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Great Expectations
Penguin Readers is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders.
114 pages, Paperback
Published February 16, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 5, 2014
Amusingly written.
June 29, 2022
DNF. Just dont read easyreaders. (I had one laying around i got for free) It skips alot of character development and it wasnt enjoyable to read this. The story might be okay but it lacks alot of continuity and context
October 24, 2018
Nice story.
Life is never easy.
Life is never easy.
October 28, 2023
I think the book was great. I am ready to read the original one.
Funny thing about this book is that it doesn't have three stages of "Pip's expectations", only two. The first one happens when he realises he got well off mysteriously and everything in his life is about to change. The second one is when he finds out who his benefector was - an escaped convict - and realises that the woman of his dreams never ment to be his and never will be.
It is a great character journey there. He has to struggle to solve his problems and finds out so much about the past of girl he is in love with, more than she'll probably never know. His caring for her father grows, not only because he is her father, but mostly he realises his sacrifices towards him - and what once was guilt and disgust became love and kindness. He does everything he can to keep that one man free and alive and when he dies in prison Pip goes lonely and sick, everything seemed wrong.
But he had a loving family that took care of him and to whom he apologizes for acting with lust and scorn. He once again is loved (he actually never stoped being loved, he just got distant for a few years) and feel happy for Joe and Biddy's happiness. He decides to live his own life and travel with his best loving and dear friend, Herbert.
By the end of the book, 11 years later, Estella, the great love of his life made her own decisions, as it must've happened. She had her reasons, but she did lead this sad, suffered and bitter life, by her own will. That's the saddest, because she is so loved. At the end she sits beside Pip, as an old good friend and that's he always loving her: letting her live her own life, even if it hurts her and him - it is her decision after all.
Making it short, the lesson here is: Great expectations break, and break big time. But you don't have to.
Funny thing about this book is that it doesn't have three stages of "Pip's expectations", only two. The first one happens when he realises he got well off mysteriously and everything in his life is about to change. The second one is when he finds out who his benefector was - an escaped convict - and realises that the woman of his dreams never ment to be his and never will be.
It is a great character journey there. He has to struggle to solve his problems and finds out so much about the past of girl he is in love with, more than she'll probably never know. His caring for her father grows, not only because he is her father, but mostly he realises his sacrifices towards him - and what once was guilt and disgust became love and kindness. He does everything he can to keep that one man free and alive and when he dies in prison Pip goes lonely and sick, everything seemed wrong.
But he had a loving family that took care of him and to whom he apologizes for acting with lust and scorn. He once again is loved (he actually never stoped being loved, he just got distant for a few years) and feel happy for Joe and Biddy's happiness. He decides to live his own life and travel with his best loving and dear friend, Herbert.
By the end of the book, 11 years later, Estella, the great love of his life made her own decisions, as it must've happened. She had her reasons, but she did lead this sad, suffered and bitter life, by her own will. That's the saddest, because she is so loved. At the end she sits beside Pip, as an old good friend and that's he always loving her: letting her live her own life, even if it hurts her and him - it is her decision after all.
Making it short, the lesson here is: Great expectations break, and break big time. But you don't have to.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2023
Good for what it is, however I would like to read a full version of the book to get the real feel. After all, it is a classic and it would be a sin not to indulge on the original version. Still a decent book to get some insight on the story.
November 30, 2024
First class book I read. Interesting story. Great writing style. Sad ending. There is not much growing of the character. I don’t know how do people live without working.
March 10, 2020
3 🌟 for the simplified version by *Penguin Readers*
I think the beauty of a novel lies in its narrative, that much of the luxury a simplified version surely cannot offer readers . I didn't get quite a lot out of this small Penguin book. Something unsatisfactory just kept getting hung up out there.
Overall, this is undeniably a novel with captivating plotting, a bit peculiar even. The thing is, to me, through the brief manner that Pip was depicted, he didn't at all appear to be anything like a main cast who was supposed to have some particular identity or distinguishable traits. He was just purely Pip - exactly the way his name sounded - pip, pip, pip!!!
This 3-quarter-off-shortened book no doubt deprived me of all things 'sheer classic' originally put in by the renowned writer himself.
Hence, in short, I gotta come back to the original book soon.
I think the beauty of a novel lies in its narrative, that much of the luxury a simplified version surely cannot offer readers . I didn't get quite a lot out of this small Penguin book. Something unsatisfactory just kept getting hung up out there.
Overall, this is undeniably a novel with captivating plotting, a bit peculiar even. The thing is, to me, through the brief manner that Pip was depicted, he didn't at all appear to be anything like a main cast who was supposed to have some particular identity or distinguishable traits. He was just purely Pip - exactly the way his name sounded - pip, pip, pip!!!
This 3-quarter-off-shortened book no doubt deprived me of all things 'sheer classic' originally put in by the renowned writer himself.
Hence, in short, I gotta come back to the original book soon.
February 26, 2007
It was great.How people try to reach their goals!
Read
June 7, 2011pretty good...
joke: who wrote the Great Eggspecations??????
Charles Chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!
joke: who wrote the Great Eggspecations??????
Charles Chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 4, 2017
This is a good story, I have to read the complete one, bc there are a lot of stuff missing and I'm pretty sure there's more to learn about this book.
Is a classic, nice resume.
Is a classic, nice resume.
January 20, 2019
Didn't feel like I wanted to continue reading although it was pretty capturing at the beginning. I don't usually prefer watching movies over reading books, but oh well, exceptions exceptions!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews