Dickens’s Great Expectations: Christian Guides to the Classics by Leland Ryken (review)

Renaissance theater. Her work provides insight for scholars and students of history, theology, sociology, and economics of the time of the Reformation. Her work is accessible, for her argument is clearly defined and reiterated throughout the book, but even the best of the Renaissance scholars will experience her work as a challenge to re-read the plays they have read so many times before, now looking—as the characters in these plays—for satis. Kala Holt Baylor University Leland Ryken. Dickens’s Great Expectations: Christian Guides to the Classics. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014; 119 pp.: ISBN: 978-1-4335-3459-1, $5.99 (pbk). The sixth installment of Leland Ryken’s Christian Guides to the Classics series, Dickens’s Great Expectations, provides a solid supplemental reading for students and teachers of high school or freshmen college literary courses, particularly suited to meeting the needs of Christian homeschooling students who are following the classical model of education. What sets Ryken’s book apart from earlier studies of Dickens is its attention to the author’s Christian worldview and clear elucidation of the convoluted plot structure. Unlike CliffsNotes on Great Expectations or Great Expectations SparkNotes Literary Guide, Ryken’s reference work should find itself welcomed into the classroom as a supplement to the novel, with its inclusion of questions for debate and reflection at the end of every chapter. As this Guide’s predecessors do, the book begins with one-page essays on ‘‘The Nature and Function of Literature,’’ ‘‘Why the Classics Matter,’’ and ‘‘How to Read a Story,’’ followed by short pieces on ‘‘The Book at a Glance,’’ ‘‘The Author and His Faith,’’ and ‘‘Storytelling Technique in Dickens.’’ ‘‘Great Expectations: The Book at a Glance’’ appears particularly helpful in its concise explication of the storyline and cultural context on mid-Victorian England. Ryken sums up Pip’s unhappy childhood, off-set by the kindness of the blacksmith who is his guardian, and by a mysterious benefactor who intends him to become a gentleman, but adds that two additional subplots are ‘‘more profound’’: ‘‘Pip’s quest to become ‘respectable’ defined according to the success ethic’’ and the hero’s pursuit of ‘‘the coquette (flirt) Estella’’ (12). Ryken succinctly links the concerns of Romanticism (the feelings of the individual are all-important, the city and encroaching industrialism are to be feared) and Victorianism (middle-class morality and hard work / success are added to the mix) in a way intelligible for students new to the Victorian novel (13). The bulk of the Guide concerns a comprehensive chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the novel, with Plot Summary coming first, followed by Commentary, and then finally a For Reflection or Discussion section. Ryken gives each chapter a title of his own devising, enabling readers new to Great Expectations to quickly grasp the 360 Christianity & Literature 64(3) content of each chapter in the novel. In addition, Ryken uses the margins of his Guide for applicable side-notes on Great Expectations, including explanations of literary terms or conventions (first-person point of view, foil, juxtaposition, burlesque ), allusions to older works like Oedipus Rex or Paradise Lost, references to critical sources, or additional discussion of plot elements which may be confusing to readers. For example, Ryken elaborates upon Dickens’s decision to include an ‘‘exaggerated picture of a local school that doesn’t quite make the grade’’ as the mark of a master satirist, while at the same time explaining how it fits in with the overall plan for the work (31). Two short essays follow the Guide’s chapter-by-chapter discussion. One concerns ‘‘The Moral Vision of Great Expectations’’ and the other deals with its ‘‘Religious Vision.’’ Ryken provides this useful distinction between the two: ‘‘Morality concerns people’s relations to other people. Religion touches upon people ’s relation to God and the spiritual realm’’ (115). The Guide concludes with a list of ‘‘Further Resources,’’ many of which Ryken has cited in his text (particularly Angus Calder’s Introduction to the 1965–1976 Penguin edition of Great Expectations), and finally a two-page ‘‘Glossary of Literary Terms Used in This Book,’’ including definitions of melodrama, realism, and the well-made...