Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > Great Expectations

Not as good as Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist, a tiny bit better than A tale of two cities, but to its core just Oliver Twist 2.0 with a first person narrator, and a perfect reason for why nobody likes serialized short stories condensed to weak novels.

I mentioned some of the weaknesses of Dickens writing in my review of A tale of two cities
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and the reason why it´s not as bad as it because he went back to a topic he could describe with more credibility because of the real life experiences he had made, and possibly people wanted more Oliver Twist and he knew he could sell more or just because he was nostalgic while getting old.

Dickens is a prime example of a not ingenious author motivated to produce new content due to market forces
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_E...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_E...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_E...
and was unable to reach the level of the incredible quality and timelessness of Austen, London, Twain, etc.

It´s quite kind of sad that his great, timeless, and important first works that point the finger at many societal problems are indirectly reduced by readers who choose to pick this work or Tale of two cities first instead of reading his masterpieces. I would completely understand if one wouldn´t want to try a second book after this one.

From all UK/US classics I´ve read, these two novels are by far the weakest. I do often think that some classics, many of them I won´t be able or willing to read, weren´t really good, subtle, or ingenious, but just the first on the market and had no competition, as simple and unromantic that might sound. I mean, reading outside stupid indoctrination BS was long time deemed a dangerous, stupid women activity real men would never do and as the wasted centuries were over and humankind awoke out of the terrible nightmare of the unnecessary Middle Ages, the first average writers had the easy stand of being the only person writing in a genre or even just one of 5 to 10 authors sold at all. That´s what I call a monopoly,

And the authors were idealized and glorified, mixed up with patriotism and national pride, made superstars, it was the first wave of endless Bieber fever for all ages.

Both factors contributed to a romanticized idealization of works that are just your average reading if nothing else is out there, but nothing one would read with flow and enthusiasm, more with a meh attitude instead of watching TV, social interactions, or other wastes of lifetime.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...