Granted, I haven't been reading a ton recently. I moved pretty far from home a couple months ago and brought a box of books with me – mostly favorites but also a few I've owned for a while but never read, thinking I'd make the effort to finally read them. One of those was Great Expectations. I was talking to my sister on the phone a couple weeks ago and she saw a quote posted on FB that made her think of something I'd said, so she shared it with me. And guess where it was from? Great Expectations! So I took that as a sign that I needed to start it.
Here's the quote, which is the last paragraph of chapter 9 (also, this was NOT the quote my sister shared with me; I haven't gotten to that one yet):
“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. 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.”
This really hit me – like it made me very emotional very suddenly and the tears started flowing, and it took me a minute to regain my composure. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before so it felt really strange. Several months ago I met somebody while traveling who sort of changed my perspective on things, and if I hadn't met them I don't think I would have had the courage to make the move I did and wouldn't be where I am currently. It was such a chance encounter that sparked this whole wave of changes and reading that quote just made me think if that day hadn't happened how different my life could be.
Does this strike a chord with anybody else?
by tommystjohnny
39 Comments
Dang that’s cool! I find Dickents sooo hard to read. Been looking at “a tale of two cities” and am not really,,,, good at reading it.
I was greatly dissapointed by that book… maybe thats because I had great expectations. 🙂
I love Dickens. For me he’s similar to Shakespeare in combining potboiling, twisty narratives with profound compassion, humor and insight into the human condition. I suspect you’ll have more such moments if you keep reading him. Enjoy 🙂
That’s awesome. It’s not always the book itself but often a single, solitary quote that has a lasting impact on a reader.
It’s always astounding when a single phrase or paragraph hits home, an affirmation that others have had the same experience as you. Yay you for being self-aware enough to notice, and I hope you enjoyed the rest of the book!
I know it’s not super popular, but I absolutely loved Dickens, especially when I went through some really awful trauma. He might have a few too many happy endings but lots of good and terrible things happen to everyone, so many without reason and the good characters just keep doing their best.
My favorite author. His bust has breakfast with me every morning.
And sometimes the first link is a moment just like this. Where you read something and it just speaks to a truth that you knew, but couldn’t put into words the way the writer has.
This section had a similar impact on me.
It’s been more than a decade since I read Great Expectations. I still return to read this part at least once a year and it never fails to move me.
I love that about great books. There’s a moment like that in Anna Karenina for me. And in There Eyes Were Watching God, and in Le Cancre, and on and on.
Great Expectations has likewise been on my ‘to-read shelf’ for at least a decade (I attempted it when I was about 14, which was a mistake, and gave up halfway). This post has inspired me to give it another try, so thank you!!
This is the true foundation of a memoire
Yes! There was one trip I took and a chance meeting that took place along the way during an airport layover that changed the rest of my life…for the better.
The quote you shared captures it perfectly. Thank you for sharing it.
Very true. Great line.
Nice quote. I don’t mean to dumb things down, but reminds me of a UK movie called Sliding Doors from the 90s, where the movie breaks off into two plots, based on a single small event that either did or did not happen. Its nice that a a quote hits you so meaningfully, thats someone enjoying their reading and good for you.
I remember reading this in high school. We were reading a little each day in class. I got hooked and read the whole thing as fast as I could. One day the teacher asked if anyone had any questions or comments. Without thinking, I raised my hand and ruined the book for the rest of the class.
Great book! In our family, whenever some one doesn’t want to talk about something, we say “More gravy Pip?”
I had loved every Dickens book I’d read and assumed that Charles Dickens must have been the most stable, insightful, loveliest man around town so I was looking forward to reading a biography on him. He was not. I was crushed.
Great Expectations is a masterpiece.
We read “A Tale of Two Cities” in 8th grade. There was one really confusing paragraph the teacher read out loud, then asked us what it meant. It was literally a muddling of words. So she told us, it was saying the female character got pregnant and had a child. We all busted out laughing. Despite that, I remember liking the book.
> Several months ago I met somebody while traveling who sort of changed my perspective on things, and if I hadn’t met them I don’t think I would have had the courage to make the move I did and wouldn’t be where I am currently
You can’t just say that and not give any details.
This book was great, but I hated the main Pip. >!After it was revealed that the Magwitch was his mysterious donor this entire time I just felt bad for Magwitch.!< I have to give Dickens credit for writing believable and hateable characters.
I love Dickens. For all those having trouble getting into him, I would strongly recommend listening to him in audiobook format from a good narrator (while reading along with a hard copy if possible). Find a narrator who is English, preferably, and can pull off all the little accents that help bring to life the colorful pallet of characters Dickens. In my opinion, this is where Dickens really excels, and the English readers of his time would have been able to pick up on each of his characters’ speech patterns, which is much harder for an American to do using only the written page, but which a good narrator who grew up in England and is used to hearing (and differentiating between) the numerous different English accents can help bring to life. It will improve your reading experience tremendously, and will also help show what an incredibly humorous writer Dickens could be!
I also started reading Dickens over the pandemic. I got the complete novels on Kindle for very cheap and figured that would last awhile! I hadn’t read him since hearing David Copperfield as bedtime stories. He is so much richer and beautiful than he is popularly depicted. I cried at the opening of Tale of Two Cities. The famous opening goes on for much longer than I thought and is extraordinarily beautiful.
Huge push to remove Dickens from schools in my city. His writing doesn’t reflect our ‘demographics’ and students cannot ‘identify’ with a ‘white supremacy’ period. It’s just a book. We lost Shakespeare in 2020 for the same reason.
That’s a really lovely quote – I love the idea of the “chain of gold, or iron, or thorns or flowers.” What an apt description for life! I can definitely see that in my own life – so many things that changed my whole life course. I love it when something from a book strikes me right in the heart. Thank you for sharing this with us!
I love Charles Dickens, but Great Expectations was my least favorite book by him. That said, I haven’t read it in about 9 years, and perhaps my perspective on life now vs when I was 22 might make a difference in how I feel when I read it. So, thanks for this post, you’ve encouraged me to re read it.
I haven’t ever read the book but that make me feel something strong. Like about how two years ago if I never made the leap of faith to start talking to a girl in class I never would have made the connection which would lead to her being my girlfriend since then, and all of the great things that have been connected to that.
There’s a reason this book stands up to the test of time! I also think you were in the right emotional state to receive the message. You have been making changes, taking stock of your life, and being introspective. If you read it a year ago you might have skimmed right over it.
I haven’t reread this book in probably 15 yrs and I keep seeing/hearing it mentioned lately – this is the sign it’s time to pick it up again. Now your post has created another link in the chain!
Speaking of Dickens quotes, there’s one I’ve been trying to find for ages, but I don’t really remember any of it so I’ve had no luck. I *think* it’s from Great Expectations. This is probably as good a place as any to ask: the gist of it is that no one misses anything as much as a rich man misses some trinket he’s forgotten about for decades when he’s suddenly made aware of its absence.
Ring any bells for anyone?
This quote hit me hard when I read it too. The book overall is just incredible. I think of Pip a lot, mostly to make sure that I’m not setting myself up for Great Disappointments
I like that quote, but my favourite is
“He says, no varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”
That’s a wonderful quote and so true. I haven’t read Great Expectations in so long so thank you for the reminder. <3
Two years later here. I’ve just heard this passage on “Lessons in Chemistry” so I googled it and I found this post. I love what you wrote. It hit me quite profoundly too. Thank you for your post.
OMG !!! Tell me why I’m listening again to it after reading it once, and listening once. And I just wanted to come read about it on Reddit and I HAD JUST LISTENED to that part 🥹🥹🥹 I LOVE this book and I don’t think I had stopped and truly thought about that part before. I actually did stop and think 🥹🥹 so crazy!!
This is my favourite quote from this book. When I was a teenager, I wrote my favourite quotes from my favourite books and poems all over my bedroom walls in chalk. This quote was directly above the head of my bed.
Same,reading great explanations too on the tube these days . I am a slow reader, I just finished chapter 3, but still found dickens’s description of characters really vivid,even English is not my mother language, kinda feel his style and humor. But sadly most of the time I need to search the dictionary for some words,and still cannot get some of his humor hint. For now my favorite is in chapter 2 when the boy steals food from chicken,“I had no time for verification, no time for selection, no time for anything, for I had no time to spare.”
Excerpt From
Great Expectations
Charles Dickens
This material may be protected by copyright.
May I ask you where you met that person at and what did they say to you that made you look at things differently happens to me
I know this was 3 years ago, but I started reading GE just yesterday, and I’ve been thinking about this quote all day. Love this post.
Such a good piece. My favorite quote is “I have never loved and never can love any human creature breathing but yourself.”