I debated how to handle this post. I read this book fairly recently, but since I never had a chance to do a Currently Reading post, I decided against doing an In Conclusion post. The reason I read this book was two fold. First, I had just finished reading the second Horatio Hornblower, and really wanted to read the next one, but I was in Croatia, and the amount of books in English were limited. After going into several bookstores, and not finding any of the Horatio novels, I gave up hope. For a long time, my father has given me grief for not having read most of the famous Charles Dickens novels. When I saw Great Expectations in one of the bookstores in Croatia, I remembered it was one of my father’s favorites, and decided to give it a try. Below are a few of my observations from the book.

‘I say, you know!’ muttered Joe, shaking his head at me in a very serious remonstrance. ‘Pip, old chap. You’ll do yourself a mischief. It’ll stick somewhere. You can’t have chawed it, Pip.”

-Great Expectations pg. 9

I loved the character of Joe right from the beginning, and not only because we share a name. Joe just strikes you immediately as a good guy. His “Pip, old chap,” immediately makes it clear he views Pip as a friend, and although he’s the adult, he doesn’t act superior to Pip. I also pulled this quote because right from the very beginning, he cautions Pip to slow down. Joe appears as a simple person to most of his fellow characters, but he is also someone that knows the worth of simplicity. His expectations are not “great,” and therefore they are easily satisfied. He stuck me as someone very content with their life; someone we can all learn from. Especially in our current culture of attention hunger; Joe seems the opposite of that. He is happy not to be a master of society, but instead, live an obscure, but worthy life.

‘Mrs. Joe,’ said Uncle Pumblechook; a large hard-breathing middle-aged slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull-staring eyes, and sandy hair standing upright on his head, so he looked as if he had been just been all but choked, and had that moment come to…”

Great Expectations pg. 21

Another character I really enjoyed was Uncle Pumblechook. He is introduced early on just like Joe, and acts almost as a mirror opposite. Where Joe is humble, and indifferent to society, Pumblechook is obsessed with what others think. I have an affinity for this character because I think every reader has met a Pumblechook at different points of their life. Pumblechook views those around him as either useless, or someone to use for his own gain. For me, I found him to be a very funny character, not malevolent, just entertaining. That was one of my major takeaways from this book; like the other Dickens novels I’ve read to this point, the characters drive the story. Even when nothing was really happening in the overall narrative, the characters were so addictive, it was difficult to put the book down.

In these posts I am very conscious that not everyone has read the book, and I do not like to give anything away. The story of this book is good, and I think anyone would enjoy it, but the characters of this story are great, and I think anyone would love them. As I was on the plane leaving Croatia, I landed in London to catch my next flight. One of the English passenger’s next to me was an older woman, and seemed pretty shocked I would be reading Dickens for enjoyment. She recommended I read Bleak House, so I have put that on my list for a future read. I wasn’t intending to read Great Expectations when I did, but as Pip knows, life has a way of taking a turn (I’m glad the turn that led me to read this book, was significantly smaller than the turns in Pip’s life). If anyone would like to discuss the novel, sound off in the comments below!