I don't remember any of that (other than Pip's name) from when I read it - forty years ago. It was English class, so presumably we were given some of the background. I do remember liking it, so I shall read it again. This is why libraries exist. Thanks for the inspiration.
BTW: "kid growing up in flyover country during the Reagan years" we could have been neighbors!
Thanks for this! I definitely did not get any of the background when we did the book in high school. I found it on my own later on and started providing that to my students because it was so meaningful to me. Delighted you're up for reading it again! Enjoy!
What a wonderful introduction into what a good book has to offer. A memorable book succeeds in making a point in an imagined world.
As Erin has just demonstrated, knowing a little bit about Dickens and why he wrote Great Expectations immediately makes the story far more interesting and somehow more relevant because you carry your historical information about Dickens into his story—Dickens isn’t the narrator but he is steering the narrator, Pip.
Knowing what was going on in the world when a book was written often reveals some of the political, personal and emotional issues the author of the book was dealing with as the book was being written. Authors may or may not intent to share with the reader bits of themselves and the times in which they lived, but they inevitably do. A story gives the author a vehicle to tell what happened to whom and why to make a point.
Thank you for this! Elizabeth Gilbert, of all people, has said something very wise about this – she often says that she reveals far more of herself in her fiction than she does in her memoirs. That may no longer technically be true, given that the most recent memoir is, by many measures, a huge and self incriminating example of TMI, but the idea that you can learn more about her from her novel about a 19th century spinster who studies moss than from Eat, Pray, Love is a wonderful thing.
As someone who also writes both nonfiction and fiction, I love this point. Sometimes there is ironically so much more freedom in fiction to be truthful. Thanks for this post; I'm so excited there will be more Great Books coming up!
Thank you for this, Lillie! At some point, I definitely want to learn more about your nonfiction. And I'm thrilled that you're looking forward to more great books in future!
This is great. I appreciated learning more about Dickens' life as he was writing it and the picture of the graces that inspired Pip's family plot is very moving and makes the picture Dickens paints make more sense.
I don't think I loved Great Expectations when I read it in school, though it certainly stuck with me. I recall that the first pages were disorienting and I didn't quite understand what Dickens was doing with Pip coming to awareness of himself. There were so many things that confused me, but the images of Magwich and Miss Havisham and the heartbreak of Estella, the goodness of Joe and the awfulness of Pip's betrayal, those spoke to me.
I read it again a couple years ago, reading it out loud to my homeschooled crew and wow. It reads so much differently now. And taking the time to read slowly makes such a difference. When I was in school I raced through books and didn't know how to linger with them.
The Dickens novel that really spoke to me in school was Bleak House. But likely that was as much a matter of timing and how it was taught. I was older, a senior in high school, and our teacher took a lot of time walking us through the beginning and slowing down to think about the language and images.
The mark of a genuinely great novel is that it grows with you and renews itself over time. Great Expectations is definitely one of these – and so, as you know, is the astonishing Bleak House. I'm so glad this post spoke to you!
I don't remember any of that (other than Pip's name) from when I read it - forty years ago. It was English class, so presumably we were given some of the background. I do remember liking it, so I shall read it again. This is why libraries exist. Thanks for the inspiration.
BTW: "kid growing up in flyover country during the Reagan years" we could have been neighbors!
Thanks for this! I definitely did not get any of the background when we did the book in high school. I found it on my own later on and started providing that to my students because it was so meaningful to me. Delighted you're up for reading it again! Enjoy!
What a wonderful introduction into what a good book has to offer. A memorable book succeeds in making a point in an imagined world.
As Erin has just demonstrated, knowing a little bit about Dickens and why he wrote Great Expectations immediately makes the story far more interesting and somehow more relevant because you carry your historical information about Dickens into his story—Dickens isn’t the narrator but he is steering the narrator, Pip.
Knowing what was going on in the world when a book was written often reveals some of the political, personal and emotional issues the author of the book was dealing with as the book was being written. Authors may or may not intent to share with the reader bits of themselves and the times in which they lived, but they inevitably do. A story gives the author a vehicle to tell what happened to whom and why to make a point.
Thank you for this! Elizabeth Gilbert, of all people, has said something very wise about this – she often says that she reveals far more of herself in her fiction than she does in her memoirs. That may no longer technically be true, given that the most recent memoir is, by many measures, a huge and self incriminating example of TMI, but the idea that you can learn more about her from her novel about a 19th century spinster who studies moss than from Eat, Pray, Love is a wonderful thing.
As someone who also writes both nonfiction and fiction, I love this point. Sometimes there is ironically so much more freedom in fiction to be truthful. Thanks for this post; I'm so excited there will be more Great Books coming up!
Thank you for this, Lillie! At some point, I definitely want to learn more about your nonfiction. And I'm thrilled that you're looking forward to more great books in future!
This is great. I appreciated learning more about Dickens' life as he was writing it and the picture of the graces that inspired Pip's family plot is very moving and makes the picture Dickens paints make more sense.
I don't think I loved Great Expectations when I read it in school, though it certainly stuck with me. I recall that the first pages were disorienting and I didn't quite understand what Dickens was doing with Pip coming to awareness of himself. There were so many things that confused me, but the images of Magwich and Miss Havisham and the heartbreak of Estella, the goodness of Joe and the awfulness of Pip's betrayal, those spoke to me.
I read it again a couple years ago, reading it out loud to my homeschooled crew and wow. It reads so much differently now. And taking the time to read slowly makes such a difference. When I was in school I raced through books and didn't know how to linger with them.
The Dickens novel that really spoke to me in school was Bleak House. But likely that was as much a matter of timing and how it was taught. I was older, a senior in high school, and our teacher took a lot of time walking us through the beginning and slowing down to think about the language and images.
The mark of a genuinely great novel is that it grows with you and renews itself over time. Great Expectations is definitely one of these – and so, as you know, is the astonishing Bleak House. I'm so glad this post spoke to you!
Great idea for this new series!
Thank you! I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.