In Depth Book Review GREAT EXPECTATIONS
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.ค. 2024
- An in depth book review of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens which explores the central idea of this great work.
If you want to improve knowledge of literature, the root to understanding Classic books is to dip beneath the surface of the story and find the IDEA that the writer was exploring.
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This Great Expectations book review is for those who want to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of classic literature.
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On this channel, we try to give much more than an overview of books. Rather, our goal is towards understanding books better. Understanding classic books better, in particular. As a new booktuber on booktube I hope to bring a deeper look into reading the classic books, going beyond short summaries of novels to drawing out the themes and hypotheses of these great works.
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Tristan - ตลก
Can anything get better than this man explaining some literary masterpieces. The insight you come up with is exquisitely breathtaking and moving.
I'm watching this right before a Literature exam but it's so cool how your enthusiasm for the subject shines through so clearly, and it makes me actually enjoy getting into the analysis of this book!
hope you killed it! i found this video too late!! LMAO my GE paper and exam was 5 years ago hahahaha
Hello Nogare. I'm sorry not to have responded months ago, but I've only just had your comment appear in my 'reply to comments' section of youtube.
How did you find your exam? I bet you crushed ot 😀
Thank you for taking the tome to leave a comment. I genuinely appreciate it.
Hi! Thanks for asking, it was my AP English literature exam, and I got a 5/5
@@nogare- That's awesome 👏👏👏 Well done!😀
The classics should challenge us and chastise us-well said.
12:07 are my expectations based on something that will bring me happiness or something I think they should be?
12:35 the consequence of holding onto broken expectations; bitterness and locked in time.
21:46 we are like Pip and what we don't like about Pip is what we don't like about ourselves- forgetting our values and aspiring for things of no value like social approval.
Thank you Sands. That was very neatly stated.
I loved this video immensely, just as I had already loved reading the book. It was my first book I read by Charles Dickens, and although I didn't particularly like Pip's character, I understood him and loved him for being so human. And I think Pip had a huge growth in his personality throughout the book. For me, it is a book written by a genius who understood human relationships very well. It is no wonder that Charles Dickens' books are considered classics.
Without a doubt, I will read more of Charles Dickens and will see many more reviews from your channel.
Hello Katerina. May I first thank you for, not only taking the time to comment, but expressing yourself so well as regards this book and authot.
Dickens was a master and, as you pointed out, it seems to me also that it is because of his unique grasp of human relations and conduct. Some have called Dickens "The Shakespeare of the novel." Even if one disagrees with this, it is easy to understand why he would be offered the accolade.
I can't wait to hear more of your views on the books you have read and the ones we talk about here.
Thank you very much, to have enlightening me on Charles Dicken's .. Great expectations .. Your lecture is very captivating .You make me think out of the box .
I had forgotten just how much I loved this book!! Poor Miss Havisham, I always felt so badly for her. No matter what she did she could see that it was not helping with her frustration or anger. Even molding and teaching the little girl I honestly felt that she got no joy from it. She just felt so helpless, so completely helpless. What a wonderful character she is. Thank you Tristan for this excellent revisit.
Yay! I finally finished this remarkable literally journey. Dickens spares no expense with his writing!
I had great expectations coming into this video and I was not disappointed. What a masterful review.
If you want to listen to an in depth exploration of the central idea in Dickens' Geat Expectations, then this is the video for you.
On this channel we aim to dig deep into the classics to improve our knowledge and appreciation of classic literature, Take the time to watch this and weigh it against your own opinions.
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I just finished this classic and loved your video about it Tristan. It is a brilliant book and one I'm glad I read it! Its my second Dickens after A Tale of Two Cities. I'm hoping to read Our Mutual Friend. I really don't understand why Pip doesn't garner more sympathy. Life didn't work out as he expected, it happens to many people!!!! I'm moving on to Wilkie Collins The Moonstone. Have you read this one?
Man i was so engaged in your review throughout. Mentally withinh your video, physically in dickens’s setting.
I’ll admit, I didn’t love Great Expectations and I didn’t like Pip, just as you said. I knew I’d missed something so I was so happy to see your in depth review of the book. Now I can re think what I’ve just finished. Thank you for all your videos!
I'm late to this video but just had to thank you! I picked up a copy of GE at a little free library a few months ago. Based on one of your other videos I have been taking it slowly, 10-20 pages per day on average. Today, with 83 pages left, I found your video and it has very much increased my understanding and enjoyment. Although I was loving it The best part was the first part where you talk about Pip in the cemetery. I had the exact same thought and have to say that scene has rather haunted me throughout the book. And, I would agree with its importance to the story. I haven't read much Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities in high school, and A Christmas Carol. But, this one has me "smitten with Dickens!" I also picked up A Tale of Two Cities from the same free library and will definitely give it a reread. Thank you for the way you were able to speak about the without spoilers!
Thank you Tristan for this terrific analysis. Just finished reading Great Expectations, my first foray into Dickens. It was absolutely delightful and your insights have enriched my experience of the book.
Yes I like Pip, right from Chapter One (how skillfully Dickens draws the innocence of a child) right to the end. Pip is a complex, nuanced character. One cannot simply write him off as proud, arrogant, condescending or ungrateful. Yes he is all this but he is also a divided self who at the same time felt lousy and guilty about his treatment of Joe and Biddy. That he looks back at his life with remorse and desperately tries to make amends; the good he does for Herbert; the goodness he sees in Wemmick; and how his feelings for Magwitch slowly change; these and many instances surely resonate with me. So yes, I am sympathetic towards Pip and I teared up at several points in his story (especially the farewell scenes with Joe, and when he discovers that Biddy has married Joe). And I can’t find a reason to beware the unreliable narrator. Pip’s transformation into a true gentleman is a testament to Dickens’ power of characterisation.
Besides Pip, many other aspects of the book to rave about. Dickens’ exquisite language (particularly delightful is the rhythm and cadence of his writing and his copious use of parallel grammatical structures); his astute observation of people and how they behave, his memorable touches of caricature (eg. Orlick’s slouch, Wemmick’s post-office mouth, Jaggers’ wielding his pocket handkerchief); his atmospheric descriptions of the mist, wind and rain; and much more.
Looking forward to reading David Copperfield next. But not till some time has passed mulling over Great Expectations as it continues to reverberate in my heart with all its beauty!!
Keep ‘em awesome videos coming Tristan. You are the best booktuber I’ve encountered!
I liked the realistic ending to the book. Pip can't go back home. But, he can use what he has left, his acquired abilities, to enter a business venture. You feel he will always be lonely and unfulfilled emotionally. But, he can still serve a purpose.
Also, can you imagine living a life that isn't surrounded by expectations of a better one? There's no shame in that and we all do it. Of course, we get hurt at times and it's our duty to play on and move on. In American football the idiom is "to play hurt." As Peyton Manning would say, jokingly about your injury, "rub some dirt in it."
That seems fitting. If all there is to cure your pain is the surrounding dirt, then use that. And then, get back into the game.
Love your take on this. Despite not being able to return home, one feels that he has found out what true home and living is about. Pip no longer moves with the frenetic, noisome, foaming rage of ambition seen in London. He appreciates Joe has got the right outlook ... 'having sustenance and covering, we shall be content with these things.' A hearth and a heart to love.
Love the 'play hurt' quote. As for Peyton Manning, ate you a Bronco or a Colts fan?
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 It's just something Manning said once in a comedy skit -- "rub some dirt on it." You could have a double compound fracture in football and someone would say "rub some dirt on it."
The realistic ending.
Neither of them had visited the ground of the old house for a decade and yet they wind up there at the exact same time?
And it is dusk, and there just happens to be a bench still intact.
Thank you so much!! After reading the book, this is really useful and full of insights!)
It's such a great book isn't it? Pleased the video was useful to you.
thank this was really great piece of work
I just finished reading Great Expectations (I was vaguely aware of the plot because I had seen a movie adaptation loosely based on the novel many years ago). The book blew my mind. I think it is beautifully written, and I really enjoyed it from beginning to end. I really liked your in depth review; you have made me reflect on some of the characters (like Jaggers), and I would love it if you could do another review of the book but with spoilers, because I would like to know your opinion on the ending, and on Pip's story arc.
Glad I found your channel! Already subscribed!
I'm glad to have found your channel, explicitly devoted to classics.
How enlightening. I have loved it... a new angle. I first studied the book at Glasow University some 50 plus years ago and listened to Philip Hobsbaum lecturing on the novel. I loved it then but after listing to Tristan I love it even more. Salutory that in a sense we are all like Pip.... the trinkets dont bring us happiness.
I read this for high school many years back and it never made a lick of sense till you explained it. For one thing, I was never much of a reader, and I also remember that I had a horrendous time trying to decipher the old English phrases.
Me old.
I struggled.
I am glad I had Google at hand.
I read sentences over again and they still made no sense.
I am chary to respond.
Brilliant. I just finished this wonderful classic. Great commentary.
Amazing. I have bought this book to read and having heard this, I can't wait. Thank you so much Tristan.
I can’t stop myself to paise you , really the way you explained great expectations is marvellous and I had wanted this kind of explanation which gave us a depth knowledge of a novel .however , in a novel plot is the society and characters are we !!.
Love❤
Such a fantastic review. I had so many aha moments listening to this. Passing it on to my family who have just finished reading Great Expectations with me. Thank you ever so much
I am a new subscriber and I just adore your intro!!! This is one of the few Dickens I have not read. I am working my way through his works and have this one, David Copperfield, Martin Chuzzlewit , and The Old Curiosity left to conquer. This video is so fabulous! You made me want to read it. I am going to make it my next Dickens in 2021
Thank you for subscribing, it is most heartening. I really look forward to hearing your opinion of Pip and of Jaggers. Someone I didn't mention in this video is a character called Wemmick. There's a novel character which adds a nuance to matters. I wonder what you will think.😃🎩❤
Wonderful review Sir !!
Great analysis! I have an essay due in a couple weeks on this book and this helped a lot! Keep it up!
So pleased to be of help😃👍
I’m definitely going to buy this book soon as I can! Listening to you go into detail about it really speaks to me and makes me somewhat emotional. Great expectations isn’t just about “pip” it’s the story of all of us! That’s what I got out of your video today. Thank you. ❤️
Absolutely, Ricky! So sorry for not replying much sooner. It appears a number of comments on this video have only just appeared in my 'reply' section of the youtube back office.
Did you get the book in the end? What was your experience with it?😀
Finished the book a couple months ago, and although i was fascinated by it, i got that sense that i was missing something of its deeper meaning. So glad to have found this video.. Really great explanation and definitely a fun watch, your didactics is awesome! Greetings from Brazil and thank you for the video!
Just bought this book. Your videos have made me gain interest in classics
That's really kind of you to say. I'm thrilled. Great Expectations has so many layers and angles to explore.
this helped so much !!
Tristan 🙏🏻
Thank you
You are the Best ❤
This is one of those books that I didn't like the first time I read it, but the second time, when I didn't have great expectations, I enjoyed it more. Still, for me the first scene is the best, followed by everything related to Miss Havisham. Thanks to your analysis I now see a connection with Crime and Punishment, where the color yellow and rising above the masses are very important. I know that Dostoevsky liked Dickens, and probably read Great Expectations before writing Crime and Punishment, so I have no idea how I missed these details, or simply forgot about them. Brilliant review!
Thank you Sophia. I completely understand your being underwhelmed by this book on the first go through. I too, enjoyed it more the second time around, but then I also came at it with less haste.
Your comment about Dostoevsky is noteworthy. What I find remarkable, is how different they were as writers. But to see how one great writer takes up the observations of another writer and then develops them on a different line of thought, I find wonderful.
I hope to record a review of Crime and Punishment soon and your commentary of chapters 1-7 was exceptional. Would you mind if I put a link to your video? Your understanding of the Russian terms - particularly the names - is very eye-opening and I think lots of people would appreciate hearing what you have to say.
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 Thank you! I don't mind it!
Having just finished this book, I found this deep review excellent.
It is absolutely my next reading experience. Thank you for the analysis. ❤️🌹
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 yes, I did. A piece of art 😍❤️
Thank you for having good volume in your video recording. Other people who reviewed G.E. had terribly faint volume. Going to be reading G.E. soon, my friend. :D
Great review
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, Tristan! Hope you’re enjoying the holidays 🎄🥳 again, i will have to come back here to see this whole video after I read GE. I have so many reads to catch up 🙈😅 Love your new look! Enjoy your day ✌🏻
I hope that you like Great Expectations.
Thank you very much for your indepth observations. I enjoyed listening to them.👍Great Expectations is worth all the hype! ❤
I really like Pip. I felt sympathy for him for the way his sister raised him, so roughly, by hand. I could relate to so many of Pip’s feelings. I liked Pip.
I absolutely loved this book. I must say that the number of bizarre coincidences was a bit too much. It should have come as no surprise that Pip just happened to run into Estella at the end. The ending left me quite unhappy.
I really enjoy your videos with in depth analysis (and all the others)! Thank you so much for sharing your insights! Do you by any chance have a couple of tips for web sites where we can find free in depth analysis of different books?
I am currently re-reading Great Expectations. I sometimes like Pip and sometimes not BUT I think he is (like all of us) in the throws of growing up and making mistakes. It is a fine balance between wanting to be better and do better and wanting more in life, whether for yourself or others, while also not being ashamed of your roots and most kids go through that process. Which is a lesson Pip has to learn and unfortunately, can only be learned by experience, by falling form grace.
Pip is ignorant and a bit of an idiot, but he is not malicious; whereas Miss H is stuck and most definitely cruel. I also think the things that are done to us as kids form patterns in our subconscious that make us act in ways we wouldn't normally have had someone not bullied, hurt, or shamed us in some way (fate, or just life?). But again, it is how we walk out of those lessons (or at all, Pip vs Miss H vs Jo) that make all the difference. I would have loved to learn Estella's story though. I think hers is the real tragedy because she is a kid being warped and manipulated by a sour old lady and if she had been a real person, would she ever have been able to shed that brainwashing that she had been a victim of.
Excellent discourse, thank you.
Thank you Josh, I appreciate it.
Excellent review! I have not read it yet, but now I certainly want to.
Any chance you might do an in-depth review of King Lear?
Thanks Chris. I can't wait to hear what you get from the book. Be sure to share.
There are so many other characters to enjoy.😃🎩❤
This was fantastic. I just read Great Expectations for the first time and I’ll definitely rewatch it before I reread the book. But I absolutely loved the book and never once disliked Pip.
omgomg!! at 30:07 i got so excited!!
and it's because during my first read through of Great Expectations, i literally tweeted:
"said I, recalling what i hardly knew i knew." why am i lowkey Pip..
#GreatExpectations #storyOfMyLife
hahaha. i loved your analytical approach! i would have definitely appreciated watching this video before having written my paper on which ending i preferred, the original ending or the published ending! and although I turned my paper in 5 years ago (LOL), Great Expectations has BEEN on my "reread list." your video just bumped GE to the #1 slot on my list xD thanks for the insightful analysis!!
Whatho JinAndSoda! Thanks for this comment, it is super. I'm really curious; which ending did you prefer?
Sorry for the late reply, I've only just had your comment come to my attention in my TH-cam studio.
I love your enthusiasm. 😀
My expectations are that due to public pressure due to media exposure (and whatever investigation is occurring), charges will be dropped, my record cleared, and my licensure reinstated. I will also be getting a hefty sum from various lawsuits including one related to a local news station saying I was preparing bombs and suggesting there was "evidence" of that, so if others are actually seeing that, I have already been told I will profit from it.
Listened to a bunch self-professed know-it-alls re GE. You're at the top, IMO, by several country miles. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the kind words Frank, it's jolly decent of you. I hope somebody buys you a new car or something just for being a top person.😀 I'm certainly no expert, just a lover of literature. Dickens is one of my favourites. Do you have any fave authors or books?
excellent ❤
Merry Christmas
Can you believe its almost 2021!!! Let's hope its a better year.
Thank you so much! I just read the book and loved your perspective. I Wish I would have seen this vid as I was reading through -but what a magnificent story with such a cast of characters. Thanks again . Any other suggestions? I am a newbie. God Bless!
Thank you, MB Sully. Great Expectations is one of my all time favourites. As for suggestions, I have a video called "12 Amazing Classic Books to Start With." Maybe you would find something you might like in there. Also, for a real self-taught adventure, I'd genuinely encourage you to watch my video on "How To Build Your Own Classics Library." If you do the exercises in that video you will embark on a very personalised journey into the classics.
Hope that this helps. Keep in touch and let me know how you are getting on.😀
Thank you❤
Thank you 🙏🏼
Pleased that you enjoyed it, Marjory.
amazing！
Thankyou for this in depth analysis. I just finished reading Great Expectations and I found this helpful. Dickens was a wonderful writer and a beautiful soul. I have read that he believed in the Christian doctrine of universal salvation and as I read Great Expectations I could see that shining through in the story. Dickens truly believed in redemption.
The majority of 19th century authors had a Christian faith. Some of the more evangelical authors are quite obvious, but most authors have a biblical morality which instinctively comes through their writing.
After Darwin, you can slowly begin to see the more materialistic worldview creeping in.
I just bought this book Today
Great video. I just finished reading great expectations for the second time (loved it) . That's the only Dicken's book I've read. I am planning to read bleak house as his next book. What do you think?
Thank you
And thank you for being so kind as to take the time to comment. I very much appreciate your encouragement. ❤😃
Hi, found this video because I wanted to compare my thoughts with someone more educated. You've given no spoilers, (so I'll try not to be explicit but reader be warned) but the end of this book left me first oddly disappointed, and then, the longer I sat with it, I felt it was the more interesting way for it to end than what I expected. (So, was I the victim of my own expectations? ) It seems like people were mostly given the reward they earned through their appreciation of the love given to them, and their own freely given love. Pip, through everything, was saved by the kindness he had already earned and returned, and which was what guided him as he realized what he had done in time to make amends. I thought Estella suffered even more from lack of a good role model and made an interesting compliment to him throughout the book because she seemed to have more self-awareness than Pip. Clearly, they are both on one side of a coin together if the reverse side held Joe and Biddy, who never lost sight of what was important. Thank you for the video, which gave me some extra things to put in my hat as I continue to roll this story around in my mind.
This book’s movie came on Brit Box on my next in queue, and it speaks to me as I write about my experience with great expectations in the area of marriage specifically. I relate to Pip, and the older woman wearing the bride gown. I don’t want to be the older woman. I suppose I want to be like Pip. But does Pip end up happy in the end of the book?
Hey, I am a high school student and really appreciated the way you have presented the masterpiece of dickens the great expectations in your own words. I love reading but don't get much time to read classic novels written by dickens who is one of my favorite writers. I have thought of writing a book review on great expectations and as I was surfing I came across your explanation which swooned my mind.
Though I have not read great expectations, I could totally connect to it through summaries and book reviews. I think each of us acts as Pip and dickens have kept this transformation journey with such interesting characters in his life so real and human. I have made through great expectations summary that 'life is not fair but it is still good" and I disliked the ending of the story, which was a happy ending made later by Dickens on the advice of his friend. I liked the earlier ending made by him as it was real and not all stories need to have a happy ending because in real life not every story has a happy ending.
From my perspective, stories which have a moderate ending are much more real and people could connect it to easily as they must have faced or seen such a situation in their life. This is my view it can be wrong as well.
Just sharing what i feel.
thank you for providing such an explanation of a great masterpiece.
Thank you so much Mannat for this lovely comment. I agree with you that Dickens should have stuck with the original ending. I think that the public of the day also wanted a happy ending which influenced Dickens.
It really is a book that everybody should read.😀👍
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 Thank you so much for replying by taking out your precious time
I found Pip, as a protagonist, to be reactive and not at all proactive. Stuff just happened to him; he didn't make things happen, as a protagonist should. So not my favourite Dickens at all. Maybe emperor's new clothes, I don't know... that's just my view, of course.
you are so right. i dont like pip, and i dont like myself too. thank you very much.
I'm sure you are a fabulous person. 😀 A rereading of Great Expectations often leaves one with a more sympathetic view of Pip. After all, he doesn't play false to us. He presents his flaws to us without disguise. He admits his wrongful pride; his forsaking those out true to him; his being seduced by the big lie of materialistic living. But the chief thing is that he comes to see the wrongness of his actions. He sees the true greatness in the humility, kindness, and generosity of those who may seem lowly but are the great spirits of the world.
Hello Bookish friend! :)
A a hearty halloo to you, Destiny.😀
This was awesome. As an English teacher, sometimes I move around, and although I have read many, it has been years. This was perfect to help bring to my remembrance the depths of classics.
Im 19 old and i' ve seen the movies countless times and read the book another 4. Nonetheless i cant still get a grasp of the lesson that it passes. I feel as an abstract idea, a cloud or a mist is clinging above my head and it hasn't yet clear, making me confused! The video was great and i loved your thoughts but still im unable to understand the finer line of what we should do with our expectations ?!
Thanks for the comment 👍 I understand your position. One way to view classic books like GE is that they are a synthesis between you and the author. You step into the book's world and let it impress itself on you. There is no definitive right way to interpret a novel. It works on your personal experiences, and your experience works on it. Ask questions as you go. Why do I like Pip in his early years; what are my feelings towards Miss Havisham; why is Estelle the way she is? Pumblechook, Mrs Gargery, and Mr Wopsle all have ideas of what constitutes a hood life (Wealth, social rank, and fame .) Are they happy compared to Joe? Pip gets all three with his Great Expectations, but is he as happy Wemmick and Joe, characters who seem ridiculous and simple on the surface.
For what it's worth, Dickens does not tell us what our expectations should be, rather he shows us what most people think will make them happy. He also makes us think about what the nature of a truly good person is (a gentleman). Fine clothes and good manners are outward, what is on the inside counts.
Hope this helps. Feel free to message me in my Instagram inbox if you have further questions. ☺️ 😀
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 you are amazing thank you soo much, i appreciate you taking the time to respond and in such an extensive manor, i'm about to do some crazyyy thinking hahaha
🤯👍
😀👍❤️
Can you recommend for me any more classics that deal with the theme of redemption? I think these stories are needed more than ever before in our unforgiving culture.
Two off the top of my head would be Resurrection by Tolstoy, and Painted Veil by Maugham. The Painted Veil isn't an obvious one, but it is redemptive.
@@tristanandtheclassics6538 Thanks!
Good review. Bit skeptical that dislike of Pip=dislike of my own station in life. I'm not following the logic. He dislikes parts of himself later in the book.
But what about the ending?
Oh dear, I haven't finished this vid, please tell me he addresses the ending.
Please?
I think that basically life (commerce, happiness, purpose) is leaving England, the great expectation of this particular country is coming to an end.
That’s the meaning of this book.what remains is a once was Waite and round but now yellow and boney, without sustenance, hope or glorious future. Only a glorious past is all. No more great expectations.
And it’s better to let it go and know it for what it is a mean ruined and no good ugly old woman.
You know, I disliked Joe much more than I disliked Pip. I did not dislike Pip at all actually, for he was quite clear (I mean the narrator Pip), where he wronged being young and misled. Yet Joe did not protect the small child from his wife's abuse. Now I wonder, what does it tell about me, me disliking Joe?...
Q