The book was not as depressing as I expected. A poor boy made upwardly mobile by a secret benefactor who doesn't reveal himself until the end, being a convict that the boy helped at the stories outset.

I couldn't really sift out any moral lesson.

And it provides a mostly-happy ending the whole family can enjoy. ( )

Blurb: Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great expectations traces the growth of Philip Pirrip - Pip - from a boy of shallow dreams to a man of depth and character. He falls in love with Estella. who has been taught to despise men by the eccentric guardian Miss Havisham, who was jilted on her wedding day in her youth. Informed that an unknown benefactor has provided money for his education, Pip forsakes his humbler friends and goes to Londen to become 'a gentleman'. His benefactor turns out to be Abel Magwitch, a transported convict whom Pip has assisted years earlier, and who, in turn, is revealed as Estella's father. With this knowledge, Pip's dreams fade, and having narrowly escaped emprisonment for debt, he returns to his roots and sets himself to honest work. Meanwhile, Estella maries Pip's enemy Bentley Drummle, by whom she is cruelly ill-treated, but she and Pip are eventually reunited after Drummle's death.
Samenv.: Klassieke roman die, in de ik-vorm gesteld, de ontwikkelingsgang tekent van de hoofdpersoon die via een periode van vervreemding van zijn milieu, een tijdelijk snobisme, terugkeert naar zijn eenvoudiger, oorspronkelijke omgeving. Het is het verhaal van Pip, de weesjongen die in armoede wordt opgevoed. Pip begint echter grote verwachtingen te koesteren, wanneer hij verliefd wordt op een meisje van goede komaf en helemaal wanneer een geheimzinnige weldoener hem in staat stelt op te groeien tot 'gentleman'.

I think Algernon Swinburne put it best when he said that its "defects are as nearly imperceptible as spots on the sun or shadow on a sunlit sea." A perfect novel, one of the best in the language. Dickens again and again instills a kind of pride in me for being a native English speaker. ( )

I did not like this book at all. It's been a while since I read it, so I can't really explain why, but I know I didn't like it. See my review on A Tale of Two Cities. ( )

I have to confess that I kept putting off snapping the binding on this book because it started to feel like I had a college assignment that I truly didn't want to read. However, I am glad that I read "Great Expectations." It was actually my second time through as I realized when I started reading...I discovered that this book was one of the classics that I read in between college and dental school when I was bound and determined to read as many of the classics as possible. I have to confess that it was definitely a different experience reading as a seasoned adult versus a naive 20 year old. "Great Expectations" follows the classic Dickensian plot of an orphan who comes of age and learns valuable life lessons along the way. Written in the first person by Pip, you are constantly coming in contact with characters that you love or hate with very little in between gray. There are definite high points in the story...love the scenes with Miss Haversham and low points...did not enjoy the years when Pip is an apprentice with his brother-in-law Joe. ( )