In
these past few weeks of university I have had the task of reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Upon
learning of this task I was admittedly apprehensive. Some time ago I was kindly
advised by a nice lady in the local bookstore of several books by Dickens which
would serve as easy introductions to his literature, yet upon beginning The Old Curiosity Shop I was curious as
to where this lady had got her information from. Either she had never read the
book herself and had seen some entertaining film interpretation of the novel,
or she had a sadistic need to see her fellow readers suffer. For though this
was several years ago, the beautiful, illustrated, red leather bound copy of
the book I had bought to read in appropriate style, remains in my book case,
and I remember thinking, if that was one of Dickens’ easier reads, then I hope
never to read any of his heavier works for as long as I live. I was further
assured of my position when my mother’s book club tried to read A Tale of Two Cities. I had the pleasure
of watching my mother suffer a similar torment, where merely trying to
understand the sentence she was reading resulted in her forgetting what the
prior sentence had been about. She grew quite worried when, two chapters
through the book, she had no idea what she was reading, and resolved to give up
and face the next book club, book unfinished. She was relieved, therefore, when
no one in this quite experienced book club, managed to finish the book. There
may have even been some referrals the book that included the phrase ‘wrist
slitting.’
So
upon learning I would have to read, and finish Great expectations, you can imagine my concern, if half of A Tail of Two Cities stirred suicidal
thoughts in a book club, what would reading all of Great Expectations do to me?
If The Old Curiosity Shop was any
indicator, than I would have to reread every second paragraph, and loose the
will to live a fifth of the way through. However, I have good news for any
student who may have to undertake the same challenge. Thus far I have only had
to re-read every third or forth paragraph in the book, and am now a quarter of
the way through and still floundering along. I don’t know what that lady in the
bookstore was trying to achieve by pointing me to The Old Curiosity Shop, but Great
Expectations has been, psychiatrically at least, far less damaging.
So
rest assured all fellow readers, and remember, if you fail to complete the
novel, there are always the movies.
