How? How? How did I get to the age of 40 without having read this novel? Better yet, in 1860, when the average person had not the wherewithal to take a bath, how did Dickens so profoundly understand the human condition? This novel is quite possibly the most tender tribute to friendship I have ever encountered in a single book. Great Expectations is incredibly modern and is filled with flawed and likable characters, realistic and break-your-heart friendships, mystery, romance, and redemption, redemption, redemption. Yes, the language is dated, get over it. This is a masterpiece and Pip, well, you've heard of Pip, he's always in the crossword puzzles. . . he's someone you should know.

Ce poți să adaugi în plus despre un roman care e o capodoperă a literaturii universale. Povestea lui Pip este veche de când lumea, tot ceea ce se obține simplu și fără muncă se risipește ușor.

welcome to...GREAT EXPECTA(JUNE)S.

that was so bad. i need to write fast - i'm expecting a SWAT team to enter my cute apartment via my lovely floor-to-ceiling windows and put me out of my misery at any moment. you can't murder the art of punning like that and expect to escape with your life.

in the meantime. welcome back to the series in which me and elle read a long classic over the course of the month, because we are otherwise too cowardly!

this book in particular has been haunting me. maybe if my expectations were so great i'd have actually read it, instead of having it on my tbr for over 5 years!! ha ha...ha...ha.

oh lord.

we're also reading this for our book club -
join the discussion here
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let's get into it.

DAY 1: CHAPTERS 1 & 2
no wonder this lil orphan's existence is so miserable. his name is philip pirrip. that's a recipe for disaster if i've ever heard one.

i have been putting this book off for approx 10 years (my mom bought me a copy, for some reason, in my youth), but it is immediately more readable than i thought.

not exactly surprising. this is coming from the girl who bought little house on the prairie at the age of 8 at the scholastic book fair, took one look at the old timey prose, and chucked it in the (literal) back of my closet with a post-it note saying DON'T READ UNTIL YOU'RE 10.


DAY 2: CHAPTERS 3 & 4
charles dickens is funnier than 90% of netflix's most recent standup releases. and i like standup.

IT'S THE ROMAN NOSES PASSAGE THAT THE DAD READS TO DOMHNALL GLEESON IN ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!! suddenly this whole thing is a mental bill nighy audiobook for me. what a treat.


DAY 3: CHAPTERS 5 & 6
incredibly small section today. it's like charles dickens knew that centuries in the future, a very hungover girl would be attempting the fifth and sixth chapters, and took mercy.


DAY 4: CHAPTERS 7 & 8
miss havisham AND estella!! even i have heard of these heavy hitters. this is a star-studded book.
"Her contempt for me was so strong, that it became infectious, and I caught it." damn good line.


DAY 5: CHAPTERS 9 & 10
i just realized that roughly 70% of the preconceived notions i had about this book are actually about oliver twist. oops.


DAY 6: CHAPTERS 11 & 12
"I saw speckle-legged spiders with blotchy bodies running home to it, and running out from it, as if some circumstances of the greatest public importance had just transpired in the spider community." this reads like a viral tweet.

so many wasted years not reading this book because i thought the language would be intimidating, when actually it's 99% memes.


DAY 7: CHAPTERS 13 & 14
estella is my favorite character, easy. i am so obsessed with mean girls. i've told this story before, but i have an ex-boyfriend who was once in a fight with one of his roommates, who was very rude, and i was talking him up and on his side every moment up to and including when i met her, and then forever after i wanted her to like me more than anything.

i would forsake pip, joe, the neighborly gang, the sister, and the convicts for estella in a heartbeat. not havisham, though. i love that creepy ghoul too.


DAY 8: CHAPTERS 15 & 16
there is nothing a classic author likes more than the idea of Being Hit Hard On The Head Changing Your Personality. it seems like a huge indulgence to them specifically that there's any scientific backing to that at all.


DAY 9: CHAPTERS 17 & 18
title mention title mention title mention!!!
how fun. go pip.


DAY 10: CHAPTERS 19 & 20
as long as there have been books there's been this annoying Kid Starts Out With Nothing Then Gets Something And Immediately Sucks character arc.


DAY 11: CHAPTERS 21 & 22
return of the pale young gentleman!!! love a surprise reappearance from a fan favorite.

i typically HATE cannot STAND and generally ABHOR flashbacks and backstories of any kind, but dickens is so funny and i like these characters so much that i'm having a damn blast. what is going on!!


DAY 12: CHAPTERS 23 & 24
really feeling like those who read austen for the humor would really like this book.........


DAY 13: CHAPTERS 25 & 26
one of those I Am Not Into This Right Now But Maybe It's Not You It's Me Or Something days.


DAY 14: CHAPTERS 27 & 28
if you told me before today that a paragraph mainly about being a blacksmith would be enough to bring a tear to my eye i would have laughed in your damn face. but i am a joe loyalist to the core.

unless he's ever pitted against estella.


DAY 15: CHAPTERS 29 & 30
“Oh! I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, I have no doubt,” said Estella, “and of course if it ceased to beat I should cease to be. But you know what I mean. I have no softness there, no—sympathy—sentiment—nonsense.”

i just love her more and more every time we encounter her.


DAY 16: CHAPTERS 31 & 32
single most entertaining-sounding production of hamlet of all time appears to be depicted in these pages.
but then, i'm no hamlet stan. too much whining.


DAY 17: CHAPTERS 33 & 34
when charles dickens said “You speak of yourself as if you were some one else.” and sally rooney said “Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn't know if she would ever find out where it was or become part of it.”
never doubt my ability to tie absolutely everything in to sally.


DAY 18: CHAPTERS 35 & 36
“(breathing sherry and crumbs)” has gotta be one of the great parenthetical insertions.


DAY 19: CHAPTERS 37 & 38
this is boring today. and the chapters are long. i'm whiny about it.
oof, AND i have to deal with “Estella was set to wreak Miss Havisham’s revenge on men, and that she was not to be given to me until she had gratified it”??? GIVEN???
not our finest day.
it was fun to see estella yelling at havisham, though.


DAY 20: CHAPTERS 39 & 40
you have to love this book for its dedication to hosting the Return of a Fan Favorite. basically the entire thing is about introducing a character, sending him away, cracking jokes for 80 pages, and bringing him on back.
AND WHAT A RETURN IT IS! holy moley.
my first thought, of COURSE, is how this impacts estella. and the answer: to me, rad.
and on to part 3!


DAY 21: CHAPTERS 41 & 42
i guess the phrase "beggars can't be choosers" had not yet originated when this was published. in 100 bce or whatever.


DAY 22: CHAPTERS 43 & 44
i am so thoroughly Team Pip Does Not Automatically Deserve Estella Just Because He Thought He Was Entitled, And Also No One Does that i keep forgetting about the no one does part and just getting mad at pip.
he did make a good ass speech to her, though. that i can admit.


DAY 23: CHAPTERS 45 & 46
today in another book i'm reading i learned that charles dickens once took a 7 hour walk through london overnight because he got in a fight with his wife, in an instance i am forced to call "the first ever hot girl walk."
i can't help thinking i would have picked this up ages ago had i only known that dickens was a drama queen.


DAY 24: CHAPTERS 47 & 48
the world is just goddamn awful today so i guess my "escapist reading" will be about when everyone was a weird little gutter rat in england.
i'm going to be honest. i have almost no clue what's going on here.
as jpuzzle in the book club said, WHY DOES EVERYONE KNOW EACH OTHER.


DAY 25: CHAPTERS 49 & 50
finding ms havisham super relatable. i too find the only way to respond to seeing the consequences of my own actions is by setting myself on fire.
THIS BOOK IS SO CRAZY!!!


DAY 26: CHAPTERS 51 & 52
took a day off right at crunch time and baby, i will not be catching up today!! pray for short chapters for me, my brethren.
and so it shall be!!!


DAY 27: CHAPTERS 53 & 54
also will not be catching up today. i have forgotten how to read. (it went away with my bodily autonomy and human rights! buh dum ch.)
did charles dickens have a ration on how many characters he could use? everyone is pulling triple duty at this point.
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” i have that quote framed!
anyway, our short-chapter-day luck has run out, my friends.


DAY 28: CHAPTERS 55 & 56
ok. have to catch up today. running out of time.
the drama of it all!!


DAY 29: CHAPTERS 57, 58, & 59
honestly rude for chapters to be long on a catch-up day. but i am strong and full of life and i will finish!!!
ok...this is everything. the real love stories here are pip and joe and pip and herbert. brings a tear to mine eye. last chapter time!
bye, estella!! all my love!


OVERALL
this whole thing was suuuuch a pleasant surprise: more readable, more amusing, and more interesting than i thought. i got bogged down in the middle (and i preferred the alternate / sadder / more realistic ending, when i sought it out) but in the end, cool fun yay!
rating: somewhere between 3.5 and 4

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.

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.

It's the book that turned me off of Dickens. I still shudder when I think of being forced to read it in high school. The descriptions just go on forever...make it stop!

Pip, an orphan, meets an escaped convict and treats him kindly. This simple action will change Pip's life forever. Pip falls in love with Estella, a cold-hearted girl, who, thanks to bitter Miss Havisham, has been well-trained as a heartbreaker. She is wealthy and looks down on Pip, a poor boy with no expectations.

When a mysterious benefactor gives Pip a fortune, Pip is sure that becoming a gentleman is the way to win Estella's heart. Pip spends most of the novel feeling ashamed of the people who love him and sacrifices everything to pursue Estella, who couldn't care less for him.

I have never been brave enough to pick this one up again, even though I may well appreciate it now. This book is perfect for readers who enjoy a writer who uses twenty words when one will do!

I'm a somewhat green Dickens fan (having only read A Christmas Carol), but loved this 150th Anniversary Edition of Great Expectations! As in A Christmas Carol, this tale often portrays an eerie atmosphere with creepy characters.....like the mysterious escaped convict Abel Magwitch who threatens Pip's young life in the graveyard, the jealous and revengeful Old Orlick with his evil ways, and the embittered and decaying Mrs. Havisham who pines for lost love and leads Pip astray.

In this coming-of-age story, the orphaned Pip is brought up by the heavy hand of his ill-tempered older sister and (thankfully) her caring, but poor blacksmith husband Joe (my favorite character), and as Pip becomes a young man, his secret dream to leave his present sphere of life (as Joe's apprentice) and be brought up as a gentleman (winning the hand of the beautiful Estella) seems impossible until a mysterious benefactor makes his dream come true.....or so he thinks.

Written with meticulous character detail, this suspenseful, funny and entertaining adventure follows Pip's "educational" and eventful life ultimately leading to the true source of his "Great Expectations".

n  LITERARY EXPECTATIONSn

It is said that Satisfaction is equal to Reality minus Expectations.

I reckon then that my rating should be around Eight Stars since Reality would be Five Stars and as my Expectations were on the negative axis—with an absolute value of about three--, it has resulted in a positive eight. The Great Eight, I should anoint this book, then.

How and when were my expectations formed? If I depart on search of my forgotten memories, I think it all started with those black & white films, possibly filmed in the 1940s, watched on TV a couple of decades later and depicting bleak houses, miserable families, desolate cemeteries, poor and unhappy children. A child horrified by cruel settings.

Then it followed a couple of encounters with the somewhat compulsory activity of reading still incomprehensible text with abstruse terms, obscure and alien meaning and unpronounceable titles. The Pickwick Papers… phew…!!!

That was Dickens for me. Clearly on the negative values.

Expectations were affected by my relatively recent read of Bleak House. The humour and the excellent construction of the plot were the reality checkers. That could have also been an exception, though.

But yet again, the humour in GE captivated me, both in some of the situations, the characterisation and the language -- with the effective use of repetitions. Yes, I also appreciated Dicken’s campaign against the social injustices, the moral hypocrisies and the quagmires of the legal system of his time. But these I observed more from the box of a historian and not from the sentiments of a citizen. The world has changed too much for engaging that kind of empathy. And the somewhat caricatured characters, drawn in black and white, gained the solidity of statues. If not made of flesh they were imposing.

Full redemption was sealed when I then watched this filmed version , one of the many old versions that may have daunted me years ago…and found it delightful… and funny. My thinking of Dickens now is of a sophisticated facetious writing, and this I could now detect in the filmed version. May be the quality of the camera work, surprisingly sophisticated, as well as the excellent acting, enchanted me. No longer perceived as dreary, the old prejudices have positively been dissolved. Even the filmed version has been exorcised.

Braced with courage, I took the risk to watch a newer filmed version. This is dangerous because often modern renditions of classics which have been filmed many times, is to depart from the book and offer us an excursion into the sensational, with explicit passion and sex, and modern dialogue. Well, this 2012 production was another joy. Excellent acting and filming. But the most interesting feature was their fleshing out the somewhat caricatured characters. Modern psychology has been infused in the reasoning and motivations of the personalities, so that we understand them more. Yes, even the eccentric Miss Havisham or the much more complex Estella come across not as endearing characters thanks to their peculiarity, but as multifaceted individuals. Likelihood at the expense of the humour,-- but everything has a price.

This other version used the original ending, since Dickens changed it after his friend Edward Bulwer-Lytton advised him to do so. This was another perk of watching this excellent version.


We expect expectations to be better than reality…. It is nice when reality is the other way around.

5 stars to Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. So many good choices in the world of Charles Dickens, but ultimately, even though I love me some ghosts of Scrooge, Great Expectations wins out.

Most of us probably were "forced" to read this book in junior high or high school. I am one of those people; however, I was an English major in college and read it again for one of my courses. It's one of those books that gets better as you get older and stronger each time you read it. If you only read it once, or you barely recall the story, I implore you to give it another chance.

This is the story of America. This is the story within all of us. It challenges culture and race. It challenges rich and poor. It challenges men and women. It challenges children and adults. It challenges marriage and being single. It challenges everything.

There are multiple plots and stories within this book. The characters are classic icons. The themes are intrinsic and speak to everything that America is built on.

At first, I admit it could feel overdone. The plot is varied and complex at times, but within each story, the lessons you learn without even realizing it are the little surprises you encounter when you least expect it.

Who can't imagine the wedding dress? Who hasn't contemplated what it would be like to steal something (even a pencil or a photocopy at work)? Who hasn't contemplated what love means?

You can't escape the realism and the drama all wrapped up in this book.

It's what helps you formulate so many ideas of life.

Go back and read it again if you haven't read it in years and didn't have an open mind. Eh, then watch the movie if you still have questions.

I had to wade through this for Year 12 English, loathed it the whole way through, and can't undersatnd the enthusiastic praise it always seems to receive. I don't get it! What's to like? The story centres around a completely unlikable twit and a stone cold bitch, surrounded by a further cast of such extreme eccentrics that you're left wondering where all the *normal* people went.

Actually, Dickens in general just gets on my nerves - I don't enjoy his writing style at all. His humour is clunky and obvious, I can always see all the places where I'm supposed to laugh. He always seems to be revelling in the cleverness of his own wit.

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.

It was the best of times. It was the worst...

Wait a minute...

Ahem...

I’m easily persuaded, I guess. When I’m out there in the world just bout there doin’ my world stuff, you know, readin’ books, listening to podcasts, and just living my life, I like to take advice from people, especially when it comes to what books to read. So when a guy I trust on a podcast I enjoy says that Dickens is second to Shakespeare as the greatest author of all time, my ears perk up. My ears perk up, and my head drops down, and I shamefully remind myself I’ve never actually finished a book by Charles Dickens. I’ve started a few. I know a story or two. I’ve heard of this guy before, but I’ve never read one of his books from cover to cover.

Until now, friends! Until. Now.

I did the ol’ read the actual book, read the ebook, listen to the audiobook trifecta on this one. I consumed it every chance I had in whatever format I could. Quick side note on the audiobook- I don’t know who the narrator was but the recording sounded like just a normal guy reading the story and recording it in his living room. You could hear him turn the pages, the sound would get louder and softer at times, and there were little hums and pops throughout the whole thing, but I loved it! It was such a lo-fi recording, but it just added to the experience of reading a classic 19th century book. He nailed all the voices, too.

Anyway...

Great expectations is hard to pin down into one genre. At its core, it’s a Bildungsroman story, but it’s filled with adventure, mystery, romance, joy, sadness, violence, sorrow, gain, loss, and much more. I was gripped from the opening pages of Pip encountering a ghostly convince in the marshes, and the story kept me engaged as it rolled along, introducing me to memorable characters, and wrapping me up into a story I will not soon forget.

I honestly did not have great expectations when I picked up this book, and I was very, very surprised with all the plot twists and big reveals in the third act. Dickens weaves together a beautiful story but also a template for modern-day storytellers to follow. Some parts of the story reminded me of recent novels I’ve read, only this one is 150 years older. The book felt fresh though. It never really felt dated or difficult to follow. It’s honestly very accessible and readable today so don’t be intimidated by it. Pick it up and read it.

I’m sure I’ll explore more of Dickens’ work in the future. I’m glad I took the time to read this one, and you should take the time to read it as well.