Becuase this is not my job, I decided early on to limit my reviews to one book per author. You can imagine, then, how hard it was to decide WHICH book of Charles Dickens to review. I mean, to choose between A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations was downright cruel. I have a passionate love, you see, for each of these stories. I finally decided on Great Expectations because it was the novel I had finished most recently. That way the other books don’t feel so bad.
So on to Great Expectations… Even though I finished this book six months ago, I still carry a crystal-clear vision of the village in which the main character, Pip, grew up (including all of the villagers).
I came to love that little English countryside like a normal person shouldn’t. That is how well Dickens painted his porta it in words. This is a story of an impoverished boy who climbs the social totem pole only to find that money’s promise of happiness is an empty one. Because Pip is such a rich character, we stick with him through thick and thin like a marriage to a naive young man.
And when it’s all over done, we’d vow to do it all over again. Charles Dickens was a master of his art. He has contributed as much to literature, in my opinion, as anyone in history, including Shakespeare. Dickens was that prolific.
I admire this author like few others I have read – especially given his disruptive upbringing – and highly recommend this book to anyone looking to discover Charles Dickens in his unadultered, un-made-for-the-movies condition. (And if you don’t start with Great Expectations, Oliver Twist was my second choice).
The Essay on Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations
Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of Philip Pirrip, better known as Pip. The story presents the development and growth of Pip as he becomes an adult. During the novel, the characters seem to have trouble communicating with each other. Because of the characters’ interest in only themselves, especially Pip, messages, some important and some not, are delayed ...
