Author: Charles Dickens
# of Pages: 512 (paperback)
Genre: Classics, Historical Fictions, Literature
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: In an overgrown churchyard, a grizzled convict springs upon an orphan named Pip. The convict terrifies the young boy and threatens to kill him unless Pip helps further his escape. Later, Pip finds himself in the ruined garden where he meets the bitter and crazy Miss Havisham and her foster child Estella, with whom he immediately falls in love. After a secret benefactor gives him a fortune, Pip moves to London, where he cultivates great expectations for a life which would allow him to discard his impoverished beginnings and socialize with the idle upper class. As Pip struggles to become a gentleman and is tormented endlessly by the beautiful Estella, he slowly learns the truth about himself and his illusions.
Review: I regret that I will not be able to include all of my thoughts of this book in this review as it would take me a considerably long time to collect them all.
Despite the fact that it took me over a month to finish the book, I actually really enjoyed Great Expectations by the time I reached the ending. However, Dickens tends to write lengthy descriptions of situations that made parts of the book...boring.
What I found amazing is how all the characters have changed from the beginning of the story to the end. Everyone grew in different ways and changed for better or for worse. There are two endings for Great Expectations, and the one that Dickens had originally written for the story was not the one that most people read as the ending. I read both endings, and I liked the second ending (that is more light-hearted than the original) considerably more.
I have to thank those who have forced me to complete this book; I would not have been able to finish without their encouragement. I would also like to thank Shmoop (it's beginning to sound like I won an Oscar or something) for supplying chapter by chapter summaries so I could better understand what the heck was going on in the detailed chapters that I read while I was half asleep. I urge those who have not read it to do so sometime in the future, if only to enjoy the shock of the ending.
I do recommend this high-praised piece of literature, although not if you are not a fan of reading classics or anything Dickens.
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