Shall we read "Great Expectations"?

[vison]

Is anyone at all interested in a group read of Dicken's "Bleak House"? Or any Dickens?

If not, why the dickens not?

[Alatar]

I've never read Dickens, so I'd be interested. Is there a Dickens for Dummies book? Oliver Twist or Christmas Carol?

[Primula Baggins]

I might poke along with one. I'm trying to rediscover reading for more than five minutes at a time. My parents gave me an old leather chair and ottoman that's set up in the corner of my office with a good light beside it and a nice shawl hanging over the back. I'd love to spend some time there with a good Dickens I haven't read (and I've never made it through BLEAK HOUSE—it doesn't lend itself to the five-minutes-at-a-time read, does it?).

Alatar, all of Dickens is pretty approachable—he's got a lovely mix of characters in all the books I've read. Some people say that his villains and comic characters are the best, and I don't know that they're wrong. His heroes and especially his heroines can be less dimensional (not that they don't work).

A CHRISTMAS CAROL is short, and OLIVER TWIST is probably familiar to you already and has some great scenes. But vison knows a lot more about Dickens than I do; I've only read about half his books.

[vison]

The reason I suggest Bleak House is that there was recently a good BBC adaptation. I didn't see it all, but what I saw was good and I thought maybe some other people might have seen it and wondered if the novel was worth reading.

It's about my second favourite Dickens novel. My first favourite is Great Expectations.

Dickens wasn't like anyone else. He did everything wrong according to our modern ideas of a novel. He was ridiculously sentimental, his characters are often caricatures, his use of coincidence boggles the mind, etc., etc., but in the end, they are wonderful to read.

Bleak House is really big. Great Expectations is maybe more manageable.

[Alatar]

I'll leave that decision to the experts!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

My vote would probably be for Great Expectations. But I'll try to struggle along with whatever is chosen.

[vison]

That's two for Great Expectations.

I . . . um . . . . do I have, like, some responsibility here? I'm up for it, if I do.

Should we set a date to start? Anyone?

I feel goofy.

But I like to read and since I know I could never tempt many into Trollope I thought Dickens might do the trick!

[Primula Baggins]

I'm going to be gone from the 25th through the 1st, but I can easily catch up if you start before then.

[vison]

Pip pip, old girl.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

You da boss, vison. You tell us what to do, not the other way around.

I would suggest that if we do Great Expectations you either change the title of the thread or start a new thread, as it might be just a tad bit confusing otherwise.

[vison]

Your wish is my command.

It shall be done.

And when shall we start reading?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

When does 'da boss' say we shall start reading?

[Alys]

One of my best swoons for Whistler, back in the days of his own swooning thread, was based on the ending of Great Expectations (a beautiful bit of writing that I have always loved despite its detractors), so I might try to dig up a copy and join you all.

I'm just not sure if I'll have the time to keep up though.

[vison]

Well, sometime today I shall dig out my much-battered copy of GE and see if I can break it up into some kind of sensible blocks.

Then we shall embark, I guess, on the little Sea of Dickens.

[truehobbit]

I think I have Great Expectations somewhere on my shelf, one of the eternal "must read that sometime" books. Might as well remove it from that category.
But I'm not sure I have the time (or energy - depends on how I like the book ).

[MithLuin]

I absolutely hated Great Expectations. I probably read it when I was about 13 (the same age I read Moby Dick, which I also *hated* - but worse )

No one forced me to read it, I just didn't enjoy it very much, and thought Pip was an idiot. I had no tolerance for idiots at that age...I might be better, now .

But I must say I do not have a high desire to read Dickens at all. I read David Copperfield in a weekend (a 3-day weekend, but still) and after that marathon, I haven't picked up a Dickens book.

So carry on (and enjoy!), I just had to get that out of my system before you started .

[truehobbit]

Oohh - I know about having no tolerance for idiots in books. And I'm not better now.

I saw several movie versions of the story and none has made me curious to read the book. That's why I said it depends on how I like it.

[vison]

I never saw Pip as an idiot.

But we shall get to that.

[Impenitent]

I like Great Expectations very much. Not my favourite of books but it has such a distinct atmosphere and ennui about it; I fall into it every time I read it.

I thought Pip blind, misled a little by an ambitious arrogance, but not quite an idiot.

I found it so sad, at the end, for both of them.

I've read it a few times, so I may not read it all and rely on my memory, delving into it again where memory slips (which might be often). I'd like to read it, but time is scarce - and I'm trying to get through a couple of Philip Roths at the moment.

The discussion will be interesting to follow though.

[Holbytla]

Dickens? Did someone say Dickens?
Hah !
I made it through all of his books except Our Mutual Friend.
That was more impossible than Bleak House.
My buddy just finished David Copperfield. My fav.

I don't mind rereading Great Expectations and I am sure my buddy wouldn't either. Darker and more depressing than Copperfield.
Did you know he changed the ending?