Dickens is one of the truly great authors, and entire libraries could be filled with analyses of his works. His writing style is clear and lively, making full use of the depth and breadth of the English language as a medium of expression. Perhaps because of this last fact, high school students often struggle with him, particularly as each passing generation seems less eloquent and able to express itself precisely than the one that preceded it. I personally am no exception to this rule, having skimmed through Dickens when he was assigned as obligatory reading. I skimmed through Great Expectations and only now went back to re-read it.

I had resolved to re-read the book some time ago, after watching the very loose movie adaptation with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow from 1998 and recalling that serious plot points were shifted, dropped or twisted beyond recognition. I actually bought the book a few years later with the intention of reading it shortly thereafter. However, it was only now, in 2012, that I actually got around to it.

The primary story of the book is not the thriller aspect of the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, nor even of the doomed and miserable Miss Havisham, but of Pip’s consuming love for Estella. In Dickens’ novel, Pip throws away everything good in his life and mistreats the people around him in a mad pursuit of whatever it is that will help him win Estella’s heart. The “great expectations” that Magwitch bestows upon him are in a way nothing more than a crude deus ex machina device which provides Pip with the means to actually forget his stepfather, Joe, the simple but good Biddy, and a way of life and town that the author lets us know he profoundly regretted leaving and missed, in a way.

My primary complaint is that Pip's relationship with Estella should have ended, as apparently it did in Dickens' first draft of the ending. After the way Estella has treated Pip, it is almost impossible that she would have been better to him simply because she had "suffered" for a few years. Of course, the ending is cryptic enough that one could read it only to mean that the author is still as deluded as ever, in the fashion of Scarlett O’Hara assuring the viewers of “Gone With the Wind” that “tomorrow is another day”. Still, my understanding is that a happy ending was tacked on hastily and in a highly messy fashion, to a novel that did not ask for it.

Ending aside, however, there was a reality and immediacy to the tormented relationship between Pip and Estella. This reality, this fidelity to life, is what sets aside truly great books. Despite the highly improbable relationships that Dickens writes into Great Expectations (and, generally, all of his books), the underlying human condition that he sets out is true, valid and timeless. The ease with which the story was transplanted in the 1998 movie, is less an expression of any skill on the part of Hollywood and more a testament to the enduring power of the stories that Dickens told. Great books are great for a reason, and I am, on balance, happy that I re-read this novel.