One of the most celebrated and influential novels of the past two centuries tells the vivid and unforgettable coming-of-age story of the orphan Pip In the marsh country of Victorian England, young Pip lives with his sister and her husband, the kindly blacksmith Joe, eking out a hardscrabble life. Pip’s one true aspiration is to apprentice for Joe and become a blacksmith himself, a dream that … a dream that sustains him and gives him hope. But though he doesn’t know it, Pip’s fates are about to turn.
Alone in a graveyard one night, he encounters a grizzled and mud-smeared escaped convict. Dragging a heavy shackle from an injured leg, the man demands that Pip steal him food and help him remove the clanging iron. Cowed, Pip accommodates his commands without resistance. It isn’t until years later, after Pip has forged a tender relationship with the eccentric Mrs. Havisham, fallen into unexpected prosperity in London, and found himself gripped by love for the charming-yet-fickle Estella, that the true consequences of that night in the graveyard finally come to light.
Celebrated for its vibrant characters, engrossing plot, and universal themes of ambition and hope, Great Expectations stands as a pillar of Victorian literature and a preeminent entry in the Dickensian oeuvre.
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This was the first Dickens novel I ever read, and it’s still my favorite. The story of Pip, orphaned at an early age and carried throughout life on the changing whims of fortune good and bad, is Dickens at his funniest and also most poignant. From Pip’s chance encounter with the convict Magwitch in a graveyard, through his emotional torturing by the beautiful but cold Estella, into his manhood, which is complicated as only Dickens’s fruitful imagination could make it, Pip finds his way mostly with the kindness of others. In large measure, this is a story of hope for anyone with expectations in life both great and small.
Did you trudge through this in middle school or high school? Time to read it again! I just closed the cover and my tears are not dry. Dickens understands and portrays the complexities of character better than anyone. The power of friendship, loyalty, and forgiveness shine above the empty promises of money and social class. Pip, in his blindness on the road to becoming a “gentleman,” takes the slow path to discovering that simple, honest Joe is the true gentleman.
Charles Dickens is one of my favorite authors. This was the first Dickens novel I had read. I love the way we learn about the characters and their motivations, the reasons they behave as they do, and the ways in which they seek to control the lives of others. The ending was a big surprise – it was the last thing I expected. Exciting, entertaining, and sad.
This is the story of Pip. He is an orphan who is being raised by his sister and his sister’s husband, Joe. He meets a convict on Chrismts Eve when visiting his parent’s graves. The convict talks Pip into stealing some tools from Joe so that the convict can remove his chains. Pip also steals him some food. On Christmas day, police visit Pip’s home and ask Joe to help them mend broken irons they found from the escape convict and Joe and Pip help with the recapture.
Year’s pass and Pip meets a Miss Havisham a wealthy spinster that was in need of company. Here he meets and falls in love with Miss Havisham’s adopted daughter, Estella. He continues to visit Miss Havisham and Estella until he is old enough to become Joe’s apprentice. 4 years pass as Pip learns his trade when a lawyer approaches him and tells him that he has come into a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor so that he may become a gentleman. Years pass while Pip lives and works and spends money in London and at age 23 he finds out who his benefactor is – much to his surprise. Spending time with his benefactor his learns his true identity and learns more about Estella’s past and her family.
In the end, Pip leaves London, goes to work in Egypt and returns 11 years late to find Joe married with a child and asks Joe for his forgiveness for abandoning him and their relationship all those years before. Pip hopes to settle down, repay his debts, and find Estella bringing his story full circle.
This was a great book. I love Charles Dickens and actually visited his home (which is now a museum) in London and that was incredible. I even went on a Christmas Dickens tour on year with my family where we learned so much about Dickens, his stories and his life. He is an incredible writer, and I have always enjoyed his work. This book was no exception. I loved it from the start and was very invested in Pip’s story and what would happen to him once he came into so much money. His story takes some unique turns with some suprises and held me capitvated until the last page.
I highly encourage you to read this one. You will not be disappointed.
ARGUABLY, the best Victorian novel. Society and culture of that period are so interlaced and integral to the driving momentum of the story. If one reads closely, there is symmetry in every symbol, plot line and character. Also what propels it forward is Dicken’s magic in words and universal themes. It will move anyone who has ever fallen in love with someone so impossibly distant and given their life in pursuit of them.
Loved it! I am behind reading the classics. Can now see why it has been around so long!
i liked great expectations because charles dickens had wrote some great stuff in the book and i really like charles dickens because he had sympothy for the poor people.
i really love the end bit of great expectations
I read this in high school and remember liking it (though I wonder now if it might have been the abridged version, because the full length is pretty long). Yet despite its length, Great Expectations is pretty action-packed, and reads like a modern novel.
Pip is raised by his abusive sister and her husband Joe, who is simple but has a heart of gold. One night as a child, he helps out an escaped convict, in an apparently stand-alone episode of his life. Then he finds himself thrust among the sometime company of two caricatures: the withered Miss Havisham, bitter against all men because she was jilted on her wedding day decades earlier, and her beautiful yet haughty adopted daughter Estella. Miss Havisham relishes the idea of wielding her revenge upon the male sex through Estella, and encourages Pip to fall in love with her, and her to break his heart. Neither of them need much encouraging, and the thing is soon accomplished.
Then, out of nowhere, Pip receives word from an attorney–Miss Havisham’s attorney, in fact–that he has come into “expectations.” By this we understand that he is provided for financially and is to be raised above his station to become a gentleman. But there is one catch: he cannot inquire into the identity of his benefactor, and his benefactor will make him or herself known to him at some indefinite time in the future. Pip of course believes that Miss Havisham is his benefactress, and believes himself to be intended for Estella. He more or less abandons Joe and the “honest forge,” ashamed of him because he is neither learned nor a gentleman. But of course, Pip’s beliefs about his destiny and his benefactress are thwarted, and his life does not at all turn out the way he expects. In some ways it’s a morality tale: Pip comes to learn what really matters in life, almost too late.
It’s the “almost” that makes me still enjoy the story though. He still has time to repent at the end, and there is a happily ever after, although a bittersweet one. Overall, a compelling read!
Is there any book with stronger characters than Pip, Magwitch, Estella and Miss Havisham? The scene in the village graveyard is just one example of the mastery of Dickens and his control of description. Personally, I would rate this novel his best. It is wealth and poverty, love and rejection but most of all good over evil. A great book and a great reading experience.
My favourite all time classic, and in my opinion, the best novel ever written.
5 stars to Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. So many good choices in the world of Charles Dickens, but ultimately, even though I love me some ghosts of Scrooge, Great Expectations wins out.
Most of us probably were “forced” to read this book in junior high or high school. I am one of those people; however, I was an English major in college and read it again for one of my courses. It’s one of those books that gets better as you get older and stronger each time you read it. If you only read it once, or you barely recall the story, I implore you to give it another chance.
This is the story of America. This is the story within all of us. It challenges culture and race. It challenges rich and poor. It challenges men and women. It challenges children and adults. It challenges marriage and being single. It challenges everything.
There are multiple plots and stories within this book. The characters are classic icons. The themes are intrinsic and speak to everything that America is built on.
At first, I admit it could feel overdone. The plot is varied and complex at times, but within each story, the lessons you learn without even realizing it are the little surprises you encounter when you least expect it.
Who can’t imagine the wedding dress? Who hasn’t contemplated what it would be like to steal something (even a pencil or a photocopy at work)? Who hasn’t contemplated what love means?
You can’t escape the realism and the drama all wrapped up in this book.
It’s what helps you formulate so many ideas of life.
Go back and read it again if you haven’t read it in years and didn’t have an open mind. Eh, then watch the movie if you still have questions.
if you like litreture books this is a good one , the ending of the book is quite different than the beginning of the book, at least it kept my intrest, I like the way it read and the style it was written in, the words chosen were so important to the story
A great story about a young man who wants more than anything to have a new life of great expectations, but later finds that having attained great expectations is not always a good thing.
Everyone in my opinion should have to read Charles Dickens especially this book. Each Character so effortlessly collides into each others lives. So many twists and turns. Definitely a must read for everyone