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It's hard to review a classic. People have been reviewing Great Expectations for 150 years. I found out not all the original reviews were positive but sometimes time is in your favor when it comes to reviews.

The only other Dickens novel I have read is A Christmas Carol. I have read that book a million times. I have started, but not finished, other books by Dickens. I was hesitant to start this and I wondered if I could finish it. For some reason, Dickens has always intimidated me and I'm not sure why.

After the first page, I was hooked. I was careful not to read any of the introductions or even the fly-leaf. I have found when reading modern day intros to classic texts, spoilers abound. I've been disappointed that they give away the entire plot and the ending because they assume if you're reading this classic, you've read it before.

Great Expectations is the story of Pip. He is an orphan who, due to a mysterious benefactor, comes into a goodly sum of money. This is written in first person and is told by an older Pip, a Pip who is not only older but wiser. It may be a rags-to-riches story, but it's not necessarily a happy story. Of course, there is some wonderful humor in this book and some wonderful characters. I love his descriptions of his people and how you can hear them talk, how you can see the shapes of their faces, the movements of their hands. In some ways this novel is bittersweet and very true to life in how people behave and how people think. The ending is different than the ending that was serialized. In my version, the original ending is added as an appendix. I like the novel ending much better.

Beautiful prose! There were sentences I had to read several times and just let the words fall off of my tongue. I liked the use of repetition to emphasize certain points such as the "mud, mud, mud" of London on a rainy day.

Here are some of the passages I enjoyed:

"a contemptible, clumsy, sulky booby"

"Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt conquered a confirmed habit of living into which she had fallen. . . " It took awhile for me to realize that she died.

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold . . . that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."

I had no idea this phrase was so old (1860) - "Let HIM make a tool of me afresh and again?"

I truly enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading more Dickens!