Anyone notice that books by Dickens are really good until the exact middle of it?
So did Thackeray and I enjoyed him…
That’s 'cause Thackeray is sarcastic. Dickens is melodramatic. Sarcasm makes better tomes than weeping, wailing, and sentimental lovemaking (in the Victorian sense).
Or so I have been told…
“That’s K-N-I-C-K-E-R-L-E-S-S.” (also by Edmund Wells.)
The saddest part is when Estella kills all those little baby bunnies.
[sub]To be serious though, at the end of the book when Pip goes crawling home to Joe and sees that he has married Biddy (who held a torch for Pip forever) all I could think of was; “YES! Take that you snob! Now go cry on mama’s grave.”[/sub]
I think the message of the book was, be an arrogant prick, use everybody close to you, and in the end you’ll get the hot chick and the money.
And that’s one to grow on.
I like the Southpark version much, MUCH better.
Nah, I hate them right from the beginning.
So, am I the only one who likes this book? It’s my favorite Dickens’ novel, primarily because Pip does become a snob when he becomes a gentleman, and Estella is a cold-hearted bitch (but she is honest about it; Pip can’t say she didn’t give him fair warning). Most Dickens heroes and heroines are far too treacly for me. And I like the open ending that’s not all tied up neatly in happily-ever-afters.
I think you are. I do like dark in my novels & movies, but it has to have a happy ending. And I didn’t even get that far in this book, the middle dragged so bad.
'Cuz Howard Stern is on.
Wot larks, wot larks!
And that’s why Wife wants to start a book club reading 19th century novels and call it “NO DICKENS!”
I quite liked the recent version with Ethan Hawke, honestly. I felt it was really true to the spirit of the book, and I got a little teary when he was a bratty little bitch to Joe who’d come all that way to see his art show… sob!
Then again, I first read the book as an adult, which is way better than most people I know who had it shoved down their throats as children. There’s a lot in it that’s hilarious, I think. It’s definately my favorite Dickens; I hated David Copperfield (that is, until I read in the great bit in a Jasper Fforde book that
in “book world” there was a huge scandal when David was discovered to have murdered Dear Doris to take up with Agnes, which really improves David Copperfield immensely.
I was being a bit harsh, I actually did like the book. Pip was a jerk, but Joe was an enjoyable character.
Trunk- I agree completely, Howard Stern all morning, than right to the books on tape (Philly radio sucks).
A Baba booey to ya all.