For me, it was a light read in between a mind-boggling postmodernist novel and a Russian classic, and boy, did I know it was the thing I really needed reading!
Hilarious and original with interesting and at times very relatable characters (looking at you, Linskes - is it even possible to be both like Simon and Amanda at the same time?!).
Besides the ever-present humor about the modern age or vampire legends, one of the things I really found interesting to read is the wide array of forms and origin stories ancient vampires come in. Definitely worth a read!
“You should know,” said Estella. “I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me.”
When I started reading this book, I thought I'd get bored quite often as I continued. Soon, I was luckily wronged. Despite, it's considerable length, Dickens' writing style makes you turn the pages with great enthusiasm and strong curiosity so much that I came to a point I was reading more than I was assigned for the week (it was a novel we had been analyzing for my Novel Analysis class)for if I didn't, I don't think I'd have been able to read other books I did.
The rest of this review contains spoilers, proceed at your own risk.
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The side-characters are humorous and quirky, the most dismal situations have some sort of consolation in their absurdity and warmth and as you read through Pip's eyes, you find yourself scared when he is, uncomfortable when he is, in trouble when he is. And if we drew a Venn diagram with Havishams at one side and Gargery and Pockets at the other, I believe Pip would appear in the middle. He possesses the warm innocence of Joe and naïvety of Matthew even at his lowest to some degree because when he puts his head on his pillow at night, something keeps him awake, tells him he's doing wrong although he gets it years later. And even in his most innocent years, there is some feature Havisham family possesses, his past. From the first chapters, Pip's relatively short past haunts him, just like the non-existent past of Estella and the childhood she had to spend made her what she is, and the trauma that never wore off rendered Miss Havisham the woman she was in her old age. So it is possible to find Pip as the little scared boy in the marshes, or insulted, wounded child at Satis House years later just as it is possible to see young maiden Estella not so different than the girl that looks down upon coarse boots. As for Miss Havisham, she is still that disappointed, shocked, lovelorn bride, she does it by never taking her wedding gown off, stopping all the clocks, but Pip and Estella have their own invisible ways of getting stuck.
As for the Gargery household and the Pockets, the law firm with its inhabitants, these are constants. Whatever happens, what tragedies take place, these places exist, out of sight, out of mind at times but always there. This more light-hearted constants remain constants at the end of the book too. Biddy is no longer the young girl infatuated with Pip, Joe is no longer married to Mrs Gargery and has grey streaks in his hair, Pumblechook's behavior changes but his personality never, in short all remains the same in their core.
Havishams and Pip, however, characters whose inability to move on are pretty obvious learn how to move on in their own ways. For the older Havisham it is fire, for the gentleman it's the fever he's stricken with, for Estella, the character whom I hated, loved, hated and loved as I read, again and again, for her it's experience that melts the ice of her heart and turns her into a cool headed but no longer arrogant woman.
I would be quite disappointed if Pip and Estella ended up together in the end, because although it would be a happier end for both of them, and more of a reader-pleaser scenario, I don't think even they would want that after all those years. Their story is of a change, moving on, forgetting and forgiving, asking for forgiveness. Magwitch finds his, Havisham finds hers, Pip does so eventually and Estella, she is slowly finding it in herself to forgive herself, bringing them together would only ruin this forward, always forward dynamic of the third part of the book.
I want to end this review with my favorite quotes from this book, because I think they summarize what this novel is all about just fine.
"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day."
"So throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise."