Publication Date:June 1962 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days Condition:Ships from USA. Delivered in 10-12 business days. Money back guarantee!
Amazon.co.uk Review An absorbing mystery as well as a morality tale, the story of Pip, a poor village lad, and his expectations of wealth is Dickens at his most deliciously readable. The cast of characters includes kindly Joe Gargery, the loyal convict Abel Magwitch and the haunting Miss Havisham. If you have heartstrings, count on them being tugged.
My first DickensMay 1, 2008 I have to admit that this is the first book by Charles Dickens that I have read. Of course, I know all the stories but have never read one, even at school. So I found myself being intrigued by what I appeared to be missing in successful novels and authors so I thought it about time that I took one up. I know this is an old classic with many reviews and many great admirers but I will just write my review based on what I thought of the story. I took an immediate dislike to the main character Pip but I can't really say why. I found him to be selfish and the part that he played with the convict was only because he was scared not to help. I found it confusing that each character seemed to have different names depending on who is refereeing to them. Great Expectation is full of irony and plot is complex in establishing and solving mysteries. I did find the middle part of the story slightly boring and I didn't really understand where it was leading but I feel that it was well worth the read and will now read more of Dickens work.
Rapturous Moments in Dickens!November 27, 2007 We all need our dreams. We have all fallen in love. Dickens's susceptible hero Pip believes that the 'star' of his dream is the beautiful Estella, because she had been granted to him by his fairy God-mother Miss Havisham, in a rare moment of compassion. Every turn of Pip's first person narration in the novel shouts 'No!' to his interpretation of the world and its tricksy words. Yet Pip's near fatal fallibility and misreading of his expectations humanises him and aligns his desperate romantic hopefulness to our own. Uneasily we admit our own private quests for love, and what a big love we crave after all!
'Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of my self. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here...You have been in every prospect I have ever seen...You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with....'
Pip's incantatory admission that love has engulfed his life is gloriously obsessive and bravely embarrassing. Like Carol Ann Duffy in Rapture: 'When did your name change from a proper noun to a charm?' Dickens's hero gives voice to love's piratical need to ambush all signs of the beloved and claim them greedily for oneself. Pip's 'wonder' in the light of his icy star Estella anticipates Gatsby's 'wonder' at Daisy's famous 'green light' in Fitzgerald's much later novel.
Read and be awed. We all love dangerously once!
read it!November 14, 2006 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Finished re-reading this today. I'd forgotten just how fantastically playful and engaging Dickens' prose is: blink and you'll miss a delightful description of a chair, house or file brought to life. Besides the legendary Miss Havisham and Magwitch, Pip's story is also populated with such memorable characters as the finger-biting lawyer Jaggers; the warm-hearted, postbox-mouthed Wemmick (who literally fortifies his private life with the 'Aged P'); and the grandiose windbag Pumblechook. No novelist can match Dickens for sheer imaginative generosity; his fictional universe fizzes with diversity, depth and irrepressible vitality. As befits a book written originally for weekly publication, there's also a wealth of cliffhangers that'll keep you turning the pages. Blissful.
a diamond in the rough.May 15, 2006 2 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am not much of a Dickens fan. I think he tells a good story and they in turn make excellent tv but as for reading material they fail to impress me. However this book is a good one. I liked it and its gothic atmosphere. There are twists to keep you interested and a collection of memorable characters. I even managed to overlook the silly names the characters have. This is a good book I reccomend it.
AddictiveJanuary 20, 2006 7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I spent most of my 45 years since leaving school doing my best to avoid anything by Charles Dickens, quite why, I'm not sure. A recent illness and enforced idleness had me rummaging around some books I had come by and there was Great Expectations. I thought I'd try just the first chapter, but was hooked from the first page. This is one helluva book! The pace, the characterisation, the plot, the atmosphere, the everything are masterly. But it isn't all misery as there are frequent moments of irony and typically English gallows humour. Outstanding, but it'll make you cry.
