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I have loved the book Great Expectations for as long as I can remember, not only because it was one of the first books I read unabridged at the age of eight or so, but because the images of the “meshes”, of Joe, of “bringing up by hand”, of Pumblechook, and his “May I”, of Miss Havisham and her house slowly falling apart, have been with me as I grew up.

Through it all, I have never really bothered much about the man who created it all, Charles Dickens, having always thought of him as a dull old fogey, whose childhood resembled that of Oliver Twist. But now I’ve picked up the book, Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, and am filled with a new desire to engage with Charles Dickens.

I have only reached a few pages into the book, and already the voice of Matilda, the child protagonist, has enchanted me. In the novel, set in an island in the middle of a war, the real teachers desert the school and go away to mainland. A recluse, Mr. Watts, takes up the challenge of trying to educate and engage the children in some way. He decides he will read the book Great Expectations to the children, and tells them they are to meet Mr. Dickens the next day. Not knowing that Mr. Dickens is the author of the book, the students imagine they would meet a real person, a “white” man like Mr. Watts:

I heard Mr. Watts speak…If he said we were to meet Mr. Dickens, then I felt sure we would….It never occurred to me to ask where this Mr. Dickens had been hiding himself…..next morning when I ran off to school, my mum called me back.

“This Mr. Dickens, Matilda–if you get the chance, why don’t you ask him to fix our generator.”

Every other kid turned up to school with similar instructions. They were to ask Mr. Dickens for anti-malaria tablets, aspirin, generator fuel, beer, kerosene, wax candles. we sat at our desks with our shopping lists and waited for Mr. Watts to introduce Mr. Dickens.

I smiled at the gentle humor of the situation, the simplicity of the island folk, and the poignancy of a long dead English author touching the lives of children across the barriers of time and space. I’m going to read the rest of the book to try and discover what magic the English classic can weave on children who know nothing of the world beyond their island…and how Llyod Jones carries this fragile yet precious story forward.

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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8 Comments

  • graciela says:

    I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

    Joannah

    http://windscreensite.com

  • Do I update all of my blogs regularly? No Damyanti, it’s really down to two a couple of times a week (more in a good week), and a third in bursts, in the following order:
    Fool’s Paradise… ‘IN OTHER NEWS…’; F’s P…PAYTON L. INKLETTER; and, F’s P… VISITORS’ BOOK.

    Now if I had a webmaster, it’d be several times a day!

    How do you pronounce ‘Damyanti‘? I would say, as a West Aussie English speaker, ‘dam-yan-tee‘.

  • Damyanti says:

    Thanks Payton, for your comments and your compliment.

    Do visit often.

    I went to your profile and saw a bunch of blogs. Do you update all of them regularly?

    I struggle with the three I have!

  • Damyanti, this book sounds wonderful, and Lloyd Jones obviously has done a credible job of tipping his hat to Charles Dickens‘ genius, and leveraged that 19th century talent and woven it into a new tapestry. Thank you for featuring it here.

    And let me compliment you on your fabulous header photo and the sentiments you’ve written across it; beautifully said and so true, your point: ‘my writing heals me‘. I have a similar experience, but a reflection of yours: my writing gives me life.

  • Anonymous says:

    Beautiful! Ok i will buy the book now :)!

    ~Mental Mist

  • Litgirl01 says:

    WOW!!! Impressive! I hope it does well. 🙂 I’m going to check it out. I love Great Expectations!

  • Damyanti says:

    Litgirl, I find that the book has won the Commonwealth writer’s prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker. I have high hopes.

  • Litgirl01 says:

    Ohhh!!! That sounds interesting! Thanks for sharing. 🙂