Rating: 
Summary: mystery, romance and suspense
Review: Charles Dickens was one of the most popular writers of all time, creating some of the best-known characters in English literature. In the book "Great Expectations", the protagonist and narrator, Pip begins the story as a young orphan boy being grown up by his sister. I like this book, because Charles Dickens takes you right inside the Pip's mind and you live through the events and discoveries of his life with him. Pip is passionate, romantic and somewhat unrealistic at heart. That makes the novel interesting. Of course, you cannot forget the great love story (Pip and Estella). The other characters Magwitch, Miss Havisham, Joe Gargery, Miss Joe, Estella, Mr Jaggers and Mr Wemmick are all unique and special in their way and they add to the novel's richness. Another thing I really liked was how all of the characters are interrelated to each other in ways that you may not discover until you get to the end of the novel. This novel will make you sometimes laugh and sometimes make you feel sad, but it is always entertaining. Latif Dose simplifies the texts. The language is very clear. There are not old English words and this gives the reader much pleasure while reading the novel. I think most young people would like this novel because it's not as hard to read as an other classic books. I recommend Great Expectations to anyone who wants to read a good, classic book because Great Expectations has a little bit of everything in it, mystery, romance and suspense. You cannot easily find all of these properties in other novels, which makes "Great Expectations" a special and a classic one.
. That makes this novel very different. It is probably one of the top ten English novels of the 19th century. Some of the passages are beautiful. I cannot forget Pip's response to Estella when she says "You will get me out of thoughts in a week."
Rating:
Summary: An wonderful novel by England's greatest novelist.
Review: Great Expectations is one of the most absorbing novels I have ever read. It is also the best. The plot is complex and exciting, sometimes very funny and sometimes almost unbearably sad, with so many plot twists it is impossible to lose interest. The writing and descriptions are...well they're Dickens': always brilliant and powerful. And the characters in Great Expecations, Pip, Uncle Pumblechook, Miss Havisham, Mr. Jaggers, etc., are colorful and original, and complex and lively. Great Expectations has the suspense of any of today's thrillers (during the last fifty pages I could not put it down) and a wonderful message: that your social standing does not determine what kind of a person you are; aristocracy isn't all it's cracked up to be; what you really need in life are good friends and people that care about you. Great Expectations is a masterpiece of the first order. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed it. It is most assuredly a book I will keep reading again and again throughout my life.
Rating: 
Summary: Things Aren't Always What They Appear To Be.
Review: GREAT EXPECTATIONS is often the novel used in high schools to introduce students to Dickens. Due to it's length and fairly long and uneventful middle phase, I'm not sure it's the best text to introduce people to Dickens. Still, it is a pretty good story and contains some of the most memorable characters in Dickens' fiction.GREAT EXPECTATIONS is the story of Phillip Pirrip, otherwise known as Pip. Pip's parents die not long after he is born and he is raised "by hand" by his sister. His brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, is the town blacksmith and loves Pip. The two are best-of-friends. One night while looking at his parents' graves, Pip meets a convict and his life is forever changed by that meeting. As the novel progresses, Pip meets Miss Havisham (the wealthiest woman in town) and her beautiful ward, Estella. Pip immediately falls in love with Estella and is haunted by her all the days of his life. Eventually Pip is bond to Joe as his apprentice and sets to work in the blacksmith forge. Several years later, Pip's luck changes when he is informed by a lawyer from London, Mr. Jaggers, that he has become the recipient of "great expectations". The book then follows Pip's life as he enters this new stage in life and as he develops and becomes a "gentleman". Everything is brought full circle and just about everyone gets what they deserve by the time the novel ends. GREAT EXPECTATIONS isn't the easiest of books to read. What many writers can do in a sentence often takes Dickens two pages to tell. Also, the book is divided into three phases and the second phase is rather boring (except at the end) and really does nothing more than to fill in a few plot gaps and illustrate to us how much of a prig Pip becomes. Nevertheless, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is still a good story containing some very vivid characters: Pip, Estella, Joe, Miss Havisham, Magwitch, Jaggers, and Wemmick. The characters in GREAT EXPECTATIONS are as memorable as anyone in DAVID COPPERFIELD, OLIVER TWIST, or A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The first phase of the book is quite interesting and sets up everything that later occurs in the novel. The third part of the novel is full of excitement and contains Pip's repentance and reformation. Overall, it's a great book and even though it was written over a hundred years ago, it has a lot to say about the society in which we live today.
Rating:
Summary: Social commentary, mystery, romance and a great story...
Review: I've never read any Dickens of my own free will. I was forced to read "A Tale of Two Cities" in high school and I thought that was enough for me. However, one day, on a whim, I bought a copy of Great Expectations. I'm not sure what I expected, but I certainly didn't expect to love it as much as I did. Dickens is not a writer to read at a swift pace. Indeed, this novel was written in weekly episodes from December 1860 to August 1861 and, as it was created to be a serial, each installment is full of varied characters, great descriptions and a lot of action which moves the plot along and leaves the reader yearning for more. Therefore, unlike some books which are easily forgotten if I put them down for a few days, Great Expectations seemed to stick around, absorbing my thoughts in a way that I looked forward to picking it up again. It took me more than a month to read and I savored every morsel. Basically the story is of the self-development of Pip, an orphan boy being raised by his sister and her blacksmith husband in the marshlands of England in 1820. Every one of the characters were so deeply developed that I felt I was personally acquainted with each one of them. There was Pip's roommate, Herbert Pocket, the lawyer, Mr. Jaggers, and his clerk, Mr. Wemmick. And then there was the wicked Orlick. The dialogues were wonderful. The characters often didn't actually say what they meant but spoke in a way that even though the words might be obtuse, there was no mistaking their meaning. I found myself smiling at all these verbal contortions. Dickens' work is richly detailed and he explores the nuances of human behavior. I enjoyed wallowing in the long sentences and letting myself travel backwards in time to a different world. However, even with the footnotes, I found myself sometimes confused by the British slang of 150 years ago, and there were several passages I had to read over several times in order to get the true meaning. Of course I was not in a particular rush. I didn't have to make a report to a class or take a exam about the book. This is certainly a pleasure. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good read.ting from the secret wealth of Magwitch, who made a fortune in Australia after being transported. Moreover, Magwitch's unlawful return to England puts him and Pip in danger. Meanwhile, Estella has married another, a horrible man who Pip despises. Eventually, with Magwitch's recapture and death in prison and with his fortune gone, Pip ends up in debtors prison, but Joe redeems his debts and brings him home. Pip realizes that Magwitch was a more devoted friend to him than he ever was to Joe and with this realization Pip becomes, finally, a whole and decent human being. Originally, Dickens wrote a conclusion that made it clear that Pip and Estella will never be together, that Estella is finally too devoid of heart to love. But at the urging of others, he changed the ending and left it more open ended, with the possibility that Estella too has learned and grown from her experiences and her wretched marriages. This is the work of a mature novelist at the height of his powers. It has everything you could ask for in a novel: central characters who actually change and grow over the course of the story, becoming better people in the end; a plot laden with mystery and irony; amusing secondary characters; you name it, it's in here. I would rank it with A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield among the very best novels of the worlds greatest novelist. GRADE: A+
Rating:
Summary: a high school boy's review
Review: Like many other high schoolers who wrote reviews on this page, I was forced to read this in my freshman english class. I thought it was an extremely good story. The characters (my favorites being Orlick and Trabb's Boy) are brilliant and subtley funny. The story is creative and unpredictible, and overall, it was absolutely supberb. The only reason this book doesn't get 5 stars is because it tends to drag a lot of the time, and Dickens overlong descriptions are a bit grating on the nerves, but I DO understand why people would have liked it like that in the 1800's. They liked their books long and juicy. It's a bit dated but Great Expectations is well worth a read if you have the patience. Even if you are impatient, you can not miss this great story and its wonderful characters, so at least see one of the many great movie adaptions. My personal favorite movie version of Great Expectations is the 1999 Masterpiece theatre version.
Rating:
Summary: Great expectations
Review: Great Expectations was a remarkable book. I really enjoyed it. I didn't really have great expectations before I read it. It was about a little English boy named Pip. Pip is a poor kid who suddenly inherits a bunch of money and becomes rich. When he was poor he hated the way rich people treated poor people, but he finds himself doing treating poor people horribly when rich. He finally learns that everyone deserves to be treated with the same respect, even those less fortunate. This was an interesting book, but a tough book to understand, I would probably recommend it only for adults.
Rating:
Summary: Great Expectations (note: not this specific edition)
Review: This is a great story of Pip (Philip Pirrip)'s obsessive love for a woman who neither loves him nor seems in any way the typical heroine. As he strives to become a gentleman, aided by an anonymous benefactor's money, he succeeds only in alienating those who love him best and most honestly. Appearances, as in most Dickens novels, are deceiving, and those who are wealthy in a material sense are not those who are wealthy in the emotional sense and vice versa. The language and sentence structure are both complex; if you have any difficulty in understanding this sort of English you'd do well to wait awhile before reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS, because Dickens' brilliance is in the wording. This is less humorous than many of his other stories; however the humor is there if you look for it and listen for it in the phrasing. Dickens provided two endings for this book, and, frankly, I don't care much for either...but read the book, read both endings, and decide for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I spent a whole term going over this book in freshmen English class. It is an overall good book, full of interpritations. There are many symbolisms and allusions. However, it is important to remember that this book was originally a serialization, as it came out every week in the paper. There are some parts when Dickens drawls on with his plans, events, ect. However, there are scenes that are very fast paced and action filled. The overall plot is a young, naive boy of about ten lives with his sister and her simple husband named Joe. However, Pip is given a secret benefactor and is thrust in the life of nobility. Pip is tangled in his probelems of leaving Joe behind and his encouters with the shallow (and I mean SHALLOW) Estella and the wicked Miss Havisham. Dickens is a master with characters and the languege, but he doesn't describe any everyday events. For example, Pip goes to study law, but thats all we know. In my opinion, it gives the characters this higher than life importance, and less real. But, if you take this book slowely, maybe a chapter a night (instead of the five I had to do), you will definately enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring beginnig, Good ending
Review: I had to read this book for my English class and at first it was so boring! It about a young boy named Pip and he is trying to find his true indentity. At the end of the first phase he goes to London to become a "gentleman" because that is what his benefactor wants (Pip doesn't know his benefactor). At the end of the 2nd phase, he finds out who his benefactor is. Those two phases in the book are really boring, but I think it gets better in the end. If you read this book I suggest that you just start in the third phase because the rest is boring.
Rating:
Summary: It's got flaws, but it's a very good and fun read.
Review: I'm here referring to the Oxford World's Classics edition, published in 1999. Firstly, I love the book itself. It's compact, the pages have a soft, easy feel to them, and the print is a welcome size: smaller but very readable. A+ here. The characters are particular and animate. Through the use of his famously detailed characterization and description, Dickens creates an elaborate colorful neighborhood of which you feel part. A+ for this escapism and for the sheer pleasure it brings. I especially admire his keen sense of the droll. However, while the tale runs well through the first half or so, as it progresses -- did you find so also? -- it loses the intact sympathies of the reader by trying to connect all the dots that its intricate plot has spun out into. It's forever tying its own shoes. I was similarly disappointment in the final denouement of Estella and Pip, as a let down and overly cerebral. (B-) But I highly recommend this book as a good Dickens novel, and on its own terms, a great one. A very fun read!
|
