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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
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
I've reread this every two years since I was 12 (I still have the copy my parents put in my Easter basket that year), and I still consider it an unqualified masterpiece.
From this book I have learned...
that sometimes we do not get the things we expect from life. Our destiny is of our own choosing, and we should not wait around for others to push us in the right direction. Charles Dickens had a smart way of letting the reader know what he was thinking. Pip, a hero of this story, did not want to be an apprentice to his brother-in-law's business. Pip had much bigger dreams. Pip was too trusting of strangers. In a way he was naive. He did not know that people can be cruel and have hidden agendas (just like Miss Havisham).
that sometimes we do not get the things we expect from life. Our destiny is of our own choosing, and we should not wait around for others to push us in the right direction. Charles Dickens had a smart way of letting the reader know what he was thinking. Pip, a hero of this story, did not want to be an apprentice to his brother-in-law's business. Pip had much bigger dreams. Pip was too trusting of strangers. In a way he was naive. He did not know that people can be cruel and have hidden agendas (just like Miss Havisham).
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I already had some animosity towards Victorian literature and this was my first novel by Dickens, but this was a torturous read. I felt like I was voluntarily submitting myself to torture each time I opened this book. I am, generously, giving it an additional star because there were a few moments in the novel that I appreciated and enjoyed the prose, but this was far and few. I do have to say that I barely followed the story because I was so disengaged, so I might have enjoyed it more if I understood what was going on, but this read was dreadful. I do not recommend anyone reading this book unless it is absolutely required.
I had great expectations of this novel and it didn't let me down, I think this is my favourite Dickens novel so far and vying with The Mayor of Casterbridge (Hardy) and Silas Marner (Eliot) as my favourite 19th century English novel.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
It was pretty good. I always enjoyed reading it, it wasn’t a slog, but it wasn’t a page turner either and the pace felt slow at times. The characters were good, it was obviously well written, it just didn’t blow me away. I’ll have to see if it grows on me over time.