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Great Expectations

Charles Dickens

Why we're reading this: Pretty much everything Charles Dickens did is a classic. Same with William Shakespeare and Jane Austen.
[close] Pretty much everything Charles Dickens did is a classic. Same with William Shakespeare and Jane Austen.

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Mar 19, 2012 David rated it it was amazing

The novel, Great Expectationswas published serially starting in 1860, and in a three volume hardbound edition in October of 1961. The author is Charles Dickens, who is my favorite author in the English language. In fact, I consider him the equal of Shakespeare. He is certainly easier to understand than Shakespeare, but that is due more to the time period in which each wrote. It is a coming-of-age story, what the Germans call a bildungsroman. The major character is Pip, and the novel covers his e The novel, Great Expectationswas published serially starting in 1860, and in a three volume hardbound edition in October of 1961. The author is Charles Dickens, who is my favorite author in the English language. In fact, I consider him the equal of Shakespeare. He is certainly easier to understand than Shakespeare, but that is due more to the time period in which each wrote. It is a coming-of-age story, what the Germans call a bildungsroman. The major character is Pip, and the novel covers his experiences from the age of about ten into his twenty’s. It is written entirely in first person,
It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early to mid-1800s. From the outset, the reader is "treated" by the terrifying encounter between Pip, the protagonist, and the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is a graphic book, full of extreme imagery, poverty, prison ships, "the hulks," barriers and chains, and fights to the death. It therefore combines intrigue and unexpected twists of autobiographical detail in different tones. Regardless of its narrative technique, the novel reflects the events of the time, Dickens's concerns, and the relationship between society and man.
Dickens felt Great Expectations was his best work, calling it "a very fine idea," and I am inclined to agree with that assessment. It has been used as part of English Literature courses for decades, and there is an incredibly detailed history of how Dickens wrote it, the notes he made for it, and how it was initially received. It is known that a contemporary convinced Dickens to change the initial ending and a couple of years, which he did for the 1863 edition. Literary experts are split on which ending is the best. The reson for the change was to make it a little more optimistic, and many feel it is not consistent with the general tone of the book. The conclusion we can draw from all of this is that Great Expectations is generally considered one of the greatest novels in the English language ever written. In fact, I would place it in the top ten of all works of fiction ever produced.
Why has it been so highly acclaimed? First of all, there is the rich characterizations typical of Dicken’s works. The main character, Pip, is a poor orphan, being raised by his sister and brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, a blacksmith. There is the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch to whom Pip renders aid at the beginning of the story. And there is Miss Havisham, after being jilted at the alter, goes out of her mind with grief. Estella is the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham, who figures prominently in the story.
Secondly, the plot is very involved and absolutely original. When Pip comes of age, he is contacted by a criminal lawyer, Jaggers, and is told that due to the generosity of his client, who must remain anonymous, he comes into a fortune, and becomes a gentleman residing in London. There, Pip becomes friends with Herbert Pocket, who he had met on one occasion during his youth.
Finally, it has a universal theme of wealth, and social status. After Pip becomes a gentleman, there is a change in his character, such that we may begin to think it was not in his best interest, or at least I thought so. Even though Pip is living high on the hog, he actually finds that he isn’t any happier than when he was living in poverty at the home of Joe Dargery. In that way, Dickens helps us understand the importance of affection, loyalty, and sympathy over social advancement and class superiority, and that social class is not synonymous with the presence of positive emotions.
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