Charles Dickens: Great expectations (1962, Houghton Mifflin)
460 pages
English language
Published 1962 by Houghton Mifflin.
After harsh early years, Pip, an orphan growing up in Victorian England, is given the means to become a gentleman by an unknown benefactor and learns that outward appearances can be deceiving.
The beginning is great. But then it really gets boring...
I usually read all books till the end but had to stop reading because somehow my bookmarks were deleted and it was also too boring
A really well written story with some great characters and nice turn of events.
Frames a lots of aspects (about friendship, loyalty, love & more) in a single well developed story.
Well worth a reading.
Pervasive wit and interesting character studies are offset somewhat by a less-than-compelling main character and plot.
Most of Dickens' books tell basically the same story, but always with an eye for characters, and always with plenty of sympathy and humanity.
Here he is a little treacherous, first showing certain persons as contemptuous or disgusting, then only gradually unfolding their place in the great story. Disappointingly, the ending is a little rushed (especially given that he takes his usual 450 pages to get there), and leaves much to be desired. However, most of the threads get tied up, and it's refreshing that he doesn't see the need for a perfect happy-end this time.
Certainly not straight forward prose. It has rather a complicated plot. Tempo got faster towards the end with all its relevations, but as dramatic change it failed somehow. Syntax is also quite an challenge for an non-native English speaker
I really love this book. And I think about it every time someone dies because there is this lovely part after Joe dies where Dickens redefines the feeling of loss as connection. Read it right after my father died and it really made me look at it in a new way.
