It is time for Absolute Write September Book Review Blog chain. I have been participating in AW Blog Chains since 2006 and thus, for the last 3 years, I have taken part in numerous blog chains. From my own personal experience, I can say that it is fun and at the same time, it can give some boost to your blog in terms of search engine ranking. Before me, Coryleslie wrote about The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
Anyway, the book, I like to write about is Great Expectations of Charles Dickens. I first read it in 1995. At that time, I was a university student and we had to read the text. Normally, for many students like me, when we have to read something in the class and for exam, then it becomes boring. However, I have to say that I liked the novel from first and I have been reading it continuously over the years until now. I watched the movie but did not like it as the book.
For plot summary and more information, I would like you to direct to Wikipedia’s entry about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Expectations
Here, I want to talk about the reasons that I liked the novel so much that I have been reading it for almost 14 years. May be it was my personal background that made me feel attracted towards the novel. The hero Pip came from poor background and then he was just lucky to get some financial help from a convict. Pip did not know from where the money came from but it arranged education for him and he became a ‘gentleman’. As for my own life, I did not have any support from any wealthy person. I had to work really hard to become educated and become a ‘gentleman’.
Dickens had great skill in narrating a story and here in Great Expectations, he is perhaps at his best. The story started when Pip was a child of 7 and it continued until he became 35. Dickens could keep the event flowing and the readers have the feeling that Dickens took great care of describing the events of all these 28 years.
In the novel, Charles Dickens showed both sides of humanity. Some people are cruel and some people are generous. The convict is perhaps a mixture of both. I also characterization in this novel.
Well, I would like you to read this novel if you have not yet. If you have already read it then you can do it again. If you don’t have it then you can download the text from here: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/title/g/ge.html