- Wow, this is a grim first paragraph: a meditation on death and the essential unknowability of other people. I know I just said Jerry was a mystery, but I wasn't thinking about him like this.
- And then we get this charmingly whimsical description of Jerry's hair: "It was so like smith's work [meaning iron], so much more like the top of a strongly spiked wall than a head of hair, that the best of players at leap-frog might have declined him, as the most dangerous man in the world to go over." (p. 17)
- This chapter is full of what appear to be visions or dreams--Jerry sees "shapes...such as arose out of the message" (17) (zombies? ghosts? whatever it was that he alluded to earlier?) and then the passengers in the mail coach are all seeing whatever fills their heads--in the case of Mr. Lorry, this is a white-haired middle-aged guy who has been "buried alive for eighteen years!" (20) Which, obviously, can't be literally true, so we read on to see what the heck he means.
Takeaways
It seems clear from the outset that, while you can still see glimmers of Dickensian humor, this is a lot darker than Great Expectations. Still, I have to say: good job making me so curious about what anyone is talking about, ever. I do want to read on.
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