Information technology'southward dorsum to the classics again this week for My Reading Life and I'thou casting the spotlight onto my favourite English literature novel: Nifty Expectations (1860-1861) past Charles Dickens.

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I first came to Great Expectations in Year 12 at loftier school when I selected it as my archetype text for my senior English unit of measurement on 19th century English literature. I hadn't read Dickens before but he sounded infinitely preferable to Emily Bronte and her Wuthering Heights. Turns out I made a good call because reading Neat Expectations was one of my most pleasurable reading experiences in all of high school. I loved information technology, lingered over information technology, wrote a stellar essay on it and so bought my own copy after so that I could read information technology over again and once more.

Considered equally one of Dickens' greatest critical and pop successes, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip, an orphan raised by a harsh sis and her kind husband. In the opening scenes, Pip and his uncle Joe come across an escaped convict whom they help. Years later, Pip'due south life changes dramatically when an anonymous distributor enables Pip to go a gentleman with 'great expectations' of a bright and fortunate future. When Pip realises later down the track who his benefactor is, his life is once over again spun out of his control. In Great Expectations, Dickens is at the elevation of his literary skill. His writing is infused with atmosphere, his dialogue and introspection sharp with wit and softened with sense of humour. His characters are and then memorable: Miss Havisham, faded and embittered; the cold and haughty Estella, Miss Havisham'southward adopted daughter; the convict Abel Magwitch; and of form, Pip himself, at first an impressionable boy at the mercy of the whims of Miss Havisham and Estella, then later on, an ambitious immature man at the mercy of the whims of his benefactor and his own compromised conscience.

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Why do I love Great Expectations then much? What's not to dear! A crumbling and creepy mansion housing an old bitter adult female draped in a disintegrating wedding dress, adoptive mother to a beautiful, yet seemingly heartless immature woman; a vulnerable boy caught in a game he neither understands nor tin can escape from, growing into manhood with faux impressions of his hereafter; a love story that was never going to end in anything other than disappointment; a coming of age journey that circles dorsum to its showtime with poignancy . The atmosphere just leaps off the folio, pulls you in and doesn't allow you get until the very last sentence. It has a timeless quality that makes it fully accessible even today. I'k certain Bang-up Expectations is responsible for my ongoing dearest of historical fiction that revolves effectually sometime aging houses total of mystery and intrigue, underground passageways and hidden letters.

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1999 BBC Accommodation of Groovy Expectations

It'southward almost compulsory for the BBC to turn every English literature novel into a sumptuous mini-serial – much to my delight. Peachy Expectations was no exception, striking our screens in 1999 starring the very handsome and charismatic Ioan Grufford as Pip. I loved this adaptation and it remains my favourite to date, although I did savour the updated 2011 BBC mini-series starring Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham and Douglas Booth as Pip (another handsome casting pick). Corking Expectations is such an involved story that in my opinion, it's always told better every bit mini-series rather than a characteristic pic. In that location's more time to permit the story exhale; more time to summit and collapse. Yous've got to love the BBC and it'southward dedication to bringing the classics to life. You might be difficult pressed getting a copy of the 1999 version, my own is sadly a video cassette, useless with a DVD player. In any case, the 2011 version will suffice nicely. And yes, I did watch that 1998 feature film accommodation starring Ethan Hawke as Pip and Gwenyth Paltrow as Estella. Despite my deep and abiding love for Ethan Hawke, this version didn't do my honey Great Expectations justice. Not past a long shot.

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2011 BBC Adaptation of Great Expectations

I'thou going to leave this hither with the terminal words from Not bad Expectations itself, as they never neglect to give me goosebumps, their beauty infinitely timeless:

"We are friends," said I, rising and bending over her, as she rose from the bench.
"And will continue friends autonomously," said Estella.
I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined identify; and, as the forenoon mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw the shadow of no parting from her.

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