#i just love this book so much

[starwalkeranon]

I gotta say, one of my favorite parts about the book has to be the part where Stanford gives you an intervention for being a "Cipherholic" and recommends alternatives, like cataloging the wing patterns of various tree-bark-dwelling moths.

[nevermeyers]

It's always a good time to scream, cry and gouge my eyes out if it's about Holden Caulfield

[mxcottonsocks]

To celebrate the beginning of @dickensdaily, a substack which sends out Dickens Novels in line with their original serialisation schedule, beginning with Great Expectations (serialised December 1860 to August 1861), here's:

Reasons to read Great Expectations

I've done my best to keep this spoiler-free, so you should be able to read without ruining anything for yourself.

The characters

PIP: a Perfectly Imperfect Protagonist

Himbo With A Hammer

Local Woman Knows How To Hold A Grudge

Out Of Your League

Cinnamon Roll with Fruit (slightly squashed)

...and more...

Queer Themes

Obviously this is very much a matter of interpretation, but Great Expectations has room for readings around:

Homosociality / homoromanticism / homoeroticism

Compulsory (hetro-)sexuality

Non-traditional families and domestic arrangements

Other Themes

Social class (especially: "What makes a gentleman?")

Trauma

Child and domestic abuse (physical and emotional)

The law (criminality, punishment, money, property, etc)

...and more...

Genres

Great Expectations fits into several genres. [Descriptions below drawn from wikipedia.]

'Coming of Age' story / Bildungsroman (a genre that focuses on the psychological and/or moral growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood)

Sensation novel (a genre which reached peak popularity in the 1860-70s, and which 'has been variously defined as a "novel-with-a-secret" and which combines "romance and��realism"')

elements of the social novel (a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel".)

elements of the Gothic (a 'loose literary genre of fear and haunting', often including 'the intrusion of the past upon the present')

One of Dickens' best novels

Great Expectations was Dickens' second-to-last completed novel, so he was at the top of his game at this point.

According to wikipedia, "in the 21st century, the novel retains good ratings among literary critics."

It's also popular with the general public. In 2003, the BBC surveyed 750,000 people in 'The Big Read' to find the UK's "best-loved novel", and Great Expectations ranked 17th.

The first Dickens novel I read, it remains my favourite Dickens, both as a story and as a work of art.

One of his most accessible novels

If you haven't read any Dickens before (or have, but struggled), Great Expectations may be the place to start.

It's one of his shorter novels, so less intimidating and easier to finish than many other Dickens books.

It's also in first person which mitigates some of the things people often struggle with in Dickens' writing:

With some Dickens novels, it can be difficult to tell what the 'main story' is because there are so many intersecting plotlines. In Great Expectations, we're essentially reading Pip's memoirs from his childhood to his young-adulthood, so we can understand all the other stories through Pip's story.

Likewise, we meet all the other characters through Pip, so the feeling of "who are all these people???" I often get from Dickens novels is reduced. We know characters through their relationship to Pip.

Dicken's minor characters are often caricatures, with features of their personality, appearance or manner exaggerated to create a comic or grotesque effect. Dickens likely did this to help readers more easily recall characters over the stretched-out timeframe of serial publication, but it can be jarring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is from Pip's point of view, his subjectivity frames the caricatures; it feels natural that they lack complexity because Pip doesn't know the inner world of everyone he passes on the street any more than you or I do.

Dickens can often go on tangents/'rants' about society and social injustice at the time he was writing. This was a force for social change at the time, but can be baffling and/or boring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is in the first person, when these 'rants' appear they feel more like 'my friend Pip grumbles about things that affect his life and the people around him' so are easier to engage with.

Bonus: a Choice of Endings...

Dickens originally wrote one ending for the novel, and then - following conversation with another novelist - changed it ahead of publication. This means that there are two endings of the novel to choose from, which is an interest interactive element.

[chaos-is-a-ladder]

more thoughts about the starless sea: I love how it is a story in a story in a story, and it even gives us the metaphor of the matryoshka doll.

like, the story of the harbour is the one where the story sculpter hid fate's heart, but the story of time and fate also exists within that story (with mirabel and the keeper).

so every part of the original story of fate and time in sweet sorrows are also characters in the story, we meet the moon at the inn, simon tells zachary that "we are the stars" and the parliament of owls is connected to simon's parents and the keating foundation.

basically, zachary reads metaphors, but also direct explanations about his own story. but what I find even better is that all this is set up in the beginning, when everyone discusses video games. they talk about what makes a video game interesting and every single aspect of that is a part of the story later on. so zachary pretty much plays his dream video game, which is also his real story, but also part of a story that has been in existence for centuries.

[egophiliac]

buckle up lads we're going BACK INTO THE BOOK

[watchingwisteria]

listen there really was just something about how in the book, snow’s 3-page descent from hesitant lover boy to deluded mfer happens entirely in his mind. lucy gray gives him no indication whatsoever that she suspects him, that she’s going to leave or betray him. he’s just sitting quietly in the cabin waiting for her to return when that seed of calculated suspicion, which he has needed to survive the capitol, takes a hold of him and chokes the life out of any goodness left inside him. it really drives home your terror as a reader that “oh my god did he kill her? did she escape? what happened to her? why would he even think that?” in a way that when the movie had to adjust for visualization it lost some of that holy shit this guy has lost it emphasis.

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

[doctormori]

I love this book to death, so here's some things I noticed <3

[songthursh]

Alright, I will start with this one then - everything starts with the glorious revolution and everything starts with the night watch 🌸

[misandriste]

ELOISE BRIDGERTON + being mistaken for a suitor

[obsob]

oooooooooough i love you i love you i love you!!!! hand in loving hand !!!!!!

[p4nishers]

i cant get over the ball being so CLEARLY all for crowley i can't get over aziraphale trying to woo him with a WHOLE FUCKING BALL because that's what he knows that's what romance IS for him because he's been wanting to dance with crowley ever since dancing was invented and he's so stuck in time with the way he dresses and talks and he still thinks a dance is the high of romance AND HE MADE A WHOLE ENTIRE FUCKING BALL FOR CROWLEY JUST SO HE COULD DANCE WITH HIM like now it's so fucking obvious he gave away his BOOKS without a second thought and it was all for crowley he organised a whole JANE AUSTEN THEME BALL just so he could have an excuse to finally dance with the love of his life and i can't get over this i'm shaking my fists and pacing up and down he did not give a single fuck about anything other than dancing with crowley and HE BARELY TOUCHED OTHER PEOPLE'S HANDS WHILE HIS WHOLE FUCKING PALM WAS PRESSED TO CROWLEY'S AND i need to lie down

[clovreat3r]

Made in the Image of Bill

Closeups of the quality gets roasted (just like bills family) ->

[blackkatmagic]

Sometimes it just hits me all over again how fucking insane Cody is. Like, Grievous is an enemy general who regularly kills Jedi, is armed with four (4!!!!!) lightsabers, and has in canon wiped out entire battalions full of clones when Jedi try to confront him. And Cody just. balls to the wall goes for it and full-on tackles the bastard. Dog-piles the guy who's killed more Jedi than probably any one single person. And he punches Grievous in his (metal!!!) face while he's at it.

And! His men follow his lead.

What the hell kind of charisma and pure brass balls do you have to have for that. Honestly.

[egophiliac]

everyone out of the way, this is the only thing I'm going to be thinking about from now on.

(okay, there is one more thing)

[lazycranberrydoodles]

english translation book 5 baby we are in the ‘people assuming kid form hua cheng is xie lian’s son’ era 🔥🔥🔥 / follow for more hualian silliness