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Feb 11, 2017ba_library rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
I love Dickens - I know some people can't connect to his stories (he has a few that even I cannot get through!) Great Expectations is truly a classic! Young Pip is raised by his irritable sister and her kindly, loving blacksmith husband near the marshes in England. Pip encounters a convict, escaped form the hulks (prison ships), who demands some food and a file to get the cuffs off his feet. Pip later encounters the local crazy lady, Miss Havisham who recruits him to play with her adopted daughter, Estella. The story gets complex and the characters evolve into unforgettable representations - the woman who was dumped on her wedding day, the beautiful girl who was raised to be heartless, the young boy who aspires to be a gentleman but finally realizes the good, honest people who raised him had more value and worth than a "gentleman" title. True beauty hurts and destroys, course criminal conduct generates benevolence and trust. I recently watched a newer DVD and it couldn't quite capture Estella. I borrowed the early version directed by David Lean - great! Really captures the bleak, gloomy countryside and the bleakness of some of the characters. The book is even better, in the preface the writer says it is Dickens only book without a hero. The story is about human weakness, I might add human frailty. I think the Aged P would give it a good salute.