I first read this book during the summer inbetween eighth and ninth grade. I couldn't put it down at all, taking it with me everywhere, even on vacation. I finally finished the book one day while we were out to dinner at a nice cafe, and my parents just looked at me and all I could talk about was the book! If you are having trouble with it, keep going. It can get boring at times but it really is a great book and everyone should read it.
Dear Meagan,
Thanks for your observation. I too read this book (in a very abridged and adapted form) when I was in grade school. It was incredibly fascinating. I can still see the images that were conjured up in my mind. Recently, since I am now living in a Spanish-speaking country, I have taken it up again, but in Spanish, of all things. The translation is meticulously done, and it proves to me how rich the language of Cervantes is. I have to look up so many words, and even these are given with myriad Spanish synonyms. What I most like about this book is the psychological interplay between Miss Havisham and Estelle, which manifests the way persons sometimes control others emotionally. We all do this, most of the time unconsciously. I know this is something shameful, but it is quite impossible to avoid it. A marvelous, short biography I have read on Charles Dickens is by G.K. Chesteron. I highly recommend it, as it gives an opening into his works. GKC mentions that Dickens' earlier novels (those before David Copperfield, which is the most autobiographical) have characters that are more grotesque, amusing, and unforgettable.
I first read "Great Expectations" when I was a freshman in high school. Even though I found the book boring at first, watching a British TV adaptation of the work managed to enrich my understanding of the work.
I might read it again one day, as soon as I finish reading "A Tale of Two Cities".
"We look at the world, at governments, across the spectrum, some with more freedom, some with less. And we observe that the more repressive the State is, the closer life under it resembles Death. If dying is deliverance into a condition of total non-freedom, then the State tends, in the limit, to Death. The only way to address the problem of the State is with counter-Death, also known as Chemistry." -- Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day
Great Expectations Exceeds our expectations. I read it in school and again taugh it to undergraduates. The pathos , humanism and the tragedy of life are well brought. It covers practically everything--from horror to sentimentality, to pride, to remorse.
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