I’ve been very naughty this month and haven’t read my current Classics Challenge book, A Voyage Out, for even one minute. So I was really happy to see that for this month’s challenge I can talk about any of the books I’ve completed for the challenge this year! Which is only two, but still!  Here is the prompt for the challenge:

“What is a moment, quote, or character that you feel will stay with you? Years from now, when some of the details have faded, that lasting impression the book has left you with… what is it? –or why did it fail to leave an impression?”

Great Expectations is a book that will always stay with me because it was the first Dickens that I’d read in many years and it was thoroughly entertaining  and surprisingly moving. I love the character of Joe Gargery – his simple trust, kind heart and enduring patience with and concern for Pip are truly admirable. I love the scene when Pip awakens from his illness and finds Joe at his bedside ready to forgive and forget the neglect and ingratitude that Pip has heaped upon him.

And who can ever forget an encounter with Miss Havisham? She is possibly one of the most fascinating characters in all of fiction.  The crumbling, moldy, decaying Satis House where Miss Havisham reigns over Estella and plays so thoughtlessly with Pip’s emotions will forever be imprinted on my mind.

I am mostly failing at my challenges this year, but I am, nonetheless,  so very grateful for the Classics Challenge if only because it spurred me to finally read Great Expectations.

Have you read a classic this year that will stay with you forever?

Looking for a healthy version of the traditional chicken salad? I want to try this one soon.

And these tips for having a more positive body image have really helped me lately.

I’m going to admit it – I was wrong about Dickens. Great Expectations is a fantastic book and Charles Dickens is not a demon sent to earth to torture centuries of school children – he’s actually a good writer!

The story of Pip’s journey from humble beginnings as a blacksmith’s apprentice to London and his ‘great expectations’ takes the reader on a thrilling and heart-wrenching quest. His love for the cold, emotionless Estella drives him to forsake his past and family in order to be the kind of man she would want to marry. Many of the characters in Great Expectations struggle with the sin of pride, including Miss Havisham, the damaged woman who raises Estella. Like many others, I found Miss Havisham to be the most powerful and unforgettable character in the novel. Her bitterness has turned her life, every aspect of it, to rot. The scene when she realizes how she has let her pain and shame fester and infect herself, Estella, her family and even Pip, is one of the most memorable and shocking scenes of the book.

by H.M. Brock. from victorianweb.com

The novel is chock-full of amusing, frightening, annoying, well-drawn characters such as Mr. Jaggers, Wemmick, Orlick, Pumblechook, Magwitch and the saintly and loveable Joe. What I enjoyed most about the book were the characters and their quirks, their failings, and gentle acts of kindness.

The plot was surprisingly moving to me and I even found myself stifling tears a few times near the end of the book. I was astonished to discover who Pip’s patron was and did not imagine that the novel would end the way it did. As Pip’s expectations are slowly dashed against the rocks of reality I had to wonder how his life would turn out and I was not disappointed with the result. I think the ending (the revised one) was beautiful and perfect.

I am glad I finally got over my fear and disregard for Dickens. I feel that I can now go on and read many more of his novels without hesitation.

Which Dickens would you recommend I read next?

This is the first book I’ve finished for the Classics Challenge. Hurray! Here is my next choice:

Eeeek!

The prompt for this month’s A Classics Challenge concerns character. I have the easiest book in the world to choose a character from – Great Expectations. No, I still haven’t finished it! I am almost there, though, and am really enjoying it and the extremely memorable characters Dickens uses to populate his story. Pip, Magwitch, Mr. Jaggers, Herbert, Estella and Miss Havisham - who could forget them? I could easily write about any of these characters, but instead I’d like to focus on a character who seems to be tragically overlooked. First, here is the prompt for February:

Level 2
How has the character changed? Has your opinion of them altered? Are there aspects of their character you aspire to? or hope never to be? What are their strengths and faults? Do you find them believable? If not, how could they have been molded so? Would you want to meet them?

Mrs Joe Gargery. from www.barnstable.k12.ma.us.

Mrs. Joe is Pip’s sister who ‘raised him up by hand’. She is assertive, shrewish, abusive and terrifying when she’s in a snit. She hen-pecks her husband, Joe Gargery, who still thinks she is ‘a fine-figure-of-a-woman’. Pip has no feeling for her and keeps out of her way as much as possible.

Mrs. Joe slightly reminded me of certain women in my family. My mom’s side of the family are known for being a bit ornery so she was familiar to me and I thought she was a very vibrant, energetic character in the early part of the novel. When she suffered the horrible act of violence that changes her forever, I was stunned. It was almost shocking the way she is silenced and completely shut out from the remainder of the plot. I do believe Pip’s story would have been different if he’d had his sister around to oversee his journey.

Was Dickens making a point about loud, outrageous women?

What character do you remember most from Great Expectations?