Pip Still Pops

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.   

Two Days by the Sea

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 

Boston : Mariner Books, [2005], c1955.

xii, 209 p. ; 21 cm.     

I decided to read To the Lighthouse during the stay at home time this spring since I haven't read Virginia Woolf in a long time and it seemed like a short read and a chance to catch up on a "classic." 

This is not a novel you read for the narrative.  Most of the book happens on two single days separated by an interval of ten years. Within those ten years Europe is ripped apart by WWI and one of the central characters of part one dies.  However the novel is more interested in the impressions of various characters and the complex inner life of the characters. Instead of narrative being the engine of the novel, the movement of the novel is driven by impressionist and poetic writing.

There is much to admire in Woolf's writing, but I have to say it took me longer to read than I expected.  It's a book one savors for its stylistic accomplishments.  I think reading it during the pandemic, made it harder to truly enjoy the rich artistry of the writing.  With all that said, it's not really a book I would recommend to a student, unless they are really interested in literature as an art form.  In that case, I would recommend it as a significant milestone in English fiction, one that charted new territory for the genre.