I've been meaning to read this since the movie came out, but what finally got me to do so was Crash Course's Literature series of videos on You Tube. This is the first book they cover so I decided to read it before watching the video (which I still have yet to watch as I write this).

Like many people whose introduction to "great" literature came from high school and college lit courses, I'm always a bit leery of the "classics." Some I end up really liking, but others I've never come to fully appreciate. Fortunately, this ended up being one of the former ones.

There are plenty of analyses of the deeper meanings and symbolism of the book out there, and while I definitely saw some of them as I read, I think that first a book's story has to be interesting on its surface, and this book's story is interesting. The characters are interesting, the plot is interesting, and the relationships are interesting. I'm glad I took the time to read it.