Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Austin : Holt, Rinehart and Winston [2000]
554 p. : 22 cm.
Sometimes, in reading, you just want to return to an old favorite or old classic. Though not really a "favorite," I remembered enjoying Great Expectations decades ago when I first read it, and so took it home with me for reading over the winter holidays.
Though hailed as a masterpiece by contemporary critics, Great Expectations is probably not as celebrated as it once was. Dickens, extremely popular in his own lifetime and publishing his work to eager fans through serial installments does at times feel a bit more like popular fiction instead of literary fiction. That being said, I have to say that this novel has aged pretty well.
The novel revolves around the fortunes of Pip, an orphaned boy being lovelessly raised by his sister and his sudden inheritance of a fortune from a secret benefactor. I really enjoyed Dickens' mastery of keeping the reader interested throughout. He's an exceptional plotter and his characters are a delight to discover. Yes, there's a bit of moralizing in Dickens, and occasionally ridiculous coincidences used to further the action, but one can't help but enjoying the ride. There are lots of enjoyable twists and surprises and at it's core, a deeply humane and progressive sympathy for humans with all their good qualities and disturbing flaws.
I would definitely recommend Great Expectations to a student wanting to read some of the classic novels of the English literature canon.
