Just finished reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens which I was reading as part of a Dickens readalong being hosted by Caroline (Beauty is a Sleeping Cat) and Delia (Postcards from Asia).

This is a reread of the novel for me as I read it many years ago and I always wonder if I will actually like a book the second time round or whether revisiting will somehow mar the memory.  No problems here I’m pleased to admit.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the second time round the story was even better.

For those of you unfamiliar with Great Expectations the story is about a boy called Pip.  Pip is an orphan, being raised by his sister and her husband Joe.  Due to a chance circumstance Pip is thrown into the path of the local eccentric lady of the manor, Miss Haversham where he meets her ward the beautiful and proud Estella.  Pip is later to be apprenticed to Joe as a blacksmith until his fortune is changed by an unknown benefactor and he is elevated to the status of a gentleman with ‘great expectations’.  I won’t elaborate further on the plot.

The first thing I noticed this time round is the humour in Dicken’s telling of the story.  I can genuinely admit that I recalled none of that at all and yet he really does incorporate a lot of fun into his character Pip.  Perhaps I missed this originally as I was much younger and probably concentrated mainly on the story (not to mention racing to the end to find out how it all concludes).  I think much of the writing style and the subtle nuances were probably wasted on me at that age whereas this time, being already aware of the story, I was able to enjoy Dicken’s style.

I must confess that I had moments where Pip didn’t come across as well as he could – in fact at one point I positively disliked him.  But, I think this was part of Dickens intentions.  Pip starts out in life quite destitute and his only friend in the world is Joe (who frequently rescues him from a good beating from his sister).  And, yet, as soon as he meets Miss Haversham he becomes overwhelmed with shame about his own circumstances.  He cringes at the thought of the  disdainful Estella ever meeting Joe or seeing his home circumstances.  This is in sharp contrast later in the story when Pip becomes friendly with Mr Wemmit who works at the law firm that acts as Guardian to Pip’s income until he becomes of age.  Mr Wemmit doesn’t have a lot to speak of in the world.  He has a small home and looks after his elderly father who remains known throughout the story as The Aged.  And yet Mr Wemmit loves his home and family and experiences none of the feelings that Pip does.  It also reaches a bit of a peak when Joe pays a visit to Pip in his new home in London and Pip is practically on pins for the whole visit, acts quite rudely towards Joe, is ashamed for him with his country ways and lack of breeding and is actually relieved when he leaves!  I was really naffed off with him at this point I must admit!

That being said I think that Pip does redeem himself – and this seems to be a theme with Dickens that characters become aware of the flaws in their own character and attempt to change themselves for the better.

A couple of things that occurred to me during this read were:

I thought that Dickens was making a point about females in society – if you look at Biddy in this story she is quite obviously as clever, if not more so, as Pip and yet due to circumstances her chances in life are quite different.

The other thing that stood out with this, and I don’t know if this is the same for other novels by Dickens, is that he is a master of misdirection.  He leads you into wrong conclusions and dead end alleys without any difficulty whatsoever.

And, finally, I wondered if he was making a point about nature over nurture.  Both Pip and Estella were taken into a situation where they were manipulated and raised almost like a tool of revenge.  Estella to seek revenge against men on behalf of Miss Haversham and her overwhelming disappointment in life and Pip, placed into a different situation in life by somebody who wanted to make a gentleman out of him to prove a point and then display Pip around time as being the superior of everyone else.  Both of them, later in life, realised how they were being used and it was sad to see that neither of them were able to lead perfectly happy or normal lives comparative to some of the other characters in the story.

I really enjoyed this story reading it for the second time.  It is a great story and easy to see why it’s been adapted to film on so many occasions and I would like to thank Caroline and Delia for giving me the inspiration to revisit.