Great Expectations (WARNING: may contain spoilers)

Great Expectations is the story of Pip, who, as a young boy, runs into an escaped convict one fateful morning and gets the fright of his life. This experience is to mark his life in a way that even he never imagined. Along the way, Pip falls in love with the beautiful Estella. Part of the story is of how Pip deals with this intense, senseless, and fiery passion that has gripped him and refuses to let go. Perhaps needful to say, the story has quite a climax (or a number of climaxes) that either leaves one thought-ridden, satisfied, or doubtful.

This is the first Dickens book I've read, and within the first few pages I was laughing to myself as I sat alone in the room. However, the dry humour abates as the story progresses, particularly as Pip journey into higher society. Riddled with memorable characters, in true Dickensian fashion (such as the sagacious Wemmick, whose mouth is forever referred to as a post-office and never a mouth; Jaggers the ruthless lawyer, who 'washes every client off' with soap and water as though it had been a surgery'; Joe, Pip's slow but noble and beloved brother-in-law; Uncle Pumblechook, who continually admonishes Pip to be grateful to 'them that brought you up by hand'), Great Expectations is a sweeping masterpiece that tackles not just the life of a helpless little boy who grows up to be a man and learns from having it all and having nothing at all, but the injustices of life as were perceived in Victorian England. From the state of prisons to the education of country folk, Dickens pulls no punches.

Charles Dickens certainly was a master of the novel, and I not only tip my hat but bow to him. His characters in Great Expectations are so well drawn, with the most unforgettable tags ever. Many of them are connected in rather unusual ways, but these 'coincidences' serve to make the story even more heart-wrenching when I think about it. But it essentially is a tragedy, although not a tragedy in the traditional sense of the hero dying. It ends on a dark and sad note, that's all, but with the promise of hope.