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Dec 15, 2011

Noce rated it:

Recensione per i frivoli.

Orbene, chi pensate potrebbe essere Dickens, se vivesse ai nostri tempi?
Probabilmente un mix tra il regista di Beautiful, e il regista di una qualunque telenovela sudamericana.

I personaggi ci sono tutti. C’è quel paio di nuclei familiari attorno al quale la vicenda si muove, la contrapposizione tra il Bene e il Male, e l’effetto cliff-hanging, che ti tiene incollato alla vicenda grazie a rivelazioni spettacolari, (in cui si scopre che il More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2008

Michael rated it:

My students (and some of my friends) can't ever figure out why I love this novel so much. I explain how the characters are thoroughly original and yet timeless, how the symbolism is rich and tasty, and how the narrative itself is juicy and chock-full of complexity, but they just shake their heads at me in utter amazement and say, "What's wrong with you, dude?"

What's wrong, indeed.

I give them ten or fifteen years. Perhaps they'll have to read it again in college, More...

11 comments like (84 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2011

Chiara rated it:

Presi la sua mano nella mia, e ci allontanammo da quelle rovine

Caro signor Charles,
noi ci siamo appena conosciuti. L’ho incontrata ieri sera, si ricorda? Ci hanno presentati, ci siamo stretti la mano. Lei ha fatto una battuta spiritosa e subito l’abbiamo vista prendere in mano la conversazione e animare la serata.
Come con tutte le persone che si conoscono da poco, io non ho poi capito se lei mi piaccia - se mi sia simpatico. Certo, è stato disinvolto e ha detto tante di More...

5 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Michela rated it:

“Grandi Speranze”- Charles Dickens (1860)

Si astengano dalla lettura di questa recensione tutti gli amanti di Dickens o chiunque abbia sinceramente apprezzato “Grandi Speranze”, vi avverto, non vi piacerà quello che scriverò.

Ho impiegato un mese a leggere questo libro, e quando ho bisogno di cosi tanto tempo le cause sono due, o sono impegnata in un'opera di 1200 pagine, oppure il libro non mi piace.

Per “Grandi Speranze”, purtroppo e a malincuore, è la secon More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 19, 2011

Matt rated it:

Admittedly, I can be a bit dismissive of the classics. By which I mean that many of my reviews resemble a drive-by shooting. This annoys some people, if measured by the responses I’m still getting to my torching of Moby Dick.

Even though I should expect some blowback, I still get a little defensive. I mean, no one wants to be called a “horrendous” person just because he or she didn’t like an overlong, self-indulgent, self-important “epic” about a douche-y peg leg and a stupid whale. More...

8 comments like (24 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2007

Mercedes rated it:

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5 comments like (16 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Chicklet rated it:

Boring, dull, lifeless, and flat. This is so drawn out and boring I kept having to remind myself what the plot was.
Best to get someone else to sum up the story rather than undergo the torture of reading it.

10 comments like (32 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2008

Tiza rated it:

Whew, it took me an incredibly long time to finish this book. Actually, this book kind of fell somewhere between 3 and 4 stars but I rounded it up because I liked it better than David Copperfield. While it's true that this book can be somewhat tiresome and contrived at parts, Dickens' dry humour, beautifully haunting descriptions and unforgettable characters made it a really fun read for me. One approach that best be adopted in reading Great Expectations (and Dickens' novels in general) is not t More...

23 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2008

Debbie rated it:

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 More...

6 comments like (21 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2009

Laurele rated it:

I see more in this book each time I read it. Class distinctions, friendships, character development, sin, repentance, forgiveness, redemption--all are explored and charted in this thirteenth novel of Dickens.

My favorite characters are Joe Gargery, the gentle and loving blacksmith; the faithful Herbert Pocket; and the helpful Mr. Wemmick and his Aged P.

I've been seeing a recurring theme in several of Dickens' novels--a degrading reliance on hopes of the future to the d More...

9 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 16, 2009

Laurel rated it:

I think this book may have made it official for me: I'm just not much of a Dickens fan.

My first introduction to Dickens was A Tale of Two Cities, which we were required to read in HS. It was also my first introduction to Cliff's Notes. :)

I tried Dickens again with Oliver Twist last year. It was abridged. I still could barely get through it, and ended up skipping ahead to the end -- something I almost never do.

It's not that Dickens' storylines aren't interest More...

10 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2008

Shannon rated it:

Even if you haven't read this or seen any of the many movie or tv adaptations, you would know something of the story. This is the one about Pip, an escaped convict, a beautiful but cruel girl called Estella, and the corpse-like Miss Havisham. It's about a little boy called Pip who was raised by his much older sister, Mrs Joe, and her husband, Joe, the village blacksmith. Joe is a role model and father figure as well as Pip's best friend, while Mrs Joe is sharp-tongued and aggressive - between he More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jason rated it:

Credited by many as the inventor of the modern novel, there are actually a number of books by Dickens I've read and enjoyed over the years; this one, however, is the latest I've re-read, which is why I'm doing a review of it and not the others. A master storyteller of the Victorian Age, someone imminently readable today as well (unlike so many of those 'olden' authors), Dickens had a magical ability to scoop up every detail of his time's zeitgeist, and spit it back out in a series of thrilling c More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2008

Gr8grendel added it

Is there a way to give negative stars?

Let's see, hmmmm, boy is poor. Boy falls in love with well-to-do girl. Boy reforms well. Girl is manipulated to dump boy in a predictable fashion. Lot's of words in between. Boy is chopped up by a meat cleaver and his cadaver is launched into space by hot aire balloon. Space chimps reconstruct boy and send him back to Earth. He lands on miss Havisham. Her toes curl up like a wicked witch... admit it this review is already better than the book.
More...

3 comments like (20 people liked it)

Nov 18, 2008

Hannah rated it:

'Great Expectations' was a strange read, and I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or not. The writing I loved - the narrative is full of sinister comedy, witty dialogue and striking imagery and observations from the word go, and the majority of characters (from the ridiculous to terrifying) are hard not to adore and leave undoubtedly impressioned marks. The pacing, however was extremely unbalanced. Normally, the middle part of a novel would be expected to be the most exciting, yet in this case it was so More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2010

Ashley rated it:

I readly did like this book it took me a mounth couse it was very long it had a lot of pages. I dont remember how many but to read this you have to have a lot of time on your hands. It was a little hard to understand at first but in the end it all makes sence. I read it beacause I was told that with my vocabulay I could understand it. I did understand but there were a few words I had to ask about. This book is old and in old books alot of the times there is big words but if you are and advied re More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 29, 2008

Sneha rated it:

alright, well i'm still reading this.... but one thing i'd have to say is that this book would be so much better if Dickens wasnt paid by the word, and if we didnt have to read it for school.

the plot, if you read it, is actually interesting.. just the giganto amount of words that are unneeded make the book extremely confusing.

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Mar 20, 2009

Adam rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2009

Anne rated it:

I finished! it's really good, a lot more humorous than I expected. I loved the story, and many of the characters are unforgettable, like Miss Havisham and Aged P. and Wemmick. And it confirms my philosophy of life, which I can't put into words, but Dickens has.

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Chris rated it:

I find it hard to distinguish between the images furnished by my first reading of this and by the BBC serialisation in the 60s. I suspect that the TV version came first and influenced my rather rapid reading of the novel where I omitted all the characterisation, social commentary, landscape descriptions and comedy in favour of rooting out the plain narrative. So, Great Expectations for me then was a mix of two themes, the rags-to-riches story of Pip and the boy-meets-girl-but-it-doesn't-go-smoot More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 19, 2010

Linda rated it:

A melancholy tale highlighting the wisdom behind the adage "Be cafeful what you wish for". Pip is a seven-year-old orphan raised in a small town by his somewhat blusterous sister and her gentle and kind husband. Unexpectedly, Pip is asked to come and meet Miss Havisham, a lonely spinster of great wealth. Upon his arrival at her estate, he meets her adopted niece, Estella, and instantly falls in love, despite the fact that Miss Havisham is grooming Estella to be a cold and indifferent w More...

0 comments like

Jan 14, 2009

Michael rated it:

This book should be renamed "Unrealized Expectations". It's hard to live up to the hype with a title like "Great Expectations". I chose this book to read for a book report assignment in high school. Unfortunately, my choice was based on my fondness of "A Christmas Carol", also by Charles Dickens. Little did I know that the book is longer than the Bible and was not very engaging in any way. The only reason I rated this with two stars instead of one is because it More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 01, 2011

Will rated it:

I know that it might sound a tad strange but I cried at the end of Great Expectations. I really felt as though this book spoke to me in a certain sense. The story draws on the idea that many of the expectations that are present within other peoples' subjective ideals are never your own. But it seems as though when we grow up we allow other people to shape our lives and create our beings into ghosts of themselves.

I guess I became emotional when reading this book because I am currently More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2011

Myles rated it:

This was in many ways as rich and absorbing a reading experience as I could want, but even though my experience with Dickens' work is limited, I couldn't help but play favorites. Pip is every bit as bland as Esther of Bleak House, if anything his admitted selfish behavior makes him a better character, but the "mysteries" of Great Expectations and the sideline dramas of the supporting characters never sucked me in the way they did in Bleak House. In both novels they were, mostly, fairly More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 11, 2011

Isabel rated it:

Narra las aventuras y desventuras de un niño huerfano de padre y madre que es criado por su hermana mayor y su esposo el herrero del pequeño pueblo campestre donde viven. Pip, el protagonista se ve sometido a los
frecuentes regaños de su hermana pero en cambio tiene un lazo de hermandad con Joe, el esposo de ésta quien lo comprende y a veces protege de la mano severa de su esposa.

Dentro de la medida de sus posibilidades ellos tratan de darle una educación, bastante básica pues More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 20, 2009

Choupette rated it:

I have a confession to make. It's shameful and disgraceful and I barely want to own up to it. But I just can't hide it no more! *sob*

I thought Dickens was boring.

And worst of all, I based this assumption on... nothing. I'd read not a single word of his prose. I don't think I'd even watched a TV adaptation of one of his books. I have no idea where I got it from, but its pernicious influence prevented me from even trying a Dickens novel until now, and even now I thought I'd More...

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Angela rated it:

We read this book as a class for English, and one of my friends who had already read it prepared us by saying it was a boring, depressing book ("confusing" might've been in there too). I found this to be partially true. The vocabulary/writing style was definitely confusing, but reading it as a class helped (our teacher has read the book about 17 times). The first 3/4 of the book is fairly dull and has little purpose besides providing a detailed narrative of the main character's life, d More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Katie rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2008

J.Elle added it

ON HOLD FOR NOW.

I picked this up during my last thrift store trip thinking I'd never read it. Once I got into it, I began to suspect that I might have read it once before, especially when the name Miss Havisham was brought up. I think she's probably one of those unforgettable characters. As soon as Mrs. Gargery mentioned her name, something clicked and I suddenly recalled the images I'd imagined of a yellowed room lit by candles where she hid herself. Anyway, I'm really enjoying More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2010

Julie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)