DDR: Great Expectations

And you watch me playin' guitar

And you feel what my fingers can do

And you wish you were the one I was doin' it to

Well, listen...

You've got great expectations.

You've got great expectations.

That's courtesy of Kiss, by the way. From the truly excellent 1976 album, Destroyer.

And with that...we're off. XIV + 566 = 580 pages, so about 19 days, then. Maybe less.

Oh. Wait a minute. Had a bit of time and finished the introductory pages. Not bad. Not good, either, but I'll take not bad given the awful introductions which have preceded it. 

The book looks new and unread, and the bookmarks' condition and position

seem to indicate that this is so...but there's a date written in at the front

so I guess somebody at least set out on this voyage prior to me.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,086) July 18, 2023

 

Read to page 30. Having the desire to see Robert DeNiro play the convict. May have to search that one up.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,087) July 19, 2023

 

Read to page 70. 

Day 3 (DDRD 2,088) July 20, 2023

 

Read to page 120.

At the end of Chapter IX, Dickens seems to be on the threshold of discovering the concept of The Multiverse:

"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."

Day 4 (DDRD 2,089) July 21, 2023

 

Read to page 150. Wanted to read more, but decided I'd better practice for my Delta 9 party. It's been a looooooong day.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,090) July 22, 2023

 

Read to page 180. Interesting: immediately after he comes into his fortune (and before he actually has much money in his hand), Pip becomes arrogant and supercilious...just as William Dorrit did in Little Dorrit. Add to that the references to rich men, camels, and needles hete, and you have to wonder about Dickens' own relationship with wealth.

Day 6 (DDRD 2,091) July 23, 2023

 

Read to page 217.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,092) July 24, 2023

 

Read to page 250.

I think this is the first overt reference to Macbeth in 33 1/2 Volumes of Dickens:

"...I had been to see Macbeth at the theatre, a night or two before, and that her face looked to me as if it were all disturbed by fiery air, like the faces I had seen rise out of the Witches’ caldron."

Day 8 (DDRD 2,093) July 25, 2023

 

Read to page 280. Hmm, only 3 more pages until the halfway point. Guess ill be coming back for that later if I can. 

Meanwhile...

"...throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise." (253)

Day 9 (DDRD 2,094) July 26, 2023

 

Read to page 310. (Did read three "extra" pages last night to get to the halfway point, by the way.)

I thought it was interesting that Dickens spelled "Shakespeare" without one of its es:

Probably doesn't mean anything, but still...interesting.

I also found myself thinking about the prison ships...the hulks...which are described throughout the book. Found this (public domain) picture--

                            --and also this bit of "introspection":

Looks like a place even more miserable than regular prison.

Day 10 (DDRD 2,095) July 27, 2023

 

Read to page 350. It's one of those "long wait" days, though, so more than likely I'll add a few more later on.

Meanwhile...

John Wemmick is one of my favorite ever Dickens characters. His stones faced demeanor in the office contrasted with his warmth at home, the home it self-defense out like a small castle with moat, drawbridge, and cannon regularly fired, and, most of all, the relationship he has with his father, The Aged P...

Public Domain

It's just a thing of beauty.

Pip turned 21, which made me think of my 21st birthday. I was in the army, and a warrant officer whose name I no longer remember (but he was a very kind and gentle fellow) came up to me and said that he and some of the other senior fellows in our platoon wanted to take me to a strip club in Nashville for my birthday and buy me a prostitute. At first I was delighted, then the more I thought about it the less I wanted to do it. At the time I'd had only two partners in my life, and it had been a couple of years since my last sexual experience. But the more I thought about it the less I wanted to do it, and I ended up telling the warrant officer that I'd like to go to the club, but that I didn't want the prostitute part of the deal. So we went --with several of my friends in tow as well. At the club a very attractive young blonde came and danced in front of me (no doubt paid for by the WO) and gave me a very close up view of her ass and her naked breasts, and I remember thinking, "I wonder if I could change my mind about the whole prostitute thing?" But I didn't ask, and the evening ended relatively uneventfully. So that was MY 21st birthday. Kind of beats Pip's all to hell.

UPDATE: Read to page 377, which is (1) THE END IF THE SECIND STAGE OF PIP'S EXPECTATIONS (per The Text) & (2) a mere 189 pages from The End. 

Very exciting.

Day 11 (DDRD 2,096) July 28, 2023

 

Read to page 410.

Two things that amused me:

"As to forming any plan for the future, I could as soon have formed an elephant."

&

"The imaginary student pursued by the misshapen creature he had impiously made, was not more wretched than I, pursued by the creature who had made me, and recoiling from him with a stronger repulsion, the more he admired me and the fonder he was of me."

--the latter of which is an unmistakable allusion to Frankenstein. 

Day 12 (DDRD 2,097) July 29, 2023

 

Read to page 440. 

Pip's profession of love to Estella got to me a bit:

“You will get me out of your thoughts in a week.”

“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since,—on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil. But, in this separation, I associate you only with the good; and I will faithfully hold you to that always, for you must have done me far more good than harm, let me feel now what sharp distress I may. O God bless you, God forgive you!”

In what ecstasy of unhappiness I got these broken words out of myself, I don’t know. The rhapsody welled up within me, like blood from an inward wound, and gushed out.

I'm sorry to say it, but I couldn't help but think of my second marriage when I read this. Even though it's been years since I talked to her (December 4, 2016 at 5:06 pm was our last written exchange)...and even though I know that she despises me...the truth us that I think about her every day, wonder what she's doing, and wish that there was a way that we could be friends.

Sigh.

Thanks, Dickens. 

Day 13 (DDRD 2,098) July 30, 2023

 

Read to page 470. Well, lookee there (lookee there, lookee there, lookee there). Less than 100 pages to go. 

Despite having read this book before, I managed to forget the whole bursting into flames incident. 

Day 14 (DDRD 2,099) July 31, 2023

 

Read to page 513. Yep, it was a lots-of-waiting kind of day. But some exciting stuff in the pages, too.

Day 15 (DDRD 2,100) August 1, 2023

 

Read to page 545.

Day 16 (DDRD 2,101) August 2, 2023

 

Read to page 566 = The End. A good read, for sure. Not quite as compelling as A Tale of Two Cities, but not far from it... and superior to it in terms of characters / character development. 

And since I only read 21 pages today...on to Our Mutual Friend right now!

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

(44) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(45) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(46) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(47) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(48) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(49) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages