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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
★★★☆ // it took me a long time to finish this book and would often pause after each part ended. i have to say that i’m not a fan of its prose and i suppose that’s what contributed to my seasonal mood of picking this up to finish. despite that, the core story touched my heart. i often feel like Great Expectations is a really sad story, and Pip was always just sort of floating from one circumstance to another. there are always external events that prevent him from being happy and to really belong to a place. he couldn’t comfortably stay home because his sister was abusive even though he had Joe and Biddy. he was transported to Miss Havisham’s house and fell in love with Estella, but was cruelly disregarded at every turn. he was then in London to be a gentleman, but would later learn that his sponsor is the very threat to the glory he strives for. so, his long journey has always been turbulent but i liked where things ended for him. that end meant a new beginning and going back to the people that held him dear to their hearts even if they didn’t exactly ended on good terms in their last encounter.
for some reason, even though i appreciate the dynamic between Pip and Estella, i didn’t really fall in love with them. i often have this feeling that he idealized her too much. to be honest, from the get-go, i was kind of always rooting for Biddy. she just seems so pure-hearted and supportive of Pip but also never tolerates him when he’s wrong. she’s just so consistently endearing.
Pip’s relationship to Magwitch and Joe are kind of the same in a sense. they just happened to be in different circumstances. i think that ultimately these are two people who cared for him and wanted him to be happy, to be something. his relationship to them were the most touching parts of the book.
finally, there’s this passage in the book that i just loved:
it perfectly captures the anxiety that one feels of facing a huge change for the first time, of leaving something familiar and comfortable. but it was also exciting and full of hope. it was a reminder that there is really no other choice but to move forward and see how it goes.
for some reason, even though i appreciate the dynamic between Pip and Estella, i didn’t really fall in love with them. i often have this feeling that he idealized her too much. to be honest, from the get-go, i was kind of always rooting for Biddy. she just seems so pure-hearted and supportive of Pip but also never tolerates him when he’s wrong. she’s just so consistently endearing.
”Biddy was never insulting, or capricious, or Biddy today and somebody else tomorrow; she would have derived only pain, and no pleasure, from giving me pain; she would far rather have wounded her own breast than mine.”
Pip’s relationship to Magwitch and Joe are kind of the same in a sense. they just happened to be in different circumstances. i think that ultimately these are two people who cared for him and wanted him to be happy, to be something. his relationship to them were the most touching parts of the book.
finally, there’s this passage in the book that i just loved:
”I whistled and made nothing of going. But the village was very peaceful and quiet, and the light mists were solemnly rising, as if to show me the world, and I had been so innocent and little there, and all beyond was so unknown and great, that in a moment with a strong heave and sob, I broke into tears.”
it perfectly captures the anxiety that one feels of facing a huge change for the first time, of leaving something familiar and comfortable. but it was also exciting and full of hope. it was a reminder that there is really no other choice but to move forward and see how it goes.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is the first time I have used sparknotes for any book. That's how bad it was.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A slow-burning and hard-learned lesson on wealth.
I thought it was a good story but I really didn't like the style.
I finished! it's really good, a lot more humorous than I expected. I loved the story, and many of the characters are unforgettable, like Miss Havisham and Aged P. and Wemmick. And it confirms my philosophy of life, which I can't put into words, but Dickens has.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“She hung upon Estella’s beauty, hung upon her words, hung upon her gestures, and sat mumbling her own trembling fingers while she looked at her, as though she were devouring the beautiful creature she had reared.”
“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures’, replied Estella, with a glance towards him, ‘hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?’”
“That she had done a grievous thing in taking an impressionable child to mould into the form of her wild resentment, spurred affection, and wounded pride, found vengeance in, I knew full well…her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased…seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?”
“Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures’, replied Estella, with a glance towards him, ‘hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?’”
“That she had done a grievous thing in taking an impressionable child to mould into the form of her wild resentment, spurred affection, and wounded pride, found vengeance in, I knew full well…her mind, brooding solitary, had grown diseased…seeing her punishment in the ruin she was, in her profound unfitness for this earth on which she was placed, in the vanity of sorrow which had become a master mania, like the vanity of penitence, the vanity of remorse, the vanity of unworthiness, and other monstrous vanities that have been curses in this world?”
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
