If you are debating if you should read this, you don't need to debate longer. Obsession is so real in so many peoples' lives and Pip's character shows how it can suck the life out of a person.įirst up, this is a must read. Fortunately, the mature writer notes that this 'devotion' was actually the young Pip's smallness and meanness.ĭickens's ability to describe the nature of obsession is frighteningly real and I think that reading Dickens could substitute for a therapeutic relationship. At that point Pip gives an elaborate description of his obsession with Estella and decides that his 'devotion' or obsession with Estella is his greatness. Joe told Pip he wouldn't be coming back to dinner and immediately afterward Pip experiences repentance and then 'self-swindling'. Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you? It probably would have been unintelligible so I'm glad the narrator made it easy to understand - yet at the same time it conveyed the gruff character etc His voice would be difficult to speak in the same way that the character would have done. Which character – as performed by Simon Prebble – was your favorite? It's hard to fathom that such a humble and humbled character should be able to embody such profound self dignity, such forgiveness, and such sweetness over every other character in the book He gets caught in his obsessions, ignores what is beautiful in his life, and then misses every great opportunity for love and fulfillment.

What made the experience of listening to Great Expectations the most enjoyable? He isn't as confrontational about social ills as he is in 'Hard Times' or 'Oliver Twist' and he isn't as melodramatic as he was in 'Tale of Two Cities', but even so, I completely enjoyed this gentle, more muted Dickens. However, with 'Great Expectations', Dickens does this with a soft touch. You can't have a Dickens novel without a little bit of melodrama and a bit of Victorian moralizing. Wemmick and the Aged Parent (the Aged P.) could be the center of their own Dickens novel each life is given a warmth (or where there lacks warmth, a round coldness) that keeps the novel propelled on. Everyone from Uncle Pumblechook, Miss Havisham, & Mr Jaggers, to Mr. I think a significant part of the magic, for me, of 'Great Expectations' is found in the minor characters. I love how with 100 pages left you can almost feel the universe shift as Dickens grabs the crazy, once loose strings of his moral narrative and begins to pull it all together. 'Great Expectations' is one more of Dickens' absolute masterpieces. There are many parts of Dickens' writing that I love and few pieces of his that fall short of complete adoration.

Great expectations book covers