[Max Cairnduff]

A marvellous review Titania7, very good indeed, and lots that I recognise but hadn't myself picked up from the book.

I have to admit, I loved the sections dealing with Pip's childhood, his adulthood less so, but Dickens has always been for me a curate's egg of a writer with parts I adore and parts I (I am so tempted to write deplore here, just for the rhyme) enjoy less.

Hard Times similarly, I adore the sections on education, Gradgrind and the rest, and some of the social politics is very affecting, but at other times it lapses into sentiment and loses me when it does.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this review and it caused me to reassess the work, which is no bad thing at all.