A few good quotes, I think

I recently read Great Expectations for the first time for my British Literature class. Dickens has a way of writing with a touch of humor that saves a dark subject matter from being overwhelmingly depressing. Here are some excerpts that amused me.

I pointed to where our village lay . . . a mile or more from the church. The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside-down. . . When the church came to itself - for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet - when the church came to itself, I saw, I was seated on a high tombstone.

My sister, Mrs. Joe, . . . concluded by throwing me - I often served her as a connubial missile - at Joe.

All of in a moment some confounding remembrance of the Havisham days would fall upon me, like a destructive missile, and scatter my wits again. Scattered wits take a long time picking up; and often, before I had got them well together, they would be dispersed in all directions by one stray thought.

He had glittering eyes - small, keen, and black - and thin wide mottled lips. He had had them, to the best of my belief, from forty to fifty years.

Let me introduce the topic, Handel, by mentioning that in London it is not the custom to put the knife in the mouth - for fear of accidents - and that while the fork is reserved for that use, it is not put further in than is necessary. It is scarcely worth mentioning, only it's as well to do as other people do.

Unless I deceive myself on a point where my interests or prepossessions are certainly not concerned, I saw that Mr. and Mrs. Pocket's children were not growing up or being brought up, but were tumbling up.

I also loved the parts that talked about Mr. Wemmick's father, referred to as the Aged Parent, or simply the Aged. It made me think affectionately of my own "APs".