Great Expectations

Rating:
Summary: a classic is a classic is a classic
Review: great expectations is just that. i am not much of a classics fan, preferring contemporary writers. i decided to read this after reading john irving's "trying to save piggy sneed, in this book irving finishes with an essay on dickens where he says that great expectations was the book that made him want to write. being a big irving fan, i decided to read great expectations and i have to admit i was blown over by dickens' writing style. the humour, the characterisation, the verbal jugglery, the pompousness, the joy of writing were all apparent and absolute fun. the best thing about the book is that it hasnt aged one bit.

dickens writes with rare moral courage and compassion for the failings of his characters, he creates a vividly colourful world populated by extraordinary characters too bizarre to be real, yet makes us trust in them, and slowly makes us sympathise with them and eventually grow to love them. the strength of this book is not in its plot but rather in the style of writing.

a thoroughly enjoyable book if you love a colourful writing style.

Rating:
Summary: Great expectations
Review: GREAT EXPECTATIONS is often the novel used in high schools to introduce students to Dickens. Due to it's length and fairly long and uneventful middle phase, I'm not sure it's the best text to introduce people to Dickens. Still, it is a pretty good story and contains some of the most memorable characters in Dickens' fiction.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS is the story of Phillip Pirrip, otherwise known as Pip. Pip's parents die not long after he is born and he is raised "by hand" by his sister. His brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, is the town blacksmith and loves Pip. The two are best-of-friends. One night while looking at his parents' graves, Pip meets a convict and his life is forever changed by that meeting. As the novel progresses, Pip meets Miss Havisham (the wealthiest woman in town) and her beautiful ward, Estella. Pip immediately falls in love with Estella and is haunted by her all the days of his life. Eventually Pip is bond to Joe as his apprentice and sets to work in the blacksmith forge. Several years later, Pip's luck changes when he is informed by a lawyer from London, Mr. Jaggers, that he has become the recipient of "great expectations". The book then follows Pip's life as he enters this new stage in life and as he develops and becomes a "gentleman". Everything is brought full circle and just about everyone gets what they deserve by the time the novel ends.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS isn't the easiest of books to read. What many writers can do in a sentence often takes Dickens two pages to tell. Also, the book is divided into three phases and the second phase is rather boring (except at the end) and really does nothing more than to fill in a few plot gaps and illustrate to us how much of a prig Pip becomes. Nevertheless, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is still a good story containing some very vivid characters: Pip, Estella, Joe, Miss Havisham, Magwitch, Jaggers, and Wemmick. The characters in GREAT EXPECTATIONS are as memorable as anyone in DAVID COPPERFIELD, OLIVER TWIST, or A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The first phase of the book is quite interesting and sets up everything that later occurs in the novel. The third part of the novel is full of excitement and contains Pip's repentance and reformation. Overall, it's a great book and even though it was written over a hundred years ago, it has a lot to say about the society in which we live today.

Rating:
Summary: Great expectations
Review: Great Expectations was a remarkable book. I really enjoyed it. I didn't really have great expectations before I read it. It was about a little English boy named Pip. Pip is a poor kid who suddenly inherits a bunch of money and becomes rich. When he was poor he hated the way rich people treated poor people, but he finds himself doing treating poor people horribly when rich. He finally learns that everyone deserves to be treated with the same respect, even those less fortunate. This was an interesting book, but a tough book to understand, I would probably recommend it only for adults.

Rating:
Summary: Boring beginnig, Good ending
Review: I had to read this book for my English class and at first it was so boring! It about a young boy named Pip and he is trying to find his true indentity. At the end of the first phase he goes to London to become a "gentleman" because that is what his benefactor wants (Pip doesn't know his benefactor). At the end of the 2nd phase, he finds out who his benefactor is. Those two phases in the book are really boring, but I think it gets better in the end. If you read this book I suggest that you just start in the third phase because the rest is boring.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book!
Review: I never wanted to read this book, but a friend convinced me when he learned that I loved Pip on South Park (I found the little nerd funny). This was the best advice I'd ever taken. Reading this not only made me love Charles Dickens, but gave me a late start on loving reading in general.

Granted, it's a difficult book to read. Dickens packs his book with descriptions and long sentences (yet every word is important and helps with understanding) and he's not easy to get through. Yet Dickens still, with all his flaws, remains a masterful storyteller. His characters aren't deep, but they're relatable and memorable. I love Pip, Estella, Miss Havisham, Joe, Herbert Pocket, Magwitch, and Aged P, and even though I've read this book a long time ago, I love them just as much now as I did then.

It's a shame that people have to read this for school (I did so for my second time). It's a wonderful story that should be enjoyed by itself. If you haven't been made to read it, do so now. Push yourself through it and take your time (it took me a month to finish the book myself). You'll be glad you did. Assignments make you rush and over-analyze stories, and Dickens should never be read that way.

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I spent a whole term going over this book in freshmen English class. It is an overall good book, full of interpritations. There are many symbolisms and allusions. However, it is important to remember that this book was originally a serialization, as it came out every week in the paper. There are some parts when Dickens drawls on with his plans, events, ect. However, there are scenes that are very fast paced and action filled. The overall plot is a young, naive boy of about ten lives with his sister and her simple husband named Joe. However, Pip is given a secret benefactor and is thrust in the life of nobility. Pip is tangled in his probelems of leaving Joe behind and his encouters with the shallow (and I mean SHALLOW) Estella and the wicked Miss Havisham. Dickens is a master with characters and the languege, but he doesn't describe any everyday events. For example, Pip goes to study law, but thats all we know. In my opinion, it gives the characters this higher than life importance, and less real. But, if you take this book slowely, maybe a chapter a night (instead of the five I had to do), you will definately enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Expectations Prevail
Review: I think that the character development alone makes this novel stand out as one of the best novels of Charles Dickens. The plot summary is also well-crafted, with so many characters intertwining in the books final chapters. We see a personality change in not only Pip, but other major characters such as Estella and Miss Havisham, as we find out that they are all connected in some way.
This book might be seen as a rather long and detailed book. Some of the details are probably overdone and unnecessary. This is definitely a book that takes some getting used to. However, I think that one of the morals of the book-- understanding your roots and accepting them-- make this a great book to read.
The many characters contrast each other in so many ways, and there are so many good and bad characters, that it becomes a fun book to read. However, you must have patience to read a book this long and detailed.
I think this book is well-written (some of the language is a little tough), and Dickens exposes his great writing ability and his abilty to deal with a complex plot and make it all come together in Great Expectations.

Rating:
Summary: It's got flaws, but it's a very good and fun read.
Review: I'm here referring to the Oxford World's Classics edition, published in 1999. Firstly, I love the book itself. It's compact, the pages have a soft, easy feel to them, and the print is a welcome size: smaller but very readable. A+ here.

The characters are particular and animate. Through the use of his famously detailed characterization and description, Dickens creates an elaborate colorful neighborhood of which you feel part. A+ for this escapism and for the sheer pleasure it brings. I especially admire his keen sense of the droll. However, while the tale runs well through the first half or so, as it progresses -- did you find so also? -- it loses the intact sympathies of the reader by trying to connect all the dots that its intricate plot has spun out into. It's forever tying its own shoes. I was similarly disappointment in the final denouement of Estella and Pip, as a let down and overly cerebral. (B-) But I highly recommend this book as a good Dickens novel, and on its own terms, a great one.

A very fun read!

Rating:
Summary: Social commentary, mystery, romance and a great story...
Review: I've never read any Dickens of my own free will. I was forced to read "A Tale of Two Cities" in high school and I thought that was enough for me. However, one day, on a whim, I bought a copy of Great Expectations. I'm not sure what I expected, but I certainly didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

Dickens is not a writer to read at a swift pace. Indeed, this novel was written in weekly episodes from December 1860 to August 1861 and, as it was created to be a serial, each installment is full of varied characters, great descriptions and a lot of action which moves the plot along and leaves the reader yearning for more. Therefore, unlike some books which are easily forgotten if I put them down for a few days, Great Expectations seemed to stick around, absorbing my thoughts in a way that I looked forward to picking it up again. It took me more than a month to read and I savored every morsel.

Basically the story is of the self-development of Pip, an orphan boy being raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband in the marshlands of England in 1820.

Every one of the characters were so deeply developed that I felt I was personally acquainted with each one of them. There was Pip's roommate, Herbert Pocket, the lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, and his clerk, Mr. Wemmick. And then there was the wicked Orlick. The dialogues were wonderful. The characters often didn't actually say what they meant but spoke in a way that even though the words might be obtuse, there was no mistaking their meaning. I found myself smiling at all these verbal contortions.

Dickens' work is richly detailed and he explores the nuances of human behavior. I enjoyed wallowing in the long sentences and letting myself travel backwards in time to a different world. However, even with the footnotes, I found myself sometimes confused by the British slang of 150 years ago, and there were several passages I had to read over several times in order to get the true meaning. Of course I was not in a particular rush. I didn't have to make a report to a class or take a exam about the book. This is certainly a pleasure.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read.ting from the secret wealth of Magwitch, who made a fortune in Australia after being transported. Moreover, Magwitch's unlawful return to England puts him and Pip in danger. Meanwhile, Estella has married another, a horrible man who Pip despises. Eventually, with Magwitch's recapture and death in prison and with his fortune gone, Pip ends up in debtors prison, but Joe redeems his debts and brings him home. Pip realizes that Magwitch was a more devoted friend to him than he ever was to Joe and with this realization Pip becomes, finally, a whole and decent human being.

Originally, Dickens wrote a conclusion that made it clear that Pip and Estella will never be together, that Estella is finally too devoid of heart to love. But at the urging of others, he changed the ending and left it more open ended, with the possibility that Estella too has learned and grown from her experiences and her wretched marriages.

This is the work of a mature novelist at the height of his powers. It has everything you could ask for in a novel: central characters who actually change and grow over the course of the story, becoming better people in the end; a plot laden with mystery and irony; amusing secondary characters; you name it, it's in here. I would rank it with A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield among the very best novels of the worlds greatest novelist.

GRADE: A+

Rating:
Summary: AHHH VERY boring
Review: This book was very boring. Details in a book make it interesting but the extended details in this book made it nausiating. This book had a very interesting plot and many good ideas but the way it was writen didnt appeal to most of the students in my school that read it. A poll was taken and about 73% of the students in the school liked this book. What does that show about the book?