How long is great expectations by charles dickens

I had no previous knowledge of this story but wanted to read a Dicken's. My heart is still full with love of the story and some sadness at the ending. Great Expectations has enriched my life. What made the experience of listening to Great Expectations the most enjoyable? Pip is so much like me, like any of us. He gets caught in his obsessions, ignores what is beautiful in his life, and then misses every great opportunity for love and fulfillment.

Who was your favorite character and why? Joe, his adopted fater. It's hard to fathom that such a humble and humbled character should be able to embody such profound self dignity, such forgiveness, and such sweetness over every other character in the book. Which character — as performed by Simon Prebble — was your favorite?

His voice would be difficult to speak in the same way that the character would have done. It probably would have been unintelligible so I'm glad the narrator made it easy to understand -- yet at the same time it conveyed the gruff character etc. Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you? Joe told Pip he wouldn't be coming back to dinner and immediately afterward Pip experiences repentance and then "self-swindling".

At that point Pip gives an elaborate description of his obsession with Estella and decides that his "devotion" or obsession with Estella is his greatness. Fortunately, the mature writer notes that this "devotion" was actually the young Pip's smallness and meanness. Any additional comments? Dickens's ability to describe the nature of obsession is frighteningly real and I think that reading Dickens could substitute for a therapeutic relationship. Obsession is so real in so many peoples' lives and Pip's character shows how it can suck the life out of a person.

This was my first time reading Great Expectations and I really liked the story. But I have to say the narrator, Simon Prebble, did such an amazing job with this story and these characters that I'm now going to look up his other audiobooks. I would definitely recommend giving this one a try. First up, this is a must read. If you are debating if you should read this, you don't need to debate longer.

This is a brilliant one. Dickens is one of the best story tellers I've ever read. The characterization is fantastic, especially because it captures human nature so well. What happens when you sudden turn from a kid with nothing much to a gentleman? Well, I won't spoil the story for you. The first person narrative is especially effective for this one, because we constantly get what PPip is thinking and as he is misled as to the situation around him and the changing character of himself, so are we the reader.

I loved the technique to. You get a character who you think is gone for ever and then what does Dickens do? He brings him back suddenly, and it turns out he is crucial to the story. Anyway, I will stop talking now, but seriously, this is a must read. Maybe you can learn something about yourself in the process too So sit back and enjoy it! There are many parts of Dickens' writing that I love and few pieces of his that fall short of complete adoration.

I love how with pages left you can almost feel the universe shift as Dickens grabs the crazy, once loose strings of his moral narrative and begins to pull it all together. I think a significant part of the magic, for me, of 'Great Expectations' is found in the minor characters.

Wemmick and the Aged Parent the Aged P. You can't have a Dickens novel without a little bit of melodrama and a bit of Victorian moralizing. However, with 'Great Expectations', Dickens does this with a soft touch.

He isn't as confrontational about social ills as he is in 'Hard Times' or 'Oliver Twist' and he isn't as melodramatic as he was in 'Tale of Two Cities', but even so, I completely enjoyed this gentle, more muted Dickens. Enthralling, intelligent, riveting, engaging, while still quaint and amusing, and sill amazingly relevant.

This is thought to be Dickens' most readable book and with Simon Prebble performing it certainly is. I recently heard an English actress claim that Dickens' must be read aloud and she used Great Expectations as an example.

Having listened to this I would have to agree with her and Prebble's performance is impeccable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Would you consider the audio edition of Great Expectations to be better than the print version? Simon is a genius. He made each character come alive. Very well done! What was one of the most memorable moments of Great Expectations? A memorable moment was when Pip discovered who Estella's birth mother and father were.

All the different tones of the characters. Wonderful drama! If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be? The narrator really is spectacular. He does an amazing job at bringing the characters to life.

What did you like best about this story? How supportive the blacksmith was to Pip, he did everything and a little more just like any great father would. If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

I dont think that would work since you would need different actors to play some of the characters. A great story about a boy growing up, realizing that if you are given everything the drive to improve is easily lost. About love, heartbreak and friendship Overall a great book and a great story.

If you could sum up Great Expectations in three words, what would they be? I've never read this book, as I thought it would be long and boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and found it funny, brilliantly observed and expertly narrated.

Would highly recommend. Narrative was very good! Beautifully read and utterly engrossing. Will definitely be listening to more Simon Prebble doing Dickens. Wonderful Dickens story. Well read and great just to listen to. Just close your eyes and imagine I love Dickens ever since once of my English Literature teachers at school made his characters jump out of the page before my very eyes.

Great Expectations however has always held a soft spot for me. So it was after reading one of the reviews on this rendition I decided to pick this one. I am so glad I did. Simon Prebble's performance is stellar. Many of the events from Dickens's early life are mirrored in Great Expectations , which, apart from David Copperfield , is his most autobiographical novel.

Read our full plot summary and analysis of Great Expectations , chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, and more. Here's where you'll find analysis of the literary devices in Great Expectations , from the major themes to motifs, symbols, and more. Explore our selection of frequently asked questions about Great Expectations and find the answers you need.

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We meet our hero Pip when in an act of charity born more of fear than goodwill he provides assistance to a self-liberated convict named Abel Magwitch. It was a rather imprudent thing to do similar to one of us picking up a hitchhiker in an orange jumpsuit just after passing a sign that says Hitchhikers in this area may be escaped inmates.

Little does he know, but this act of kindness will have a long term impact on his life. Pip and the Convict. Pip is being raised by his sister, an unhappy woman who expresses her misery with harsh words and vigorous smacks. He intimates that he was the puppet master pulling the strings that allowed that good fortune to find a proper home. She is the brutal combination of spoiled, beautiful, and heartless.

She wants Pip to fall in love with her to provide a training ground for exactly how to keep a man in love with her and at the same time treat him with the proper amount of disdain. If she favors you, love her.

If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces,— and as it gets older and stronger it will tear deeper,— love her, love her, love her! Pip is fully aware of the dangers of falling in love with Estella, but it is almost impossible to control the heart when it begins to beat faster. No chance suddenly becomes a slim chance. Pip is not to know where these great expectations are coming from, but he assumes it is Miss Havisham as part of her demented plans for exacting revenge by using Estella to break his heart.

I thought it had the most dismal trees in it, and the most dismal sparrows, and the most dismal cats, and the most dismal houses in number half a dozen or so , that I had ever seen.

I was not surprised to discover that Dickens had intended this novel to be twice as long, but due to contractual obligations with the serialization of the novel Dickens found himself in a quandary.

He had a much larger story percolating in his head, but simply out of room to print it. Nothing drives a reader crazier than knowing that this larger concept was realized, but never committed to paper. The rest of Great Expectations exists only in the lost dreams of Dickens.

Pip is a willing victim; and therefore, not a victim because he fully realized that Miss Havisham was barking mad, and that Estella had been brainwashed into being a sword of vengeance. He was willing to risk having his heart wrenched from his body and dashed into the sea for a chance that Estella would recognize that happiness could be obtained if she would only forsake her training.

It will not be what he expects and provides a nice twist to the novel. There are blackguards, adventures, near death experiences, swindlers, agitations both real and imagined, and descriptions that make the reader savor the immersion in the black soot and blacker hearts of Victorian society.

Better late than never, but I now have more than a nodding acquaintance with Miss Havisham, Pip, and the supporting cast. They will continue to live in my imagination for the rest of my life. Sean Barrs.

Pip is such a fool; he constantly misjudges those around him, and he constantly misjudges his own worth. This has lead him down a road of misery because the person who held the highest expectations for Pip was Pip himself. But, in spite of this, Pip does learn the error of his ways and becomes a much better person, though not before hurting those that have the most loyalty to him. The corrupting power of money is strong through this novel The money Pip received clouds his vison completely.

He, in his innocence, longed to be a gentleman, but when he has the chance he forgets everything thing he is. In his self-imposed aggrandisement he can only deduce that his money came from a source of respectability; his limited capacity has determined that only he, a gentleman, could receive money from a worthy source. But, what he perceives as respectable is the problem.

Pip has falsely perceived that to be a gentleman one must have money, and must have the social graces that comes with it. However, this is far from the truth as Pip later learns. He thinks Joe is backward and ungentlemanly, but Joe, in reality, is more of a gentle man than Pip could ever be.

In this, he has forgotten his routes and his honest, if somewhat rough, upbringing. He has been tainted by money and the rise in class that came with it. I think if he never received the allowance he would have eventually been happy at the forge. He may have sulked for a year or two, but, ultimately, he would have got over himself as he does eventually do.

The money gave him hope; it gave him a route in which he could seek his Estella. Without the money he would have realised she was, in fact, unobtainable regardless of his class; he would have moved on and got on with his life. Through the correcting of his perceptions he learns the value of loyalty and simple human kindness. This changes him and he is, essentially, a much better person for it.

He learns the errors of his ways, and how shameful and condescending his behaviour has been to those that hold him most dear, namely Joe. You can feel the pain in his narration as he tells the last parts of his story; it becomes clear that Pip could never forgive himself for his folly. He is repentant, but the damage is done. Heaven knows we never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of the earth, overlaying our hard hearts.

It creates an ending that, for me, was perfect. It is not the ending that Pip thought he would get, but it is the ending this novel deserved. He has grown but, like Havisham, cannot turn back the clocks. The ending Joe receives signifies this; he, as one of the only true gentleman of the novel, receives his overdue happiness.

Whereas Pip is destined to spend the rest of his life in a state of perpetual loneliness, he, most certainly, learnt his lesson the hard way. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape. Abel Magwitch and Miss Havisham are two incredibly miserable individuals because life has really got them down. Havisham is the caricature of the spinster; she is stuck in the past quarter to nine to be precise and is unable to move on; she has turned bitter and yellow; she has imposed herself to perpetual agony.

Despite her harshness and venom there is a flicker of light within her soul that Pip unleashes. And then there is the lovable Abel Magwitch. The poor man had been used and cheated; he had been bargained away and sacrificed.

He has been shown no kindness in his life and when he meets a young Pip in the marshes he is touched by the small measure of friendship the boy offers him. His response: to repay that debt, with what he believes to be kindness, in turn. These characters are incredibly memorable and harbour two tragic and redemptive stories. But, in order to display their anguish to the world and society, they both use another to exact their revenge.

I love Great Expectations. It is more than just a story of love; it is a strong story about the power of loyalty and forgiveness; it is a story about falsehoods and misperceptions; it is a story of woe and deeply felt sadness: it is about how the folly of youth can alter your life for ever. It is an extraordinary novel. I've now read it three times, and I know I'm not finished with yet. Mario the lone bookwolf. I mean, reading outside stupid indoctrination BS was long time deemed a dangerous, stupid women activity real men would never do and as the wasted centuries were over and humankind awoke out of the terrible nightmare of the unnecessary Middle Ages, the first average writers had the easy stand of being the only person writing in a genre or even just one of 5 to 10 authors sold at all.

Both factors contributed to a romanticized idealization of works that are just your average reading if nothing else is out there, but nothing one would read with flow and enthusiasm, more with a meh attitude instead of watching TV, social interactions, or other wastes of lifetime.

Ahmad Sharabiani. In October , Chapman and Hall published the novel in three volumes.