Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Great Expectations (New Oxford Illustrated Dickens) by Charles Dickens, F. W. Pailthorpe, Frederick Page ISBN: 0-19-254511-6 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: November, 1987 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (301 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Things Aren't Always What They Appear To Be.
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Expectations (note: not this specific edition)
Comment: This is a great story of Pip (Philip Pirrip)'s obsessive love for a woman who neither loves him nor seems in any way the typical heroine. As he strives to become a gentleman, aided by an anonymous benefactor's money, he succeeds only in alienating those who love him best and most honestly. Appearances, as in most Dickens novels, are deceiving, and those who are wealthy in a material sense are not those who are wealthy in the emotional sense and vice versa.
The language and sentence structure are both complex; if you have any difficulty in understanding this sort of English you'd do well to wait awhile before reading GREAT EXPECTATIONS, because Dickens' brilliance is in the wording. This is less humorous than many of his other stories; however the humor is there if you look for it and listen for it in the phrasing.
Dickens provided two endings for this book, and, frankly, I don't care much for either...but read the book, read both endings, and decide for yourself.
Rating: 4
Summary: A great read
Comment: I spent a whole term going over this book in freshmen English class. It is an overall good book, full of interpritations. There are many symbolisms and allusions. However, it is important to remember that this book was originally a serialization, as it came out every week in the paper. There are some parts when Dickens drawls on with his plans, events, ect. However, there are scenes that are very fast paced and action filled. The overall plot is a young, naive boy of about ten lives with his sister and her simple husband named Joe. However, Pip is given a secret benefactor and is thrust in the life of nobility. Pip is tangled in his probelems of leaving Joe behind and his encouters with the shallow (and I mean SHALLOW) Estella and the wicked Miss Havisham. Dickens is a master with characters and the languege, but he doesn't describe any everyday events. For example, Pip goes to study law, but thats all we know. In my opinion, it gives the characters this higher than life importance, and less real. But, if you take this book slowely, maybe a chapter a night (instead of the five I had to do), you will definately enjoy this book.
 |
Title: David Copperfield (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Jeremy Tambling ISBN: 0140434941 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
 |
Title: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Frederick Busch ISBN: 0451526562 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
 |
Title: Great Expectations (Cliffs Notes) by Debra A. Bailey ISBN: 0764585983 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 30 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ISBN: 0812580036 Publisher: Tor Classics Pub. Date: 15 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
 |
Title: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte ISBN: 0553212583 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 October, 1983 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
