How to Read Great Expectations (Preparation & Reading Assignments) (Patreon)

Let's talk about how to prepare for our book club reading of Great Expectations.

This discussion is completely spoiler-free. 

Whilst some of us are rereading this great novel, many of you are in the enviable position of enjoying Dickens' masterpiece for the first time. So we will keep the surprises safe for now and talk about how to "unlock" Great Expectations without revealing the finer details just yet.

If you would like to get jumpstarted on the novel, I recommend reading chapters 1-19, in the pace that best suits you, before the first deep-dive lecture and discussion.

We have timestamps for the video, so feel free to jump to any discussion point that most interests you. And we have some reading assignments and questions to consider below the timestamps.

Video Timestamps:

• 0:00 introduction to Great Expectations
• 1:30 painful transformation is at the heart of the novel
• 3:00 Dickens’ most intimate bildungsroman
• 3:30 the original publication of Great Expectations
• 5:20 reading into the heart of your own development
• 6:00 symbolism of fire, the forge, chains, money, clothes, food, weather
• 8:20 collecting characters and what they represent
• 8:40 round vs flat characters
• 9:00 reading Dostoyevsky, Hugo, and Proust in light of Dickens
• 9:30 our psychological development and perception of others
• 10:00 the narrative style of Great Expectations
• 10:30 shame, guilt, and reminiscing
• 12:00 the hero’s journey
• 13:30 how to meet the characters of Great Expectations
• 14:50 collecting your favourite chapters
• 15:30 Dickens and Shakespeare’s sonnets
• 16:30 what makes a great chapter?
• 17:00 Dickens’ cinematic prose style
• 18:00 Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo
• 20:00 Dickens’ gothic mode
• 20:50 Charles Dickens and George Eliot
• 21:00 realism vs romance
• 21:40 how to sharpen your aesthetic appreciation
• 22:10 “fine, new, and grotesque”
• 23:00 why you should read some Dickens aloud
• 23:40 popular vs high literature
• 24:15 leverage Shakespeare’s Hamlet
• 25:00 writing exercises centred around the themes
• 26:00 reading structure for Great Expectations
• 27:30 the joys of reading Dickens at the end of the year
• 29:00 thank you to deep readers of Dickens

Optional Reading Assignments:

1) Collect 3x meaningful chapters (or characters) as you work through Great Expectations. Beautiful prose, charming characters, humorous incidents, affecting sentiments - these are a few great reasons for marking a chapter as your personal favourite.

2) Read a favourite section aloud. Dickens designed his stories to be appreciated aurally. Reading aloud either to yourself or sharing a passage with someone else is a wonderful way to get into the spirit of the great writer's work.

Questions for You:

1) Where are you in your life now? What is behind you and before you? Reflecting on one's own transformation and past self is a rich compliment to the story.

2) What other writers are you reading Dickens up against? What books are fresh in your mind as you prepare to embrace Great Expectations?

Happy reading, everybody!