Goodreads | David Copperfield (World's Classics)

topics	replies	views	last activity
tbr-reading-chall...: Suvi - 07 - 08	21	27	08/22/2008 02:49AM

Henry rated it:

(review of isbn 0140430083)

08/14/08

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

What can I say about David Copperfield that hasn't already been said? It's a long story but I found it really enjoyable. One thing I found was that it wasn't what I was expecting. I didn't know much about the story and when I mentioned I was reading it, a few people commented that it was sad and that David was a "poor boy." There were certainly some sad parts of the story and some phases of his life were more than just a little difficult. On the whole, however, his life was qu...more What can I say about David Copperfield that hasn't already been said? It's a long story but I found it really enjoyable. One thing I found was that it wasn't what I was expecting. I didn't know much about the story and when I mentioned I was reading it, a few people commented that it was sad and that David was a "poor boy." There were certainly some sad parts of the story and some phases of his life were more than just a little difficult. On the whole, however, his life was quite happy and he was pretty prosperous. Like any true life story, there is sadness and joy, love and anger, disappointment and gladness, prosperity and want. That's what makes this story believable.

One thing I really liked was the many different characters. That is to say, I thought they were wonderfully fleshed out and very real. Some of the were not at all likeable. Others were wonderful. I couldn't help but like Peggotty and Mr. Omer, his daughter Minnie, and her husband, Joram. They were just plain people, but real. They didn't have a lot but they loved life and they lived it as they could.

In spite of David being the main character, it's rally the girls in the story are, I think the best. How could David do anything bu love his Child-Bride, Dora.

If I may so express it, I was steeped in Dora. I was not merely over head and ears in love with her, but I was saturated through and through. Enough love might have been wrung out of me, metaphorically speaking, to drown anybody in; and yet there would have remained enough within me, and all over me, to pervade my entire existence. [pages 534-5:]

It is Agnes, however, that I really love. Who could not love Agnes. She's marvelous. I'm happy to say that I know David loved her long before he did. Even before he married Dora, I knew who loved him best and who he loved more than the world.

I feel as if it were not for me to record, even though this manuscript is intended for no eyes but mine, how hard I worked at that tremendous short-hand, and all improvement appertaining to it, in my sense of responsibility to Dora and her aunts. I will only add, to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if it have any strength at all, that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success. I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. Heaven knows I write this, in no spirit of self-laudation. The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here, from page to page, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold one natural gift, I dare say, that I have not abused. My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-working qualities, and hope to gain its end. There is no such thing as such fulfilment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything, on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work, whatever it
was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules.

How much of the practice I have just reduced to precept, I owe to Agnes, I will not repeat here. My narrative proceeds to Agnes, with a thankful love. [pages 671-672:]

And yet he loved Dora and he loved her truly. This, of course, is the real story. Beyond the characterizations, which are marvelous, and the various relationships, it is the story that I found most wonderful. While on the surface this is simply the story of a life, it is much deeper than that. The deepest parts revolve around the conflict that David feels. His marriage is wonderfully happy and he loves his wife dearly. And yet, it isn't what he expected. It feels wrong to be dissatisfied but still in some ways he is. Communicating that is difficult, not least because it could easily be misunderstood that he didn't really love Dora. But he did. Dickens does, I think, an excellent job of illustrating the issue. Who of us has not been disappointed in some aspect of life? Things often don't turn out as we would have liked. But that doesn't mean we have to be unhappy in them.

The single phrase that sums up the conflict is spoken by Mrs. Annie Strong during the confrontation (or the reconciliation) between her and her husband, Doctor Strong.

'It was at that time that mama was most solicitous about my Cousin Maldon. I had liked him': she spoke softly, but without any hesitation: 'very much. We had been little lovers once. If circumstances had not happened otherwise, I might have come to persuade myself that I really loved him, and might have married him, and been most wretched. There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.'

I pondered on those words, even while I was studiously attending to what followed, as if they had some particular interest, or some strange application that I could not divine. 'There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose' -'no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.' [page 729:]

I really don't have a lot to say about this beyond the fact that it was expressed so well that I felt it and believed it. The characters were real, the conflicts and trials they suffered were real and so were the joy and the love they enjoyed. Peggotty, David's nurse, the dreadful Murdstones, the Micawbers, Aunt Betsey, David's good friend Traddles (who married, as we all acknowledge, the dearest girl in the world), Uriah Heep who was so easy to hate, Mr. Peggotty, little Em'ly for whom my heart broke, David himself and finally Agnes, the true heroine of the story whom I loved. But better still was the story. I have to say, this takes its place as one of my all time favorite novels. I'm not sure I want to call it my very favorite but it's certainly in the top five or ten. Everyone should read this book.

The only real problem I had with the book, actually, was the fact that the copy I had (from 1966) was falling apart. It seemed sound enough when I bought it but the spine was brittle and it broke a couple places and came apart. I'll probably buy another copy since I'd really like to have it in my library.
...less

Like this review? yes

1 comments

Becky rated it:

(review of isbn 0140439447)

09/13/08

Read in September, 2008

I should probably write down all the things I've wanted to say about this book before I forget them.

First off, I totally adored the first three hundred pages or so of this book. It's sad and funny and Dickens is a fantastic writer. I did enjoy the rest of the novel, but I didn't fly through it as I did through David's childhood years.

This is mostly, I think, the unfortunate side-effect of Dickens being clever. First sentences of novels are always important, and the first line of David Co...more I should probably write down all the things I've wanted to say about this book before I forget them.

First off, I totally adored the first three hundred pages or so of this book. It's sad and funny and Dickens is a fantastic writer. I did enjoy the rest of the novel, but I didn't fly through it as I did through David's childhood years.

This is mostly, I think, the unfortunate side-effect of Dickens being clever. First sentences of novels are always important, and the first line of David Copperfield is pretty crucial: "Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

Is David the hero of his own life? As a child, he is, and that's what makes the story so engaging. Beset by difficulties, we watch him persevere defiantly, despite his innocence and helplessness. It's a powerful, simple narrative for the rest of the story elements to group around.

As he grows older, however, David rather strikingly loses his agency. For one thing, he explicitly goes from making use of his own moral resources to choosing between the examples of Steerforth and Agnes. By the last paragraph of the novel, it is clear that Agnes is in many ways the hero of David's life. I suspect that Dickens is implicitly questioning whether it's even a good idea to be the hero of one's own life. This is a pretty cool statement about selflessness and humility, so Dickens's choice seems to have some merit.

However, there are some negative results of de-heroizing David. David's loss of agency (dear God this is beginning to sound like a paper) is especially evident near the end of the novel, when all the major subplots of the novel - Little Em'ly, the Micawbers, even Uriah Heep - are pretty much resolved without David's help; he is merely a witness. Again, Dickens seems to have set up David to be a non-hero. But he's sort of shooting himself in the foot here in terms of narrative coherence. It's uncomfortable to read about someone who stops being the main character halfway through, which arguably is what happens to David Copperfield.

For me, the most engaging subplot during David's adult years was Dora's story. She's so likable yet so pathetically tragic, a wonderful critique of Victorian ideals of femininity. I love the moment when David, in the process of trying to form her character, realizes that "her character had already been formed." Their flawed love story is often quite powerful and unadorned, simply human in a way that David and Agnes's (don't worry, there will be a rant about Agnes later on) is not. Moreover, their marriage is the result of David's first important moral choice as a man. It was a bad choice, but seeing David deal with the consequences in a frankly heroic way is satisfying in a way that watching him watch Uriah Heep's defeat is not quite.

I am not sure whether Dickens wanted us to view David's loss of power as sinister in any way. Probably not very, considering the happy ending we get. Still, small details worry me - such as the way that Betsey Trotwood, a wonderful character in her own right, renames David, and he never corrects her or Agnes about what to call him. When a novel is called David Copperfield and the main character ends up being called by a different name, what are we supposed to think? I find it just a bit worrisome, personally.

Anyway, to the Agnes rant I promised. In my opinion, the most problematic element of David's anti-heroic status is poor Agnes. I thought she was simply a terrible character. Her list of qualities looks good at first glance - she's kind, practical, smart, compassionate, and not nearly as much as a pushover as I'd initially feared. However, the way Dickens writes her, she's only a laundry list of characteristics, and not a real person at all. She has no physical presence in the novel; whenever she's described, it's in terms of abstract adjectives - "practical" and "calm" are repeated more time than I can count. She's even described as having a spiritual aura that fills Canterbury with goodness and light. It's not merely that Agnes is every Victorian notion about women as spiritual examples and angels of the household wrapped into one quite improbable girl; if she felt real, I could forgive Dickens for, well, being a Victorian. It was really the manner in which she was presented that make her totally unlikable. Unlike Peggotty and Dora and Betsey Trotwood and even Mrs. Copperfield, who are all psychologically believable flesh-and-blood women, Agnes is a spiritual ideal masquerading as a person, and Dickens was proudly showing this off rather than giving her a human face.

The result of this choice is really rather odd. On one hand, Agnes's characterization means that David's moral agency merely consists of choosing Agnes as his moral guide. That's all very nice and selfless and Christian, although a bit frustrating for the reader, who probably wants David to make more complex choices. But at the same time, Agnes feels like this insubstantial idea who only exists to give David Copperfield moral bearings. Despite David's passivity, I started feeling as if everyone in the novel were just planets rotating around his immense gravitational field. Everything was about David Copperfield! Now, perhaps this is an unfair criticism for a book that is, after all, titled David Copperfield, but most of the characters maintain a solidity and self-possession that Agnes simply does not have. At her worst, she's a woman who really and truly exists for the sake of a man. While Dickens' failure is fascinating to analyze, I still have to regard it as a failure.

Needless to say, it's a very big novel and I would have to reread it again to even begin to organize the rest of my thoughts on it. Generally, I thought Dickens managed this bigness well, and it was a very good read full of very good characters, my criticisms notwithstanding. And in terms of the bildungsroman that is the first few hundred pages, I think it's probably one of the most important novels ever written in English, because I see its legacy very clearly in all sorts of coming-of-age novels written since....less

Like this review? yes

David Copperfield (World's Classics)

discuss this book

groups with this book

friend reviews (0)

lists with this book

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 7841)