Dickens and Great Expectations

I don't think that I can convince anyone to read Great Expectations who doesn't already want to read the classics, but I am going to write about it anyway.  I read it to fulfill the entry for the Reading Challenge about reading a book that I should have read in high school.

I did read some of it in grade 9 and I know that Miss Havisham left a lasting impression but any other memory of the book was vague at best.  I am not sure if I read all of it, some of it or most of it back then but I do know that I listened to Mr. Tuer talk about it in class.  I probably remember more about the teacher and his rather strange choice of socks than I do about the book. The Reading Challenge forced me to take the opportunity to right the shirking of my educational duties from so long ago.

Reading it wasn't like swallowing a teaspoon of vile medicine that quickly does its job, but it still felt like taking some type of medicine.  There were points where I was trudging through it.  True to the conditions of the time, Dickens was being paid for each word and it is very evident at the beginning of each chapter when he sets the scene in often verbose description.  Definitely, good for brushing up or expanding your vocabulary, so you can use words like verbose.

Yet at other times it was truly enjoyable.  Dickens can be witty, even funny with clever turns of phrase and with sarcastic and dry explanations of human foibles.  In the last third of the book, all of the slow lead up with careful laying out of plot and character development the book comes together and it becomes exciting.  I read until I was too tired to read anymore and had to leave the last few chapters to the next day.  Dickens leaves no loose ends and ties up all the plot lines and characters very well.  I guess back then the idea of a sequel, or prequel or spin off was not considered the thing to do.  

Now that I finished reading it I am glad that I did take it on. After all it is a classic and I am probably a better reader because of it.   Next year, if the reading challenge has a similar entry I think I might be reading Dickens again since I only remember the first lines from A Tale of Two Cities and have a vague memory of Madame Dafarge knitting away.
I would rather be reading Austin, her world is kinder.