Just finished Great Expectations. I can't believe I didn't read it before now. Unforgivable, that's what that is! It's definitely in my top 50 best books of all time. I can't commit to a ranking higher than that, but top 50 is dang good. The Victorian period is just a little too... I don't know... contrived? But it had incredible (iconic) characters, fabulous dialogue, romance, intrigue, criminals, and -- Dr. McBratney would tell you -- a bit of cosmopolitanism. (I'll link to his paper once it's published.) I prefer Dickens' original ending to the rewrite his publisher forced upon him. It's more real. And, I think, consistent with the rest of the book. The rewrite gets long and is a little over-the-top. (NOTE: Don't read further if you don't want to know the ending!!) More than a decade since they last spoke, Pip and Estella happen to return to Satis House (the house now gone) on the same day, at the exact same time. They walk out out of the garden holding hands, Pip sure they'll be together. I don't think so. The original ending was coincidence enough -- that they see each other on a city street after two years. He doesn't correct her likely assumption that Pip (Joe and Biddy's boy) is his child, because it simply doesn't matter. Their time has passed. Ouch.
The last graph is killer:
I was very glad afterwards to have had the interview; for, in her face and in her voice, and in her touch, she gave me the assurance, that suffering had been stronger than Miss Haversham's teaching, and had given her a heart to understand what my heart used to be.
I'm reading criticism today -- hope it doesn't ruin it for me. :)
Final recommendation: Buy the Norton Critical Edition. Incredible footnotes and critical essays!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment