The 7-year-old pip, whose parents died when he was young, was often beaten and scolded by his grumpy sister, living in the mud of loneliness and fear.
One day, Pip encounters a vicious and hungry fugitive in the cemetery, helping him steal food and a file from his home... Since then, Pip's life has changed dramatically...
This is the plot of the famous book "Great Prospects". Through Pip's coming-of-age story, it tells us how you spend your life alone.
After the publication of "Great Prospects", it has been popular for 160 years, and has been adapted into movies and TV series many times, selected as a reading list for American high school students, and has also been rated as one of the top 100 popular books by the British BBC.
The author Dickens is a British writer who was forced to drop out of school as a child in a child shoe factory, a law firm clerk, and a newspaper reporter.
He was intelligent and studious, and before the age of 10 he had finished reading novels hidden in his father's attic, and wrote in his spare time. He has written 14 novels and hundreds of short stories and essays. Representative works include "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Orphans of Fog" and so on.
The Russian literary hero Tolstoy once said: "Reading Dickens will make you feel better and reconciled with the world." Maugham also praised: "Dickens's talent for writing is really something that most novelists do not have." ”
Next, let's walk into Pip's life!
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As Pip wept and wandered around the cemetery, a man jumped out and shouted: You little devil, don't make a sound, or I will break your neck!
His face was covered in mud, he was wrapped in rags, his feet were shackled, and he was limping—it turned out to be a prisoner who had escaped from a nearby water prison.
7-year-old Pip shouted "Uncle" in fright and kept begging for forgiveness. The fugitive demanded that he bring him something to eat and a file, or else he would have to dig out his heart and liver.
A shivering Pip returns home (the blacksmith shop) and is scolded by his sister for his late return. If it were not for the desperate protection of his brother-in-law Joe, it is estimated that the skin would be open.
At dinner, Pip was so hungry that he pressed his chest to his back, but he hid the bread in the tube of his trousers—because he remembered not only the terrible threat of the fugitive, but also some sympathy for the hungry and depressed man.
The next day, just after dawn, Pip stole some bread, wine, and meat pies from the dining room, went to the place where he had made an appointment with the fugitive, handed it to him, and returned home nervously.
After the fugitive had eaten and drunk enough, in the process of fleeing for his life, he fought with another fugitive, and both of them were captured and returned to the water prison.
Before being taken back to the water prison, the fugitive solemnly told the crowd that in the process of escaping, he had infiltrated a blacksmith shop and stolen some food and a file.
Pip's conscience has been tormented by theft. Now, he relaxed his mind a little, and he no longer had to worry about being beaten by his sister and reprimanded by his "relatives and friends" when the matter was revealed.
In "Relatives and Friends", Pip Z hates his uncle Pompo fun. He was full of benevolence and morality, and often publicly accused Pip of being unworthy, ungrateful, and stabbed Pip with universal scalings.
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After a few years, Pompo said that Hao Weixiang, a rich lady in the town, wanted to find someone to relieve her boredom, and he recommended Pip. The sister wanted to get a little benefit from Hao Weixiang, so she excitedly arranged for Pip to go.
Hao Weixiang was the only daughter of a beer merchant who was favored by her father because of her mother's early death. After the death of the brewer, his illegitimate son, Hao Weixiang's younger brother, who held a grudge because he did not share much of the inheritance, quietly found a handsome scoundrel and conspired to defraud Hao Weixiang of most of his property and feelings.
On the wedding day, the groom just couldn't wait, and Hao Weixiang knew that he had been deceived. As she was struck by lightning, she "sealed" herself with time - wearing the wedding dress of the wedding day all day, hiding in the room without sunlight; the wedding cake allowing it to rot on the long table; the clock stopped permanently at 8:40 at that time...
Hao Weixiang has an adopted daughter named Estella, noble and cold. The young Pip fell in love with her at first sight, but because of his lowly status, he was ashamed of himself, and could only bury this love deep in his heart.
Pip waited for Miss Hao Weixiang in the courtyard of the deep house, and gradually looked down on his family and friends. Miss Hao Weixiang was very kind to him, rewarded him with a lot of money, and called Joe to himself and asked him to take Pip as an apprentice.
Pip followed Joe to begin his days as a blacksmith apprentice, but he could not let go of Estella. Although he knew that Estella, under the tutelage of Hao Weixiang, hated men, had no love at all, and had no heart.
At this time, Pip's family already has another gentle and kind girl, Beatty.
It turned out that Pip's sister was attacked in the head from behind, and her intelligence was impaired, and she could not take care of herself. All thanks to Beatty's careful care.
Beatty likes Pip, but unfortunately "the flowers fall intentionally, the water is merciless", and Pip's heart has long been stolen by Estella.
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A few years later, a well-known lawyer came and said that he had been entrusted to study in London, and that he would have an inheritance in the future—but on the condition that he could not inquire about the name of his benefactor.
Pip was ecstatic, he knew it must be Miss Hao Weixiang. And if she was chosen by Hao Weixiang, she must also be interested in matching Estella to herself. It was a pie in the sky, and he seemed to see his great future.
The townspeople heard this and looked at Pip in an instant. In particular, Pompo fun, who used to be dismissive of him, is now extremely respectful to him, always asking him "can I be" and then coming to shake his hand.
Before leaving, Pip told Beatty to teach Joe literacy and rules. It turned out that in his heart, although Joe was kind and generous, he was not worthy of his status as a superior person because of his shallow behavior.
He forgot that there was no such thing as a free lunch, a delicious pie, or a horrible trap.
When he arrived in London, he was placed in a hotel, but his roommate was Hepard, who had had a friendly duel with him at Hao Weixiang's house. The two were like-minded and became good friends who talked about everything.
Pip studied with Hebert's father, Matthew. Matthew is an honest and talented teacher and Hao Weixiang's cousin. When Hao Weixiang was in love, he had advised her to take good care of her property, but he was suspected of having bad intentions, so angry that he almost broke off contact with Hao Weixiang.
Pip became a complete "superior" under Matthew's teaching, but he developed the habit of spending lavishly and often in debt.
He seemed to draw a line with his old relatives and friends, and only returned home for a funeral when his sister died of illness.
One stormy night, an uninvited guest came to Pip's rental house - the identity of the benefactor was revealed, and Pip's life fell into the abyss of disaster...
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When all the dust settled, Pip, exhausted, returned to his hometown. The people who knew he had planted a big heel also took a 180-degree turn in their attitude towards him: the innkeeper gave him a broken room in the corner, Pompoqui went around town saying that he was ungrateful, people pointed fingers at him...
The purpose of Pip's return is to save Beatty. After all this change, he realized that Beatty was the one who deserved her life together. However, when he arrived at the blacksmith's shop, he caught the big day of Beatty and Joe's wedding...
The kind and generous Joe has always adhered to the business of striking iron, and also guarded Beatty's spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Joe's father was an alcoholic and beat him when he got drunk, causing him to be unable to go to school. Later, in order to make a living, Joe learned the craft of a blacksmith, worked hard every day, and sent his father to his death.
Later, he married Pip's hot-tempered sister, and he was grateful and tolerant at every turn, and did not say a word to her out loud until his wife's death.
When Joe first saw Pip, he was very upset that he was so thin that he was not human-like. When he was about to enter the palace of marriage, he sincerely said to his fiancée:
"Bring that poor doll with you." May God bless this poor doll. There wasn't much of a blacksmith in the shop! ”
After that, Joe has always regarded Pip as his own, always helping others when he bullied Pip; when Pip developed, he alienated old friends, Joe chose not to bother; when Pip fell from the clouds and had a high fever and was unconscious, Joe rushed to take care of it without hesitation, and quietly left when he was cured...
With his heart of gold, Joe impressed Beatty and embraced her beautifully.
Pip sent his sincere wishes to the two old friends, said nothing, and prepared to go to Hepard abroad. Pip had been secretly supporting Hepard's cause before, and today he has a good place to go. He felt that this was the only right thing he had ever done in his life.
Eleven years later, Pip, still alone, returned home to visit his old friend. Joe and Beatty have given birth to a son and a daughter and named the boy Pip in honor of their old friend.
Pip arrives at Miss Hao Weixiang's former home, which has become a ruin.
After being betrayed by her lover, Miss Hao Weixiang has been living like a walking dead in the past, and has trained her adopted daughter Estella to be an emotionless tool that hates men.
However, those who are trapped in the past have no future and have lost the present. Who did Hao Weixiang's revenge plan destroy? She ruined Estella's happiness, Pip's love, and her own life... She wanted a shred of love from her adopted daughter, but Estella asked her:
"You haven't taught me anything, so how can I give it to you?"
When Hao Weixiang woke up, she desperately ignited herself by the fireplace, as if to let the fire swallow up the loneliness, regret, and sins of this life...
Estella disobeyed advice, married a scoundrel, was abused, and was relieved after her husband's unexpected death.
As Pip sighed on the ruins, he bumped into Estella, who had come to dispose of the land. The two talk about the past, but they can never go back to the past...
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Dickens's "Great Future" exposes social phenomena and complex human nature, such as: forgetting old friends when flying yellow, stepping high and low on heroes with "money", falling into the quagmire of the past and losing their hearts... To this day, it is not uncommon.
People like Joe and Beatty, whether friends are down-and-out or rich, are as genuine as ever are much rarer. Encountered, please cherish. Because sometimes missed, it is a lifetime.
When we are in the story of the protagonist's ups and downs, sometimes weep, sometimes we are relieved, we see our own lives from it, and if we have it, we will change it, and if we don't, we will encourage it - this is probably the meaning of reading a novel!