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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
With Great Expectations come Great Disappointments. I expected a lot of this novel and was underwhelmed in the beginning. It looked like Oliver Twist 2.0 as someone has already mentioned in a review.
Pip annoyed me to no end with his treatment of people who loved him - like Joe - but were considered lower in class since he wanted to climb up to gain the love of the insufferable Estella. Why does he love such an uncaring and cold woman is beyond me.
However, I appreciated the development of Pip as a character as the story develops and his slow but sure learning that social class is not a criteria to judge people, and that in the end, our relationships are the most important thing that matter. He got helped and loved by those he would deem inferior, and those he admired and wanted so much to please were either taking advantage of him or not caring about him at all.
The end was controversial to me..
In all, it was an interesting novel.
Pip annoyed me to no end with his treatment of people who loved him - like Joe - but were considered lower in class since he wanted to climb up to gain the love of the insufferable Estella. Why does he love such an uncaring and cold woman is beyond me.
However, I appreciated the development of Pip as a character as the story develops and his slow but sure learning that social class is not a criteria to judge people, and that in the end, our relationships are the most important thing that matter. He got helped and loved by those he would deem inferior, and those he admired and wanted so much to please were either taking advantage of him or not caring about him at all.
The end was controversial to me.
Spoiler
I love how he reconciled with Joe and Biddy, who are happily married and how he spends 11 years working hard and living a good life growing as a person. But his encounter and happy ending with Estella didn't feel right to me. I read that this is not the original ending that Dickens had planned, and I agree the original ending is more true to Pip's character development than the one we got.In all, it was an interesting novel.
I tried. I tried really really hard. I just could not get into this book. Dickens just isn't entertaining for me. I got about 3/4 through it before I just gave up.
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
dark
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 stars
This took me ages to read... and yet I was so diligent about it! I don't know how I got through it - occasionally, there'd be an engaging section, but mostly, I would find myself disinterestedly rereading paragraphs and repeatedly losing my place. It reminded me of the 3 musketeers - and that is not a positive thing. There's the same mindless plot, with bland, descriptive writing and no prose. I get it; Dickens hated poetry and was a realist or whatever. I'm sure his writing taught me stuff about class differences and money and all. Yet... I can't pretend to be particularly impressed. OK, I didn't hate the characters or the plot, so there's that, but I found the "coincidental" connections between characters ridiculous and the writing decidedly dull.
Maybe I'll try again with dickens, but this book was massive and dense
This took me ages to read... and yet I was so diligent about it! I don't know how I got through it - occasionally, there'd be an engaging section, but mostly, I would find myself disinterestedly rereading paragraphs and repeatedly losing my place. It reminded me of the 3 musketeers - and that is not a positive thing. There's the same mindless plot, with bland, descriptive writing and no prose. I get it; Dickens hated poetry and was a realist or whatever. I'm sure his writing taught me stuff about class differences and money and all. Yet... I can't pretend to be particularly impressed. OK, I didn't hate the characters or the plot, so there's that, but I found the "coincidental" connections between characters ridiculous and the writing decidedly dull.
Maybe I'll try again with dickens, but this book was massive and dense
Enjoyed this. Some very funny parts interspersed with sad stuff.