Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

Happy Dickens Tuesday! And this one was not what I…EXPECTED!!! [laughs into his laptop]

Great Expectations is another heavy hitter in the Dickens library. While it wasn’t required reading for me in school, it seems like this book, like A Tale of Two Cities, was often shoved into the eyes of teenagers. That’s a shame, because forcing kids to read this is the worst way to approach it. Instead, you should tell teens, “Do not read Great Expectations! It’s scary and weird and it’s about this nutty lady who wears a wedding dress every day and has a moldy cake filled with spiders. Stay away from this book!”

And then every kid would eat this up like delicious moldy spider cake! 

The story is about Pip, a poor kid who dreams of being accepted into high society. Through a series of Dickensian events, he winds up visiting the creepy Miss Havisham. In terms of iconic, memorable, unique literary characters, Havisham ranks right up with Hamlet, Atticus Finch, Holden Caulfield and Sonic the Hedgehog. She’s insane, mean, wealthy and gross. She might be old, but it’s hard to pinpoint her age. Also, “old” in Victorian England was probably 30. 

So Pip, the poor kid, falls in love with Estella who also hangs out with Havisham in the spooky old house. Havisham schemes to make Pip fall in love with Estella so that Estella will break his heart. I’m simplifying it here because there’s a lot more to the story but the essence is: Pip wants to be classy and Havisham wants revenge on all mankind for past injustices. 

While on the surface this sounds like a tragic love story, it’s more of a gothic horror. That was a big surprise to me. I thought I was getting into lovey-dovey romance, and then there’s cake spiders! I loved it, even if it’s not what I…EXPECTED!!! [laughs towards his ceiling]

There are no jump scares, but the descriptions of the decaying Havisham and her rotting house are the stuff of Tim Burton nightmares. That said, it’s not the scariest or best Dickens work I’ll cover. Hint: Humbug. 

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