I'm reading the book now, have about 200 pages left although I'm supposed to have finished it for a seminar tomorrow... Anyway, those of you who have read it, what do you think of it? Is it true, without giving away the end, that the last 6 chapters are really the best and that the end of the book is extremily good and surprising?(so a fellow student says) Wanna know if I've something to look forward to (not that the book is crap now, but..)Yeah, well...

It's a great book and 200 pages should fly by.

This is a great book. It's been years since I read it, but I remember that it was a very good read. Definitely finish the last 200 pages. You'll be glad you did.

I agree with lovemachine and kisscamille!!

This was the first book I had to read at university and I wasn't too fond of it. I'm not saying it's crap, I just thought it was nothing special... The second one was 'The French Lieutenant's woman' and I preferred that one by far.

But don't listen to my opinions. I usually don't like the real classics. 'Anna Karenina' for example, must be one of the most boring books I ever read.

VenusBlingBling said:

I love everything Dickens but I have to agree with your fellow student to some extent, the ending seems to be written in an entirely different tempo, which we can of course debate the truth of till we die since Mr. Dickens is no longer with us and can't tell us his intentions. The first time I read it I was just in my early teens and I remember being bored out of my wits with the first parts of the book. Then I re-read it when my appreciation for Dickens had grown along with my age and I savored his storytelling that much more but I still feel a little bit like the ending belongs to another story (not in content but in tempo). I read it again at Uni and analysed it into bits but our professor was American so I blatantly disregard his opinions j/k!!!

VenusBlingBling said:

I read it too about 5 years ago, and I don't remember much of the story. I read it because I had to and it left me quite indifferent That was my first Dickens book and probably the last!
But maybe you do like his books

MarieLouise said:

Totally agree. I liked that book a lot!

Well I have now still 150 pages left, but I have to say that now a quite like it. But I am a fan of classic literature and I love Jane Austen! Anyway, we discussed GE today and as most of us hadn't finished the novel the teacher didn't really give away the ending, though he told us what the very last sentence was and that didn't sound like a completely surprising ending to me... Well, I'll see soon.

You know the reason the book is written in different tempos etc. is because it's written as a three-decker novel/serial and Dickens had a quite difficult time in deciding how and when the book should end Therefore the book is somehow in a higher tempo towards the end. Now that end was anyway slitely changed later on cause people didn't like that it didn't really indicate a happy ending.