English is my first foreign language, I learned it way back in elementary school, have been using it at work and in my private life since forever, and I've read enough books in English to consider myself proficient.
I picked up "Great Expectations" and am currently in the middle of the book and enjoying it a lot for how it details the everyday lives and attitudes of people from all classes and walks of life - at times the book feels like a sociological study framed as a novel. The overall plot I'm already more or less familiar with by way of popular culture, it's the minutiae and characterizations that interest me.
That said, I often feel lost in conversation. The rhythm of the sentences feels confusing at times and I struggle to understand the subtext of the scene. This is the example that provoked me to write this post, at the end of chapter 32:
"Mind you, Mr. Pip," said Wemmick, gravely in my ear, as he took my arm to be more confidential; "I don't know that Mr. Jaggers does a better thing than the way in which he keeps himself so high. He's always so high. His constant height is of a piece with his immense abilities. That Colonel durst no more take leave of him, than that turnkey durst ask him his intentions respecting a case. Then, between his height and them, he slips in his subordinate - don't you see? - and so he has 'em, soul and body."
Now, I understand the words and can parse the sentences just fine but I still have no clue what he's trying to say here. The book is full of little quips and comments like that and it annoys me to no end that I don't get it all. Sometimes the descriptions of scenes and what the characters are doing are a bit difficult for me to picture in my head too.
Of course, this is a book from ~160 years ago and so it's normal to be missing a lot of context, but I don't get at all confused like that when I'm reading Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë.
Is Dickens supposed to be a difficult author? I've read some modernist and postmodernist literature too and I was expecting something much easier. Was expecting to eat up the book in a few days, but my brain feels so tired trying to work it out that I can't go through more than a chapter or two in a day.
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