CHARLES DICKENS, FIFTY SHADES, FAVORITE SCENES

MY FAVORITE passage from literature is from Great Expectations, and it is one beautiful moment towards the end of the novel! It's where the protagonist, Pip, explains to us how he came to realize his mistakes, especially that he had done his friend Herbert a great injustice by always supposing him to be inept, "until", Pip says, "I was one day enlightened by the reflection, that perhaps the inaptitude had never been in him at all, but had been in me".

In Great Expectations, Pip loses his character when he gains a fortune; he gains back his character when, poor and hunted, he chooses [SPOILER] to risk everything to help Magwitch, who had been his benefactor. Great Expectations is a story of a great redemption, and one of the masterpieces of world literature.

For me, the novel also shows, perhaps more than any other novel, Dickens's mastery of the language. You need to read the whole paragraph I am quoting above, but the passage is one where the rhythm of the words precisely mirrors the feelings and voice of the protagonist. It is a perfect blend of form and content, the "what" and the "how". As the language slows and calms down, so we feel Pip calm down: he has reached the end of his journey towards character and integrity.

Dickens's is the master's touch! You feel that the artist is, at that point in his fiction, in complete control of his medium; that he is with words like Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael were with oil paint.

What is my second favorite scene from literature? I think it is the interview between Christian and Anastasia in Fifty Shades of Grey, or maybe their meeting at Clayton's!

See you all tomorrow evening for The Lipstick Papers Book Review xxx