and vigorous smacks. ”Tickler was a wax-ended piece of cane, worn smooth by collision with my tickled frame.” She also browbeats her burly blacksmith husband Joe into submission. Mr Pumblechook, Joe’s Uncle, is always praising the sister for doing her proper duty by Pip. "Boy, be forever grateful to all friends, but especially unto them which brought you up by hand!” In other words she didn’t spare the rod or the child. Mr. Pumblechook is one of those annoying people who is always trying to gain credit for anyone’s good fortune. He intimates that he was the puppet master pulling the strings that allowed that good fortune to find a proper home. Later when Pip finds himself elevated to gentleman’s status Pumblechook is quick to try and garner credit for brokering the deal.

Things become interesting for Pip when is asked to be a play companion of Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter Estella. The girl is being trained to be the architect of Miss Havisham’s revenge...on all men. She is the brutal combination of spoiled, beautiful, and heartless. She wants Pip to fall in love with her to provide a training ground for exactly how to keep a man in love with her and at the same time treat him with the proper amount of disdain.

As Pip becomes more ensnared in Estella’s beauty Miss Havisham is spurring him on.

"Love her, love her, love her! If she favors you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces,— and as it gets older and stronger it will tear deeper,— love her, love her, love her!" Never had I seen such passionate.

n  n
Estella, the weapon of man’s destruction, walking with Pip.

Pip is fully aware of the dangers of falling in love with Estella, but it is almost impossible to control the heart when it begins to beat faster. ”Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it.” His hopes, almost completely dashed that he will ever have a legitimate opportunity to woo Estella properly are buoyed by the knowledge of a benefactor willing to finance his rise to gentleman status. No chance suddenly becomes a slim chance.

Pip is not to know where these great expectations are coming from, but he assumes it is Miss Havisham as part of her demented plans for exacting revenge by using Estella to break his heart. He is willing to be the patsy for her plans because some part of him believes he can turn the tide of Estella’s heart if he can find one beating in her chest.

"You must know," said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, "that I have no heart,— if that has anything to do with my memory."

The book is of course filled with Dickensonian descriptions of the bleaker side of Victorian society.

”We entered this haven through a wicket-gate, and were disgorged by an introductory passage into a melancholy little square that looked to me like a flat burying-ground. I thought it had the most dismal trees in it, and the most dismal sparrows, and the most dismal cats, and the most dismal houses ( in number half a dozen or so), that I had ever seen.”

As I was reading the book it felt like the plot suddenly sped up from a leisurely world building pace that permeates most Dickens novels to the final laps of an Indy 500 race. I was not surprised to discover that Dickens had intended this novel to be twice as long, but due to contractual obligations with the serialization of the novel Dickens found himself in a quandary. He had a much larger story percolating in his head, but simply out of room to print it. Nothing drives a reader crazier than knowing that this larger concept was realized, but never committed to paper.

n  n
The rest of Great Expectations exists only in the lost dreams of Dickens.

Pip is a willing victim; and therefore, not a victim because he fully realized that Miss Havisham was barking mad, and that Estella had been brainwashed into being a sword of vengeance. He was willing to risk having his heart wrenched from his body and dashed into the sea for a chance that Estella would recognize that happiness could be obtained if she would only forsake her training.

Pip like most young men of means spent more than his stipend allowed and as debts mount he is more and more anxious to learn of his benefactor’s intentions. It will not be what he expects and provides a nice twist to the novel. There are blackguards, adventures, near death experiences, swindlers, agitations both real and imagined, and descriptions that make the reader savor the immersion in the black soot and blacker hearts of Victorian society. Better late than never, but I now have more than a nodding acquaintance with Miss Havisham, Pip, and the supporting cast. They will continue to live in my imagination for the rest of my life.

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هل سنكون سعداء عندما تتحقق امالنا العريضة؟؟سؤال مرعب قد يدور في أذهان المتفلسفين منا..
طلاب مدارس اللغات يعلمون ان هناك 4تعاونوا على تعذيبهم..شكسبير..والأختين برونتي..و تشارلز ديكنز

و لكن تظل لامال عريضة مكانا في عقلى و قلبي ..فمن خلالها تعرفت على أسلوب النقد البريطاني المنظم. .وأيضا تعرفت على جزء كبير من حياة تشارلز ديكنز. .. فهو مثل البطل فيليب بيريب. عرف الفقر طويلا في طفولته بسبب سجن والده

مع فيليب عرفت مشاعر اليتم والفقر بدون مبالغة
و لم يحرمنا من الأكشن .. فنجد بيب يقابل مجرما هاربا..و يساعده مرغما..يقع في حب صبية مثله في سن 12 و لكنها تحتقره لفقره..تماما مثلما فعلت ماريا بندل بديكنز .تتغير حياته بفضل راعي مجهول ينفق على تعليمه و يوظفه. .فيصيبه الغرور ..و يتعالى على من ربوه..ثم تتحطم اماله عندما يعلم من هو راعيه

..لتتوالى الاحداث..التي تؤكد انه مهما فعلنا ..فسعادتنا و شقاؤنا بايدى الاخرين .للاسف

لا تخلو من الرعب بسبب تلك الانسة الابدية ..ميس هافيشام..التى لم تخلع