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Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions)
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Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher: Dover Publications
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $3.50
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher: Dover Publications
Average Customer Rating:
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Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780486415864
ISBN: 0486415864
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2001-08-01
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780486415864
ISBN: 0486415864
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2001-08-01
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications
Editorial Review of Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Humbled, orphaned Pip is apprenticed to the dirty work of the forge but dares to dream of becoming a gentleman — and one day he finds himself in possession of "great expectations." One of Dickens's finest novels, this is a gripping tale of crime and guilt, revenge and reward.
Customer Reviews of Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Great
Review: This is an excellent coming-of-age book with which many people will be able to relate. I will admit, the beginning was rather grueling, but looking back, I am glad I finished the book. Dickens has a fabulous vocabulary and an excellent sense of people. The characters are dynamic and quite various. I would recommend this book to other scholars.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Pleasure To Read
Review: Great Expectations is an amazing novel that truly upholds the style of literature found during the Victorian period. Although some parts are the book were less adventuresome in comparison to other sections, the book over all was quite pleasant to read. If you like a little thrill and narratives that grasp your attention and have huge climactic endings, then Great Expectations is for you!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: One of the best novels ever written
Review: Without a doubt this has to be one of the greatest novels of all time. I won't say it's the best just because once a work of art attains greatness I find it quite incomparable to other great works. Great works are ones which have fully succeeded in expressing the emotions and convictions of the artist, and without a doubt Great Expectations acheives this. Unfortunately I only hold this view of the book containing the original ending, which was not the originally published ending. (spoiler) The original ending at first seems sad and frustrating, but one can't help but to feel satisfied in knowing that through suffering Estella had gained a heart, which is much more than she would have gained through a cold and heartless relationship with Pip. The happy ending which was published is almost a fairtale ending and it perverts the themes which make the novel so relevant to reality. I must admit, like Dickens' friends and publisher, the original ending was hard for me to swallow, but as I dwelt on it and how it related to the novel, no other ending seemed appropriate, especially not a happy one.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: This was an amazing novel
Review: Well, i have read all of the previous reviews, and it is apparant that people either love this book or hate this book. I was 15 when i first read this book, and have since read it again and it is probably my favorite book of all time. Yes, it is rather boring at times, and yes, it has a long, involved, and confusing plot, and yes, Charles Dickens gives very tedious descriptions of everything. But the morals and meanings portrayed in this book far outshine the faults. If you cannot find them, then it will most likely be boring and dull. If you can, it will probably become one of your alltime favorites.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An Old Friend Revisited
Review: Each time that I read Great Expectations I'm left wondering whether or not Pip would have been happier if he had never been made the gift of "great expectations." More importantly, would he have been a better man if he had remained apprenticed to his blacksmith brother-in-law Joe rather than having been sent to London to be trained in the ways of a gentleman?
Great Expectations is a Dickens cautionary tale in which the author warns his readers of what can so easily happen to a person when given the opportunity to "better himself" by leaving his home, family and friends behind for education and fortune-seeking in the big city. As soon as word reached the local townspeople around whom Pip had spent his early years that a fortune was soon to be his, Pip found himself treated with respect and awe by the very people who had had little time for him in the past other than to chastise his behavior and relationship with the sister who was raising him "by hand." Their "boy" became "sir" overnight it seemed.
But sadly, after arriving in London and seeking to impress his new friends and colleagues, Pip decided that those who loved him most were an embarrassment to his future prospects and he only occasionally felt any guilt about his lack of contact with them. It is only when Pip's future prospects shockingly take a turn for the worse that he seeks the comfort of the family that he left behind.
Along the way, Dickens fills Great Expectations with some of the most memorable characters in British literature history. There are Miss Havisham, the spinster who never recovered from being jilted at the altar; Joe, the blacksmith and Pip's brother-in-law who never stopped loving Pip as a son no matter how much Pip neglected him over the years; Estella, the beautiful young woman whom Pip has loved since they were small children but who has been raised by Miss Havisham to give her heart to no man; Herbert, Pip's best London friend, a truly good man who both benefits from Pip's help and who eventually offers Pip a new future of his own; and, of course, Magwitch, the colorful escaped criminal whom Pip meets in the first pages of the book.
This is one of those books that I read every few years because re-reading it is like visiting an old friend after too long an absence. As the old memories come back, it's like I've never been away.
Review Summary: Great
Review: This is an excellent coming-of-age book with which many people will be able to relate. I will admit, the beginning was rather grueling, but looking back, I am glad I finished the book. Dickens has a fabulous vocabulary and an excellent sense of people. The characters are dynamic and quite various. I would recommend this book to other scholars.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Pleasure To Read
Review: Great Expectations is an amazing novel that truly upholds the style of literature found during the Victorian period. Although some parts are the book were less adventuresome in comparison to other sections, the book over all was quite pleasant to read. If you like a little thrill and narratives that grasp your attention and have huge climactic endings, then Great Expectations is for you!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: One of the best novels ever written
Review: Without a doubt this has to be one of the greatest novels of all time. I won't say it's the best just because once a work of art attains greatness I find it quite incomparable to other great works. Great works are ones which have fully succeeded in expressing the emotions and convictions of the artist, and without a doubt Great Expectations acheives this. Unfortunately I only hold this view of the book containing the original ending, which was not the originally published ending. (spoiler) The original ending at first seems sad and frustrating, but one can't help but to feel satisfied in knowing that through suffering Estella had gained a heart, which is much more than she would have gained through a cold and heartless relationship with Pip. The happy ending which was published is almost a fairtale ending and it perverts the themes which make the novel so relevant to reality. I must admit, like Dickens' friends and publisher, the original ending was hard for me to swallow, but as I dwelt on it and how it related to the novel, no other ending seemed appropriate, especially not a happy one.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: This was an amazing novel
Review: Well, i have read all of the previous reviews, and it is apparant that people either love this book or hate this book. I was 15 when i first read this book, and have since read it again and it is probably my favorite book of all time. Yes, it is rather boring at times, and yes, it has a long, involved, and confusing plot, and yes, Charles Dickens gives very tedious descriptions of everything. But the morals and meanings portrayed in this book far outshine the faults. If you cannot find them, then it will most likely be boring and dull. If you can, it will probably become one of your alltime favorites.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An Old Friend Revisited
Review: Each time that I read Great Expectations I'm left wondering whether or not Pip would have been happier if he had never been made the gift of "great expectations." More importantly, would he have been a better man if he had remained apprenticed to his blacksmith brother-in-law Joe rather than having been sent to London to be trained in the ways of a gentleman?
Great Expectations is a Dickens cautionary tale in which the author warns his readers of what can so easily happen to a person when given the opportunity to "better himself" by leaving his home, family and friends behind for education and fortune-seeking in the big city. As soon as word reached the local townspeople around whom Pip had spent his early years that a fortune was soon to be his, Pip found himself treated with respect and awe by the very people who had had little time for him in the past other than to chastise his behavior and relationship with the sister who was raising him "by hand." Their "boy" became "sir" overnight it seemed.
But sadly, after arriving in London and seeking to impress his new friends and colleagues, Pip decided that those who loved him most were an embarrassment to his future prospects and he only occasionally felt any guilt about his lack of contact with them. It is only when Pip's future prospects shockingly take a turn for the worse that he seeks the comfort of the family that he left behind.
Along the way, Dickens fills Great Expectations with some of the most memorable characters in British literature history. There are Miss Havisham, the spinster who never recovered from being jilted at the altar; Joe, the blacksmith and Pip's brother-in-law who never stopped loving Pip as a son no matter how much Pip neglected him over the years; Estella, the beautiful young woman whom Pip has loved since they were small children but who has been raised by Miss Havisham to give her heart to no man; Herbert, Pip's best London friend, a truly good man who both benefits from Pip's help and who eventually offers Pip a new future of his own; and, of course, Magwitch, the colorful escaped criminal whom Pip meets in the first pages of the book.
This is one of those books that I read every few years because re-reading it is like visiting an old friend after too long an absence. As the old memories come back, it's like I've never been away.