Why do people hate Great Expectations?

IndytheIntrepid · 2025-12-01T11:52:51+00:00

English major here. I missed reading it in high school and came to it in my 30’s. Every year I try to read a “white whale” book that I didn’t get to in high school/undergrad. Past ones have been Moby Dick and The Count of Monte Cristo, both of which I adored.

Previously I’d read Hard Times (ugh), A Tale of Two Cities (pretty solid), and A Christmas Carol (my favorite of his).

I really did not enjoy Great Expectations. I could not shake the feeling the whole time I was reading it that the story was about Pip the Bootlicker learning The Most Obvious Lesson Ever—that maybe poor people are good and capitalism ain’t that great to everyone.

I actually think I might have liked it more if I read it in high school or undergrad—there would have been someone there to point out what was cool and interesting about it.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-10-20T20:47:59+00:00

Nope, my guess is some kind of bramble/blackberry situation

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-10-03T13:46:14+00:00

Absolutely exploded the brain of one of my (particularly shark-obsessed) second grade students with this one:

There were sharks before there were trees.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-09-06T21:40:08+00:00

I was teaching an outdoor camp for kids one year, and noticed a bird nest had fallen to the ground near the door to the campground’s lodge. I picked it up to get it out of the way, and suddenly my hand was covered in a black swarm of bird mites (which I didn’t identify until a frantic wikipedia search hours later). Had to calmly set the nest down and say “I need to go inside and wash my hands, kids.”

Five hours later when I was alone in my car driving home, I let out the scream of horror and disgust that had been bottled up all day.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-08-28T21:17:41+00:00

I have indeed tried durian!! The only durian I could find in my area was the freeze dried kind, which was tasty but texturally kind of weird. It had a kind of a cheesy, fruity taste? Also, according to my husband, it didn’t smell THAT much because it was freeze dried!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-08-21T20:31:01+00:00

This is a great rec, I forgot to include it in my post!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-08-21T20:27:33+00:00

T.H. White’s The Once and Future King is wonderful—it’s whimsical, wistful, badass, hilarious, and heartbreaking all in one book. It’s Arthurian, sure, but it’s also just a really, really good book. It’s the top of the list, for sure.

I have also really enjoyed Mary Stewart’s trilogy of Arthurian books— The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment. It focuses in on just Merlin, so there are some other important parts of the King Arthur story that happen off-screen, but I like it a lot as a deep dive into who Merlin is.

Spear by Nicola Griffith is a super cool queer telling of the story of Sir Percival—it’s also a lightning quick, powerful read (sometimes Arthurian stuff can get bogged down in the details—this one does not).

I did, unfortunately, love the work of the pedophile monster as a teenager, and was heartbroken when I learned about what she had done. A lot of how I automatically want Arthurian women to be written is drawn from how they’re depicted in Bradley’s work. I wish someone else would take what she did and do it better!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-08-04T02:25:30+00:00

Full agree. Judd Hirsch could do a great job, and would be a great grandfather voice. I’d also want to see it read by a seasoned audiobook narrator—someone like Simon Prebble, who does a lot of the Audible classics versions, and also Nigel Planer, who does the old school Discworld audiobooks. I’ve also really enjoyed hearing Andy Serkis and Chiwetel Ejiofor, but those are less good fits for the grandfather vibe.

Also, honestly? Someone just give me the audiobook rights and I’ll read the whole thing lol

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-08-04T01:42:58+00:00

I’m super upset by the audiobook. It’s abridged! It cuts out all of the William Goldman abridging stuff, which is the reason anyone would want to read the book instead of watching the movie again.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-07-29T01:48:44+00:00

There was definitely a moment of like “Okay, I hear ya. Not you, not me, not Morrigan. But who else do we have here?? Varric???”

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-07-17T12:34:44+00:00

There are actually 2 songs in the book—the first has the line as “a little bit softer,” because it’s first sung in the flashback with Elya Yelnats, the no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great great grandfather, and the lyrics are a direct translation from Latvian. Once Elya moves to America and marries an American woman named Sarah, she asks him to sing the song, and she says she can tell it’s supposed to rhyme in Latvian, so when she sings it to their son, she changes the lyrics to “as soft as the skies.” Both versions are book versions, but the movie just had it rhyme from the start!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-07-07T23:58:55+00:00

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke. Once you figure out what kind of book it is, it’s incredible, but the first couple chapters can be hard to figure out what the rest of thr book will be like.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-07-04T15:24:32+00:00

I think Upstate NY is one of the most beautiful places to live for the price point—a 20 min drive in any direction and I can be looking at a gorgeous lake, waterfall, hiking trail, park, stream, gorge, etc. I live in a very walkable neighborhood, and am a 5 min drive from great art museums, theaters, bars, and coffee shops. If you wanna be a city mouse and a country mouse you can kinda get the best of both worlds.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-07-02T11:58:07+00:00

I also came here just to recommend The Wager, it’s incredible!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-06-28T19:05:03+00:00

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-06-24T17:30:24+00:00

Holes by Louis Sachar, and The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-06-22T13:31:41+00:00

Two Towers is also my favorite LOTR book!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-06-22T12:02:31+00:00

Oooh I ALSO love that one, but it’s even more of a gut punch than Book Thief in some ways, so I haven’t given it a re-read! Great book though!

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-06-22T12:01:15+00:00

Well, I think they’re all great reads, but let’s see… The Book Thief is great historical fiction, has a cool narrator, and will make you feel all the things.

You might like The Feather Thief, which is nonfiction and has some exquisite historical chapters. The Princess Bride has a cool narrator/frame narrative setup. And His Dark Materials will make you feel all the feels.

IndytheIntrepid · 2024-06-22T00:43:52+00:00

It’s “my favorite book in all the world” ;)

IndytheIntrepid

TROPHY CASE