** spoiler alert ** 
 Although the story was somewhat predictable, few authors handle poverty as well as Dickens and understand the mindset of people who are poor. He can put a reader into someone's house - with the clutter and stuff of life - and into a character's mind. And he allows for differences in characterization, e.g., not all poor characters (or all rich characters for that matter) are described a certain stereotypical way - most are a complex mix of good and bad, lucky and unlucky, endearing and frustrating. And the cast of characters provides a range of personalities. 
 Some characters were too good to be true (Agnes and Mr. Peggotty, for example), but I think the villains were well done. The Murdstones and Heep were sort of vampires sucking people dry. Many of the characters and the overall story struck me as modern in some ways. The non-traditional conceptualizations of "family" living under the same roof were interesting. I was so happy to see people succeed in ways that were important to them. I gave the book 4/5 stars because, although it was an enjoyable and engaging story, it was a little too predictable and didn't really push me in any way. This is the kind of book I'd like to revisit when I need to restore my faith in human nature.