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paleflyer 's review for:
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
My favorite Dickens book (thus far)! I love every character in this novel from Pip, the young orphan, to Magwitch, the convict (didn't fool me with your plot twist, Magwitch!), to Estella (who is really a fantasy, no more), to Biddy, to Mrs. Joe Gargary (on a rampage!) to Miss Havisham, to dear Joe.
Pip dreams of being a gentleman, and when he does get his wish through an unknown benefactor, he has all the airs and turned up nose of any proper gentleman. When Pip first learns he has come into great expectations, and he is about to leave home, he asks Joe to let him walk to the station alone. He was ashamed to be seen with poor, drap Joe; and while Pip pretended to himself there was no such selfish taint, he couldn't quite force himself to.
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our heard hearts. I was better after I had cried than before - more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle. If I had cried before, I should have had Joe with me then."
His arrogance does eventually turn to understanding, "we owed so much to Herbert's ever cheerful industry and readiness that I often wondered how I had conceived the old idea of his ineptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection that perhaps the ineptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me."
I love the way Dickens always describes his characters feelings when they are in love: "I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be," especially since it is often foolish love (with an undisciplined heart, eh Trotwood?).
The end is both sad and happy, for many reasons. Magwitch is dead; and bitter sweet to Pip, dear Joe marries Biddy. As for Estella, there are two different endings that were written. One seems to imply hope between them, and the second, the original ending, (which I preferred) just left them separate. Fantastic book!
Pip dreams of being a gentleman, and when he does get his wish through an unknown benefactor, he has all the airs and turned up nose of any proper gentleman. When Pip first learns he has come into great expectations, and he is about to leave home, he asks Joe to let him walk to the station alone. He was ashamed to be seen with poor, drap Joe; and while Pip pretended to himself there was no such selfish taint, he couldn't quite force himself to.
"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our heard hearts. I was better after I had cried than before - more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle. If I had cried before, I should have had Joe with me then."
His arrogance does eventually turn to understanding, "we owed so much to Herbert's ever cheerful industry and readiness that I often wondered how I had conceived the old idea of his ineptitude, until I was one day enlightened by the reflection that perhaps the ineptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me."
I love the way Dickens always describes his characters feelings when they are in love: "I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be," especially since it is often foolish love (with an undisciplined heart, eh Trotwood?).
The end is both sad and happy, for many reasons. Magwitch is dead; and bitter sweet to Pip, dear Joe marries Biddy. As for Estella, there are two different endings that were written. One seems to imply hope between them, and the second, the original ending, (which I preferred) just left them separate. Fantastic book!