Great Expectations

Great Expectations= my new favorite Dickens book.  Why was this masterpiece not on my reading list for my AP English classes in high school?  Come to think of it, I don't think we read any Dickens in either of those classes...how is this accomplished?  I am seriously debating on sending an email to both Mrs. Massicotte and Mr. Bishop to discuss the matter. 

Dickens, you are my hero for writing this book.  I love when authors are able to so beautifully develop characters and so intricate a plot.  Great Expectations reads like a mystery- not one of those annoying modern and often crappy mysteries, filled with blood and gore and guts, mind you- but one in which the reader believes so certainly they have it all figured out...and then they turn the page, their eyes get wide, and the murmur, "Oh no!  Not him!  What will Pip do?"  Throughout the novel, you notice a good portion of the characters connect to one another through certain relationships, but by the end of the story, you've come to understand their real connections.  It really is quite genius how well Dickens tied every character, every scene, every bit of information to the final pages; the development of the story was so well thought out- it truly is amazing. 

This novel, of course, is on the list of 100, and such is the reason why I checked it out from the library in the first place.  But this is a book I would not hesitate in purchasing; I most definitely would enjoy reading about Pip's transformation from a poor village boy into a tried and true gentleman after a wealthy and anonymous benefactor provides for his education and finances.  Pip learns valuable lessons during his transformation, not only about the proper attire and attitude of a gentleman, but about himself, his past, and even his future.  Dickens does an excellent job of demonstrating how great changes in our life circumstances can so clearly reveal our personal nature and true self.

And since I am not doing this beautiful novel justice with this brief and un-exemplary review, I beg you to go here and read a review which was first published in September 1861, written shortly after the book form of Great Expectations was published.