Havisham

by Ronald Frame

HAVISHAM IS THE ASTONISHING PRELUDE TO CHARLES DICKENS'S GREAT EXPECTATIONS.

Before she became the immortal and haunting Miss Havisham of Great Expectations, she was Catherine, a young woman with all of her dreams ahead of her. Spry, imperious, she is the daughter of a wealthy brewer. But she is never far from the smell of hops and the arresting letters on the brewhouse wall—HAVISHAM—a reminder of all she owes to the family name and the family business.

Sent by her father to stay with the Chadwycks, Catherine discovers elegant pastimes to remove the taint of her family's new money. But for all her growing sophistication, Catherine is anything but worldly, and when a charismatic stranger pays her attention, everything—her heart, her future, the very Havisham name—is vulnerable.

In Havisham, Ronald Frame unfurls the psychological trauma that made young Catherine into Miss Havisham and cursed her to a life alone, roaming the halls of the mansion in the tatters of the dress she wore for the wedding she was never to have.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Retellings, Historical, British Literature, Literary Fiction, Audiobook

357 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Ronald Frame was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1953, and educated there and at Oxford. He is the author of thirteen internationally published works of fiction, is an award-winning television and radio scriptwriter, and has recently received international recognition for his short stories set in the fictitious Scottish spa town of Carnbeg.

In 1984 he was joint-winner of the first Betty Trask Prize for fiction. In 1999 his novel The Lantern Bearers was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize and won the 2000 Saltire Award for Scottish Book of the Year.

In August 2001 he delivered the inaugural Saltire Lecture at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which received wide press coverage. He spoke at the New York Public Library in late October 2001 following appearances at the Toronto International Festival of Authors. The American Library Association named Ronald Frame as winner of the Barbara Gittings Honor Award in Fiction for 2003.

Reviews

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear Mr. Frame:

I recently read Havisham, your prequel and retelling of Charles Dickens Great Expectations, one of my favorite Victorian novels. Your choice to expand the back story of minor character Miss Havisham, the most infamous misandry in literary history, was brilliant. Jilted at the altar she was humiliated and heartbroken, living the rest of her days in her tattered white wedding dress in the decaying family mansion, Satis House. Few female characters have left such a chilling impression on me. I was eager to discover your interpretation of how her early life formed her personality and set those tragic events into motion.

Dickens gave you a fabulous character to work with. (spoilers ahead) Born in Kent in the late eighteenth-century, Catherine’s mother died in childbirth leaving her father, a wealthy brewer, to dote upon his only child. Using his money to move her up the social ladder she is educated with aristocrats where she learns about literature, art, languages and the first disappointments of love. In London she meets and is wooed by the charismatic Charles Compeyson. Family secrets surface in the form of her dissipated half-brother Arthur, the child of a hidden marriage of her father to their cook. Her ailing father knows his son has no interest in his prospering business and trains his clever young daughter. After his death, the inevitable clash occurs between the siblings over money and power. Challenged as woman running a business in a man’s world, Catherine struggles until Charles reappears charming his way into her service and her heart. About two thirds of the way through the novel the events of Great Expectations surface. Charles abandons her on their wedding day and she sinks into depression.

I knew that the devastating jilting at the altar was coming! We all did. When it happened, I was anticipating a full-blown emotional Armageddon—like Jane Austen’s heroine Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility: bed-ridden crying jags, desperate letter writing to her lover, senseless walking in the rain, near-death illness, and miraculous survival. Some of that happened in Havisham, but not to the degree I anticipated. After all, we knew that Dickens’ Miss Havisham had taken this jilting business far beyond the depths of disappointed hopes that Marianne had plumbed. But why? Why did she choose not to move on—holding on to her anger and rage, becoming bitter and vengeful? It had to be something so startling that it would jar me to my core. I won’t reveal your choices, but when her tepid romance with Charles Compeyson and her reaction to his spurning were not what I expected, I was greatly disappointed. Readers had been waiting 150 years to know the story. Granted it was not Dickens’ narrative, but it could be the next best thing. You had gotten us to this point so admirably that I was inclined to close your book with an angry snap. If I had a white wedding dress, I would be wearing it right now in protest. You have jilted me at the altar of literature.

Do I regret reading your novel? No. Your prose was beautifully crafted and your characterizations entertaining. Would I like to give you some unsolicited advice on being brave enough to take your own narrative over the edge? Yes! After reading numerous Jane Austen-inspired sequels, you can’t play with classic archetypes and then not deliver the goods. While your plot slowly picked up momentum you missed the point. Catherine’s romance with Charles should have been the most compelling relationship in book, yet I was constantly on guard by his questionable behavior and never liked him, let alone loved him. I never understood why she did. That desperate passion between them should have consumed the pages, like Bronte’s Catherine and Heathcliff, making his final choice so shocking, so devastating, so heartbreaking, that we understood why she locked herself away from the world and enacted revenge on Pip through her daughter Estella. So close, yet miles away from the masters of human emotion, Dickens, Bronte and Austen. They would never have made that mistake.

I commend you for your attempt. It is a very tall order to write a prequel of a literary icon. Everyone who has read Great Expectations has their own great expectations for Miss Havisham. Your book exhibits many fine qualities, unfortunately your choices lacked the fire, passion, and emotional depth required to make her psychological tragedy the literary jackpot that we have been waiting for.

Laurel Ann, Austenprose

[Jax · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ronald Frame's Havisham opens with a great scene in which a young Estella meets Miss Havisham for the first time and is shocked by what she sees - the dress, the veil, the slippers - all important details from Great Expectations reiterated here. This vignette is in short, clipped sentences, and almost like a brief running-commentary snapshot into Miss Havisham's mind. It's a brilliant way to kick off a story of one woman's descent into madness and 24-hour bridal gown wearing.

Unfortunately, this style of storytelling continues throughout the entire novel, and, in addition to some unbelievable plot points, it's very disjointed, jarring and hard to get through. Whereas Dickens' writing flows with beautiful language and descriptions, Frame is sparse and the vignette style hurts the story more than it helps. And the end of the book overlaps with Great Expectations which was completely unnecessary - if I wanted to read about Pip and Estella, Satis House falling apart and Miss Havisham's repentance, I'd read Dickens again.

Havisham's premise tells the story of how Miss Havisham grew up in the wealthy middle class of England and how she was jilted at the altar and fell into madness. She had a isolated, yet wealthy upbringing, due to her father's ownership of a successful brewery that distributed to pubs around the country, and became friends with Sally, a girl who lived in the village. Suddenly, it comes to light that Mr. Havisham had married a cook, and there was a half brother in the picture after the cook died. Miss Havisham completely hates this half brother, so when she was of age, she goes to live with an even wealthier family in order to learn how to behave in proper society.

This is where the story took a wrong turn. The entire time she was at the Chadwyck's, it felt like filler in an already short book. The balls and parties she attends, the play she performs in, they are all a stage in which she could meet Mr. Compeyson who would steal her money and jilt her at the altar. A twist is added that Mr. Compeyson is in cahoots with her half-brother and secretly married Sally (who is portrayed as Miss Havisham's "best friend" but the relationship is not developed at all). Literally every scene with Mr. Compeyson is so contrived, it's hard to believe that she would fall for it. If it had been more subtle it would have been more believable, especially since she was surrounded with wealthy people who could have prevented her from falling for him.

The book is from Miss Havisham's point of view, but it is a cold narration. Frame does not let the reader feel for Miss Havisham in any way - she is horrid and unforgivable most of the time. And in the big scene where she is jilted, he chose to have her wet her pants, which was so crass and out of character, it singlehandedly ruined the book. She does it again later in the book when she asks for Pip's forgiveness, and I couldn't help but think Dickens was rolling in his grave.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This prequel to Great Expectations starts very well, with an imagined childhood and young womanhood for Miss "Catherine" Havisham. However, I was increasingly disappointed as I read on, feeling the book becomes much weaker as it starts retelling and reinterpreting incidents from Dickens's novel.

The central problem for me is that Miss Havisham is such a passionate, Gothic figure, yet here she dwindles into a more insipid and realistic character. This is not a problem in the early sections, and I especially enjoyed some chapters where she goes to stay with an aristocratic family in Shropshire - at this stage I forgot I was reading a Dickens spin-off and enjoyed the novel in its own right, with its build-up of detail about early 19th-century life and family theatricals.

But the central romance of her life, with Compeyson, and her obsessive love, don't ring true, and I found one or two passages about her sexual frustration jarringly explicit. Although Dickens's descriptions of the decaying, ruined Satis House work brilliantly, similar passages in this novel just don't seem believable, as the daily wearing of her wedding dress, etc, is explained in realistic terms.

I'm not sure what rating to go for, as I would probably give the early chapters 4* and the last few 1*. I'll make it 2* for now as I'm feeling disappointed overall and wouldn't recommend the book.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Great Expectations in high school, which I am sure many of us did, and it is actually do for a re-read, well someday. I do remember Miss Havisham as being a nasty and bitter old biddy.

In this remarkably well written novel, the author tries to enlighten the reader on what made her the mean old character she was. The story starts when she is young, only her father bringing her up, a brewery providing the family fortune. I enjoyed this story, did feel sorry for her in places but always felt she was a bit self centered even young and this did not change as she grew. Does not follow the story-lines of Great Expectations exactly, but follows it's own course to her mental breakdown and instability. Would have like to have had these things explored a little more thoroughly.

I am not a fan of re-told stories, they so often disappoint. The writing is what for me raised this above many of these so telled prequels or sequels.

ARC from publisher.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many other readers I have been fascinated with the character of Catherine Havisham since I first encountered her in Great Expectations at the tender age of 13. Jilted on her wedding day and frozen in time and bitterness in Satis House, she endeavours to wreak vengeance on treacherous, unreliable men via her ward, the irresistible Estella. Ronald Frame uncovers the human side of Miss Havisham, revealing an ambitious and vivacious young woman not yet tainted by the trauma of broken relationships.

We see a young girl, an only child doted upon by her widowed father who lavishes her with gifts “Children, handpicked” are brought to play at Satis House but Catherine remains an outsider, the money coming from the Havisham Brewery marking her as different from the local villagers but still not quite good enough for noble families. Her one friend is Sally, the daughter of a labourer, but she is not a suitable companion for an heiress so Catherine is shipped off to the Chadwycks, a more socially appropriate setting for someone of her social stature. However the overriding impression is that Catherine is her own woman, a square peg trying to fit into a round hole, stuck in a limbo between new and old money. She’s never presented as a paragon of virtue but you feel she’s doomed to be an outsider, living on the periphery of others’ happiness.

In this reimagining of Miss Havisham, Frame forges his own style and gives a realistic background to a very troubled lady. It’s a bit of a slow burner but give it time to breathe life into a ghostly figure and you will be rewarded with the compelling story of a much maligned and perhaps misunderstood character. A must for fans of Great Expectations.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an experiment in imaginative writing that works admirably.Telling the story of Catherine Havisham from her childhood -- a prequel to 'Great Expectations' -- it is clear,at least in Ronald Frame's fantasy, that Miss Havisham once had great expectations herself! Using his literary skills to some effect,Frame delineates the whole sorry story which leads the self-contained brewer's daughter Catherine to the fateful morning of her 'phantom' wedding to Charles Compeyson,and its deathless aftermath, when she takes her revenge on men through the whims and wiles of Estella,as Dickens told in one of the main strands of 'Great Expectations'. I love Dickens's depiction of Pip,and the cruel fate of the gullible boy,and Frame uses incidents and dialogue from the original work seamlessly, giving his insights into possible motivations of Estella,Compeyson and created characters like Sarah,Catherine's only friend,who callously betrays her with Compeyson.There is so much to admire,though some readers may find its central eponymous character,Catherine Havisham,every bit as forbidding as Dickens full-blown melodramatic creation,particularly her complete physical and emotional collapse after her unexpected nuptial humiliation.There is even more than an intimation that Miss Havisham was sorely in need of some uncomplicated,honest sexual release from an honest,uncomplicated man of parts! A novel solution for frustrated spinsters everywhere! Get a simple man about the house! A very clever novel.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!! Really well written and makes you feel things! Pretty sure I took the wrong lesson I was supposed to take from this book which was don't trust anybody!! Very complex characters and gives good psychological background. Lots of haunting lines:

On Compeyson's death (this is not a spoiler if you've read Great Expectations which I would recommend doing before this book):

"A destroyer such as he, who is destroyed in his turn, he's owed no grief" (347).

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scottish author Ronald Frame brings readers the story behind one of the most intriguing aspects of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations: Miss Havisham’s madness. In an accomplished first-person voice (adapted from Frame’s original play for BBC Radio 3), Catherine Havisham tells of her early life, from the hop-soaked streets around the family’s Kent brewery to the austere halls of Durley Chase, where Catherine is sent to be ‘finished’ as a proper lady. Her life seems rich – filled with her father’s love, her half-brother Arthur’s mischief, and her best friend Sally’s companionship – until the day she meets Charles Compeyson through her amateur theatricals. Their whirlwind romance ends in a vicious betrayal that leads Catherine to become the bitter recluse we find her in Dickens’s tale.

In the tradition of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, Frame attempts to give a voice and an explanatory history to the madwoman on the fringes of a classic novel. However, Havisham lacks the former novel’s narrative sparkle; it limps along dully from one plot event to the next until the storyline at last meets up with Dickens’s through the characters of Pip and Estella. Only when this familiar material surfaces does the novel come to life. In this Dickens bicentennial year [written in 2012], the timing is perfect for historical fiction indebted to his novels, but Havisham fails to live up to the eager reader’s great expectations.

(Also features in my BookTrib article on literary prequels and sequels.)

[Anne Tucker · Rating 2 out of 5]

well, I read it just after finishing Great Expectations (and Mister Pip, another excellent novel inspired by GE) and was intrigued to find 'another weay of looking' ast Miss Havisham. It was fine, enjoyable but somehow didnt really add anything for me. I had presumed we would think her less 'mad' and unhinged ... but for me the TV film last Xmas with the much younger Miss Havisham did do that. She came over as a real person, who could well have lost it following such dreadful treatment, loss of trust etc. I have nothing to complain about with this book, though its not hugely inspiring the way its written, i kept feeling that it was wanting, in comparison to the richness of Dickens' own writing!

[Blagovesta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked Havisham in a bookstore in Paris, during our holiday. Being a fan of Great Expectations I was all excitement that such a book should exist and I couldn't wait to dive into its story, Catherine Havisham's story. However, the more I read, the more disappointed I grew. The book resembles a poem to me, but one that sounds flat and evokes no feelings in the reader's heart. It was as if I watched everything happening to Catherine from a great distance and heard the words she spoke through a thick wall - inaudible, muffled. I wish in no way to underestimate Frame's efforts and do respect his work and his courage to write this book. It just did not touch me. It did make me want to re-read Dickens's masterpiece, though :)

[Crissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting and eery portrayal of the psychology of the girl who became the woman who became the ghost in GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
Modern and readable but paid homage to Dickens in its eccentricity and character.
Felt very absorbed into the narration, you just kept turning page after page.

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Havisham, Ronald Frame has taken inspiration from the Charles Dickens’s classic novel Great Expectations and has recreated the supposed life of the ill fated spinster Catherine Havisham. There has always been much speculation into the mystery of Satis House, and the portrayal of Miss Havisham left in her decaying mansion surrounded by the ghost of her wedding paraphernalia presents an iconic image of English literature.
Catherine Havisham is such a fascinating character that any story that can shed light on her troubled personality is one to be embraced with great interest. Overall, I think that the author has done an admirable job in fleshing out her character and whilst there are no great surprises to found within the story, it does make for an interesting and enjoyable read. I thought that the story starts off rather slowly and needs to be read with great care, and attention and then once Catherine grows up the story really starts to become a fascinating account of a life mismanaged by tragedy.
The Dickens purists may not agree that Miss Havisham’s story deserves to be told by anyone other than the great man himself, but as an enjoyable addition to the sub Dickens genre, Havisham works well.

My thanks to NetGalley and Faber and Faber for a review copy

[Marilena · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I heard that someone was finally telling Ms. Havisham's story, I was absolutely thrilled. I don't think many would disagree when I say that she is the most captivating and mysterious character in Great Expectations. I was very much hooked when I started the book, and I found the story Frame created to be very much believable. I enjoyed sympathizing with her and seeing her as a human being, not just a heartless man-hater.


However, my enjoyment waned when she declined into madness. It all seemed to happen way too fast. The story suddenly seemed rushed and forced. I don't know if I expected too much because of my love for Great Expectations, but I looked forward to the portion of the story that I already knew (but had not seen her side of). I especially found the ending to be strange and ill-fitting with the rest of the novel.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had such great promise, but half the way through, I am still waiting for it to hook me. The character of Miss Havisham lived in such madness, I expected some seriously bad stuff to happen. But we've already met Compeyson, and no one around Catherine trusts him. How will this be utter destruction for her? Seems like it's just a big 'told you so." Additionally, the writing style is off-putting for me. I most enjoy books where the writer's style disappears into the story, but this book seems to shine a big spotlight on the writing itself. The short, very choppy sentences and sections constantly reset me, keeping me from submerging into the story. Time to set this one aside and move on to the next book in my stack.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wide Sargasso Sea set the bar really high, in my opinion, for this type of character-centric prequel. When there is such a wonderful and iconic character, such as Miss Havisham, and you hear someone is writing their back story it is easy to get excited about it. Unfortunately, this book does not live up to such great expectations. A character like this deserves a thorough psychological exploration so you can see how they became the person you already know them to be. This felt more like snippets from a diary and just did not delve deeply enough.


This review is based on an advanced copy received from the publisher.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that the author captured Catherine Havisham's interior life brilliantly and made the reader empathise with her descent into madness. This was beautifully written and I found it quite gripping. However, it is not really written in the style of Dickens, more of an interpretation using the plot of Great Expectations in a far more modern style - Catherine's thoughts are expressed in short paragraphs and the ending in particular is not the kind of writing you would find in the Victorian novel. It reminded me a little of Wide Sargasso Sea but less experimental.

[Nadishka Aloysius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was definitely intrigued by this.
This is not a feminist rewrite of the story. It is more like a backstory to an interesting character. It attempts to explain why Ms. Havisham turned out to be who she is.
The story begins with Catherine Havisham's childhood and her complicated relationship with her father. She is sent away to live with an aristocratic family in her teens and meets the man who will leave her at the alter.
It is left ambiguous if she actually does go mad. Estelle's background is also not mentioned at any point. You also get to see the relationship between the two women in the second half of this book. The ending was different to the Dicken's original. Pip and Estelle do not reconcile at the end. And Ms. Havisham kind of dissipates into the ether...
I found the first half a really good read but the latter part was dull in comparison. Perhaps because it overlapped a classic?

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reviews for this book weren’t very good, so I didn’t have “great expectations” for it, but I was quite pleasantly surprised! Sure, there were a few boring moments, and some unnecessary scenes, but overall I enjoyed it! It was thought-provoking and heartbreaking, but it was interesting to read about Miss Havisham in her youth.

[Jana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hated Great Expectations. I don’t know why I chose to read this.

[Gerhard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The classic image of Miss Havisham in her decaying wedding dress, entombed in the mausoleum of Satis House, is surpassed by an even more disturbing image in Ronald Frame’s imagining of her back story: that of a young Catherine masturbating.

When we finally get to the epochal Wedding Day scene, I roundly cursed Frame for planting a seed of a thought in my mind, that Catherine Havisham responded in such a Grand Guignol fashion to being jilted because she instinctively knew she would now never be fucked by Charles Compeyson, or by anyone else for that matter, as she had been yearning to happen to her ever since her sexual awakening. (Indeed, at one point Arthur dismissively calls her a “frustrated virgin”).

It takes a brave writer to, firstly, tackle a character as iconic as Miss Havisham and, secondly, to follow in the footsteps of an author as accomplished as Charles Dickens. Added to this is the fact that everyone knows how Great Expectations ends. This is probably due to the unending movie adaptations; few people read Dickens outside of academia these days, I wager.

Frame goes hell-bent for psychological realism, outdoing even Dickens for a resolutely grim and depressing conclusion. The book starts off slowly, more Jane Austen than Dickens, as we follow the young Catherine on her road to becoming a productive member of her (breeding) class.

The writing style is also resolutely modern, clipped yet sort of stream-of-consciousness, with the emphasis on brevity and compartmentalisation. Catherine quotes heavily from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe which, of course, is the basis for the equally famous A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes.

This literary sub-text unfortunately does not elevate Catherine to the status of a tragic heroine, especially given Frame’s rather limiting view of her as a “frustrated virgin”. What is equally frustrating is that all the male characters here are mere ciphers, from Catherine’s father to Arthur, Mr Jaggers, Pip Pirrin and, crucially, Charles Compeyson. Without a clear handle on what attracted Catherine to Charles, apart from the fact that she was horny and vulnerable, the reader is unable to comprehend the magnitude of her tragedy.

Still, there is much to enjoy here. Frame is a master at the quieter scene-setting bits, such as his simple descriptions of the English countryside, the brewery and even Satis House. I was fascinated by the part of Catherine’s story where she gets to take over the reins of her father’s business, and how she has to deal with economic and labour problems.

Frame’s acute knowledge of furniture, fabric and general bric-a-brac reminds me of Allan Hollinghurst. He also has a formidable writer’s vocabulary, stuffed with archaic words that fit the story beautifully.

Given Frame’s stated intention of psychological realism, it is perhaps inevitable that he stumbles at the great transformation scene where Catherine is jilted. This transpires very quickly, especially given the rather languid pace of the story up to that point.

Of course, the problem is that Miss Havisham is much more a symbol than a fully-fledged character; and yet Frame has to ensure that she fits the popular image we all know. Interestingly, he perceives the true horror of her fall as not being encapsulated in this moment, but in the slowly dawning realisation of how wrong she has been all along. This is a much subtler and far more devastating terror, culminating in a resolutely depressing and yet strangely cathartic ending.

[Barb]

My favorite genre of fiction is historical fiction and I like a good Victorian yarn, especially one rich in period details. I was expecting this book to be able to stand on its own as an enjoyable work of fiction without the need for the reader to be familiar with Dickens's, Catherine Havisham.

However, I'm not sure how well this novel works for readers who aren't familiar with Charles Dickens's 'Great Expectations'. The prologue opens with the narration of a brief scene, less than two pages long, in which a child is delivered to the doorstep of Catherine Havisham. We know it's Catherine because she tells us the child's eyes rest on her soiled bride's slippers. There's very little that intrigues the reader about the scene in the prologue and we move on to learn about Catherine's youth and upbringing.

She describes little details of her life, the hush that enveloped Satis House after she was born and her mother died, the status she enjoyed as the daughter of one of the largest brewers in town, the isolation she felt growing up with few friends. She tells of hazards in the brewery, the admonishment from her father to stay away and the accident that maimed one of the brewery workers. She complains to us about the cook, Mrs. Bundy spying on her and reporting back to her father and Bundy's malnourished son Arthur. We later learn more about the reasons for the cook's spying and something of interest about her father. Unfortunately few details are given about her father's choice or his motivations for it.

Reading all of the details about the early life of Catherine gave me an idea of her character, my problem was I didn't find her compelling to read about. I didn't go into the book having a vivid image set in mind of her has a woman pushed over the brink of sanity. I didn't read about Dickens's Catherine. So, the desire to see how she ended up rattling around in her filthy wedding gown with rodents eating her wedding cake wasn't as strong for me as it probably was for those readers who met Catherine in Great Expectations.

I’d hoped there would be elements of Frame's story that would create their own tension and compel me to keep reading. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything pulling me into this book. I didn't find the characters sympathetic, the storyline compelling or the period details abundant. Obviously this book is about Catherine's backstory but for readers who haven't read where she ends up there's very little momentum propelling us through the story.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. As you may have guessed by the very title of this book, this book is the story of arguably one of Charles Dickens' most memorable characters. Who didn't wonder about the story behind old Miss Havisham and her tattered wedding clothes. Even if you haven't read "Great Expectations" you still may be familiar with the character of Miss Havisham in her massive decaying house surrounded by things that showcase what was meant to be or at least what Miss Havisham thought was meant to be. This book seeks to explain that character and why she appears the way she appears in "Great Expectations." Mr. Frame does a great job of bringing this character to life.

The story starts out a little slowly when Miss Havisham is young. There was a lot of detail in the first section that sort of bogged down the narrative a little bit but the story eventually picks up as Miss Havisham gets a little bit older. She isn't a wholly sympathetic character but we get enough detail about her life that the reader is at least able to begin to see where she is coming from. We get insight into what Miss Havisham was like as a young woman. She is definitely an interesting character and I loved reading about her.

One factor of this book that I really liked is that the book is told from the perspective of Miss Havisham herself. By having her tell her own story, you really get to know her. You know exactly what she is thinking and why she does what she does throughout the story. I really liked seeing things from her angle.

Overall, I thought Frame did a great job with his treatment of such a familiar character.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed, overall, in the way the narrative differed from what Dickens actually wrote in Great Expectations, particularly in the ending scenes. And there just wasn't enough psychology involved. While the reasons for her breakdown after the jilting were fairly clear (I thought the fact that she was burned in effigy was a smart idea, story-wise,) the reasoning behind what she did with Estella was never really examined, and I'd say that's about 50% of the allure of a book like this. Havisham, once the protagonist has her neurotic break, is mostly the surface thoughts of a woman in the throes of a prolonged idee fixe; maybe the author was going for a realistic portrayal of mental imbalance, but Havisham seemed lucid outside of her monomania, so not exploring her deeper motivations just seems lazy. Great Expectations, I thought, gave a more sympathetic rendering of her. Speaking of which, I was disappointed that Ronald Frame went with the alternate ending instead of the standard one (and I also really hate when books like this end with the narrator's prolonged spectral presence, which just feels like a sensationalist device that adds nothing to the narrative.) A terrific idea that was not executed as well as it might have been.

[Whitney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but I was hoping for a less, um, boring novel explaining why Miss Havisham went totally batshit crazy. Dickens didn't bother to make his characters believable. I'm not sure why this author did, unless the impetus was to present a real-life scenario that could have happened to actual humans. This book starts out like a Jane Austen novel, but midway through, the table full of rotting uneaten wedding food is supposed to speak for itself. But it doesn't. Dickens created one of most unforgettable characters in Miss Havisham. Here she is bland up to the part of being jilted at altar. Then she has a few weeks (?) of false alarm crazy. Oh, and then she tries to get better. And then she "becomes" the character we all recognize, for the most part. But I do not believe the one "traumatic" event caused the transformation. It would've been grand to see her as an unbalanced and frightening young lady.

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Expectations was my favorite from English Lit in high school, so I enjoyed the opportunity to revisit Miss Havisham, Mr Jaggers, Estella, and Pip. Reading this didn't fill me with the same awe as in reading Copperfield, but Ronald Frame is a celebrated Scottish writer, and he's come up with a thorough back story for spooky, haunted Miss Catherine Havisham.

This book's graphic cover art is what first got my attention, but I wished the big blocky chapter heading font had been more in keeping with the style of the era.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the writing style difficult to capture my attention since Frame likes to jump around. He inserts flashes of memory into the present story, or contrasts internal thoughts with sentient descriptions, and often splices in quotations as young Miss Catherine Havisham recalls lines from the literary classics of her upbringing to provide commentary on what is happening in her own life. When Compeysen cannot pick up on her references to classical Greek poetry, you know he is a cad. A gentleman would know his Literature whereas Compeysen knows the favorites and current odds in horse racing. Major warning flag! Frame’s idea to weave in the poetic lines of Dido’s burning passion from The Aeneid as a parallel to Miss Havisham’s own tragic flame was particularly fitting.
The Acknowledgements mention that Havisham was a radio drama, broadcasted on the BBC and in fact Frame has written many original radio plays. Ah ha! That explains the writing style. Listening to Havisham as a radio drama would have been a different experience where I feel a fade in and out of contrasting sounds and memories would be more evoking and captivating than the blocky paragraphs they become in written form.
Frame captures Miss Havisham as a young woman very well. I especially liked the emphasis he put on the bold letters of the Havisham name and the legacy they entailed to uphold the business and pride of her family. The narrative is written from Miss Havisham’s perspective retrospectively, so she qualifies her retelling, pointing out the signs that she didn’t or didn’t want to see of Compeyson’s deceit.
I would have liked more on Compeyson’s decision to flee on his wedding day. You knew he was scheming for their entire courtship, so why did he call it quits then? There is no catalyst for his abrupt departure. The law wasn’t closing in on him, an old acquaintance hadn’t shown up to expose him, he didn’t receive a sudden change in fortune. I wanted the sort of Dickensian plot point that comes near the end to reveal all and was disappointed. We simply find out that he was stealing all along and living a double life – but we could already guess that! I wanted something major, something specific to wow me and offer me more answers to the ‘why?’ questions that arise in Great Expectations, which is what a companion novel should do.
Frame’s Havisham decides to don the wedding dress for life not only after her groom abandons her, but ultimately when she discovers her friend Sally’s betrayal, which was hinted at all along. Again, Frame could have given more to Havisham’s thoughts and emotional processes there. Her feelings on Compeyson cover the entire novel, so a few more pages on the friendship that pushes her over the edge of sanity would have been welcome.
Thanks to C & A for lending me their copy of this book. I was always curious to read it! It was worth adding to my nineteenth-century repertoire.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story of Miss Havisham growing up in wealthy middle class England and then how when jilted at the altar she falls into a descending madness. I enjoyed the story but felt it frustrating read as well. Even though Miss Havisham led a sheltered life, she came across as totally naïve and un intelligent ( in the way of human relationships). Also the story line stretched the imagination into ridiculous territory (Mr. Havisham had married a cook, and there was a half brother similar in age to Catherine) and ( Catherine considered Sally her best friend but she betrayed her and secretly married Compeyson). I felt this friendship was so one sided that it was unbelievable.

The book is from Miss Havisham's point of view, but I was not made to feel any sympathy for Miss Havisham. After all, she was a wealthy, educated Victorian woman, who may have fallen into despair initially but who then could have travelled/ developed the business/ etc. Also a lot of things were left un explained, and at no time was the thought of 'revenge' mentioned.

[Badseedgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I would enjoy this book more but the author used a little bit of revisionist history for this retelling of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. All the characters were more sympathetic in the book. I do like that no one but JOe and Bitty seemed to have any sort of happy ending. After all, they were the only decent characters in the original novel. All the other characters were ass hats, including Pip!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars
I never would've finished a paper version of this book
The first half is very slow and boring

[Meri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Non pensavo che un libro potesse fare così schifo incredibile