great expectations (book review)

book review of great expectations

The novel centers around a poor young man by the name of Pip, who is given the chance to make himself a gentleman by a mysterious benefactor. Great Expectations offers a fascinating view of the differences between classes during the Victorian era, as well as a great sense of comedy and pathos.

The novel opens in an exciting vein. Pip is a young orphan who lives with his sister and her husband (Joe). When he is still a young boy, news arrives that a man has escaped from the local prison. Then, one day when he is crossing the moors near his house, Pip comes across the convict in hiding (Magwitch). Upon threat of his life, Pip brings food and tools to Magwitch, until Magwitch is recaptured.

Pip continues to grow up, and one day is taken by an uncle to play at a rich woman’s house. This woman is the fabulous Miss Haversham who had been hurt terribly when she had been left at the altar and, though she is an old woman, still wears a tatty old wedding dress. Pip almost meets a young girl who, though she kisses him, treats him with contempt. Pip, despite the girl's cold treatment of him, falls in love with her and desperately wants to be a man of means so that he might be worthy to marry her.