Review: Great Expectations

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I must confess, I am not a huge fan of Dickens. I do not enjoy the holiday ritual of A Christmas Carol (the movie version starring Donald Duck scared me as a child) nor did I particularly enjoy reading it in 10th grade English. It should be no surprise then that I trudged through Great Expectations. Assigned in my Masterpieces of English Literature course, I was given four days to complete the monstrosity. The first sentence of the novel screams Bildungsroman. The pacing of the entire first volume is irregular; Pip is reportedly seven on page 1, then suddenly 14 when he encounters Estella. Many of the pacing issues probably derive from the novel's form, which is that of the serial novel. It was published in 1-2 chapter installments purchased at a set interval for widespread consumption. As a result, the more Dickens wrote, the greater his profit. In addition to the time and pacing, I had issues keeping track of characters. Although perhaps representative of the number of people that become part of one's shaping, it got to the point that I no longer recognized names. Some seemed to have little or no influence on Pip. Relating to the whole cast of characters, the detail and length of the novel made it difficult to discern what was important. True, Dickens touches on many complex and vital themes and issues of his time, but his manner of doing so made reading feel like a duty instead of a joy.