Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

Summary:

Pip is headed for an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's forge. Then an anonymous donor appears, and sends Pip to London to live as a gentleman. Great Expectations tells the story of a young boy’s life as he grows up, and learns about love, pride and friendship.

Plot:

This story is much like Dickens’ David Copperfield in that it tells the life story of a young orphan. This is a good story, it’s interesting and there are some surprises along the way. However, it’s not a story that inspired me, or had me jumping up and down with excitement. Maybe because I knew what surprises lay in store for me or because I knew the story after having read most of the book, but not finishing. Or because I watched a movie based on it. Dickens’ writing is marvelous, he creates mood and atmosphere, but doesn’t over-describe everything.

Characters:

The characters are all flawed. The nicest character is probably Pip’s friend Herbert Pocket, who is a very optimistic and generally nice guy. Pip, the main character, changes a lot during the novel, starting of as an innocent, naive little boy, growing proud and then learning some important life-lessons. I liked the fact that Pip isn’t a perfect, good guy. He’s just human, with faults, and that makes him very relatable. His love interest, Estella, is a very interesting character. She’s not only proud, but believes herself to be completely incapable of loving anyone. While she’s not a nice person, she is quite fascinating to read about. Miss Havisham, Estella’s guardian, and Provis (who has many names, but I’m just going with this), an escaped convict whom Pip helps as a little boy are also very interesting characters.

Who should read this?

10+, there are very little to no mature content, except some references to hanging, which are not at all descriptive. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t enjoy classics or older books. It’s not an easy read, and I think it’ll be very hard to read in one sitting, but that’s just because it spans over so much time, not because the writing is hard to read. If you’re a fan of Dickens you should have read it already, since this is one of his most famous works.

My rating:

I really did like this book, although I prefer David Copperfield’s story. I’m giving it a 4/5.

Quote:
“So throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise.”