Play Book Tag discussion

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
Book on CD narrated by Simon Vance
3.5***

Decades ago, I read a children’s classic abridged version; I’ve also seen at least one of the film adaptations, and read multiple books that reference Miss Havisham and her wedding attire. (My favorite references being in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series; the scene where Miss Havisham reads Heathcliff the riot act – book 3 in the series - is priceless!) And a couple of years ago I read Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs which was inspired by Dickens’s classic. So, I figured it was time to get to the original.

It’s typical Dickens in that there are many characters and many hidden relationships between them, which will eventually be revealed and explain the seemingly “random” encounters.

I enjoyed watching Pip mature from a child to a young man finding his way to some measure of success. I absolutely loved Joe Gargery, Pip’s brother-in-law and an all-around good guy. He was so steady and caring, the epitome of a good father, IMHO. Magwich was a very interesting character, starting out as a dangerous criminal and later showing more humanity and caring.

On the other hand, I thought Dickens gave too little attention to the women. Miss Havisham and Estella would be ideal main characters but were relegated to supporting roles. I haven’t researched this, but I hope that some talented author has taken up the task of fleshing out their story.

The edition I read included a bonus epilogue, indicating the first ending Dickens wrote (originally published in weekly installments). I’m glad he revised it, for I prefer the ending as it was later written.

Simon Vance does a marvelous job of performing the audio book. He has a wide range of characters to deal with and his skill as a voice artist was up to the task . (Though I did read the text for about a third of it.)



LINK to my review

What a great idea, a retelling from Estella's point of view, or Miss Havisham's. I'm not aware of one but I bet they are out there. The PBS series Dickensian a couple years ago had Miss Havisham's story as one of the main threads.

I keep thinking everyone's books could fit under Adventure. This one certainly starts out that way with the convict. And later Pip has to journey out into the wide world.

This is my least favorite Dickens so far. I actually liked the original ending. I thought the Pip/Estella relationship was so dysfunctional that it wouldn't have any chance of being happy or long lasting.

I wonder BC if we read the same children's classic abridged edition. It was my summer 4-H camp week read. I was maybe 11? Late 60s.

I did reread it as an adult unabridged. Not my fave sort of middling for me.

Theresa wrote: "I wonder BC if we read the same children's classic abridged edition. It was my summer 4-H camp week read. I was maybe 11? Late 60s.

I did reread it as an adult unabridged. Not my fave sort of midd..."

I was wondering the same thing but it was in a 9th grade English text. Our class didn't read it, but I did while lecture on something else was going on.

It was a paperback, mass market size. Probably purchased through Scholastic as there were no bookstores around and that wasn't on the grocery storebook rack.

We read selections in a textbook in 7th or 8th grade. Then I bought the Scholastic paperback and read the whole thing. I might still have that copy! I liked it so much that I then read David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby in the next few years. They were in children's classics editions that were pretty complete. I also bought (at a grocery store!) a paperback called "Children's Stories from Dickens". It turns out a lot of them were about children dying! They were excerpts from the novels so they didn't make a lot of sense by themselves.