Finally finished 'Great Expectations' - plenty to enjoy and admire, almost too much in fact. Perhaps why it became a slog for me ultimately. Dickens is a fascinating author - so good at subtle, observational descriptions, capable of fine irony, but also brilliant at grotesques, and over-the-top physical comedy, and on-the-big-pointy-nose satire. Of course the plot is completely unbelievable, full of ludicrous coincidences and so on - but then, so much of it seems fairy-tale-like in any case, that these coincidences don't seem to matter all that much. The big flaw with the book as far as I'm concerned is that the love story between Pip and Estella is essentially uninteresting - because Estella is uninteresting, and you can't really tell why Pip should be so obsessed with her, aside from her being beautiful. Which can be enough, I suppose. The plot, in fact, doesn't really hang together, save for those consequential bonds, and so its really the sheer comic vitality of the characters and setting that make it work - Pumblechook, Wemmick, Jaggers, are all hugely enjoyable and memorable characters.
I'm now reading this
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/26/what-it-means-human-review which seems quite academic in style, and deconstructionist to boot, but also potentially very interesting.