GREAT EXPECTATIONS is often the novel used in high schools to introduce students to Dickens. Due to it's length and fairly long and uneventful middle phase, I'm not sure it's the best text to introduce people to Dickens. Still, it is a pretty good story and contains some of the most memorable characters in Dickens' fiction.GREAT EXPECTATIONS is the story of Phillip Pirrip, otherwise known as Pip. Pip's parents die not long after he is born and he is raised "by hand" by his sister. His brother-in-law, Joe Gargery, is the town blacksmith and loves Pip. The two are best-of-friends. One night while looking at his parents' graves, Pip meets a convict and his life is forever changed by that meeting. As the novel progresses, Pip meets Miss Havisham (the wealthiest woman in town) and her beautiful ward, Estella. Pip immediately falls in love with Estella and is haunted by her all the days of his life. Eventually Pip is bond to Joe as his apprentice and sets to work in the blacksmith forge. Several years later, Pip's luck changes when he is informed by a lawyer from London, Mr. Jaggers, that he has become the recipient of "great expectations". The book then follows Pip's life as he enters this new stage in life and as he develops and becomes a "gentleman". Everything is brought full circle and just about everyone gets what they deserve by the time the novel ends.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS isn't the easiest of books to read. What many writers can do in a sentence often takes Dickens two pages to tell. Also, the book is divided into three phases and the second phase is rather boring (except at the end) and really does nothing more than to fill in a few plot gaps and illustrate to us how much of a prig Pip becomes. Nevertheless, GREAT EXPECTATIONS is still a good story containing some very vivid characters: Pip, Estella, Joe, Miss Havisham, Magwitch, Jaggers, and Wemmick. The characters in GREAT EXPECTATIONS are as memorable as anyone in DAVID COPPERFIELD, OLIVER TWIST, or A CHRISTMAS CAROL. The first phase of the book is quite interesting and sets up everything that later occurs in the novel. The third part of the novel is full of excitement and contains Pip's repentance and reformation. Overall, it's a great book and even though it was written over a hundred years ago, it has a lot to say about the society in which we live today.
