I started reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens on Mom’s Kindle on the plane, on the way home from China.  I read the first couple chapters and then… stopped.  I was going to pick it back up again when we got home, but I just got busy and did not.  Spencer prompted me to finish it, and I told him I would after I read The Sign of the Beaver.

So I did.  And I am sooo glad I did!  It is a wonderful book.  I had my doubts in the middle of it, but I got through it and loved it.

It was not because I was faithful, but because Joe was faithful, that I never ran away and went for a soldier or a sailor. (83)

It is about a little boy called Pip who grew up with his strong-handed sister and her husband the blacksmith, and was later adopted by a rich person to be their heir–without being told who his benefactor is.  Pip moves into his new life, making his guesses at who adopted him; pursuing his passion for the pretty girl he loved from the moment he met her, pushing aside his regret for leaving his brother-in-law and the girl he grew up with, haunted by the guilty-ridden memory of helping an escaped convict when he was a boy.

“You are one of those, Biddy,” said I, “who makes the most of every chance.” (98)

I do not really feel qualified to write a review about this book, in all honesty.  It is just… classic.  It has a very good ending–not the one I was expecting, but a good one.  I was mad at most of the characters through most of the book, but I was at peace with most of them at the end–all of them but two, I think.

She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen. (43)

It was written in the 1800s and the writing-style was a little difficult to read, but I did alright.  It is also a very long book.  So long, that I started feeling like I was almost done when I still had something like forty pages to read! 🙂

Technically it was realistic, but there were way too many coincidences, and too many eccentric people–which makes for a good story, but is unrealistic.  But realistic was never a priority for me, so that did not bother me at all! 🙂  But Mr. Dickens did seriously tie up all the ends.  It was amazing!  So when a person comes in, expect to see them again.  No matter how small a part they play, start looking for their second appearance.

“You are growing tall, Pip!”  I thought it best to hint, through the medium of a meditative look, that this might be occasioned by circumstances over which I had no control. (75)

This book was really funny, but parts of it were very seriously or sad.  My favorite kind of book is the ones that make you laugh one moment, and cry the next!

____________________________________________________________________

So: do my reviews bore you, or do you like them?  Who’s game for April?