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David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

Start date: October 1, 2019

Finish date: December 31, 2019

Why we're reading this: 4th Quarter 2019, Long Read

Previous Group Reads:
Revisit the Shelf Group Read, February 2014
Old School Cl…more
[close] 4th Quarter 2019, Long Read

Previous Group Reads:
Revisit the Shelf Group Read, February 2014
Old School Classic, June 2013

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Jul 29, 2017 Suvi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: _great-britain, _favorites, novels, 1800s, cities_london

For ten years I have had this lurking in my bookshelf, looking sad and lonely somewhere behind my nail polishes, waiting patiently and stoically to be picked up. To me, although Dickens is one of my favorite authors, David Copperfield with its less than interesting premise was always the least alluring of his novels. I was starting to lose hope that I would ever get the chance to just get on with it. Copperfield's story has similarities with Dickens's own life story and apparently it was his fav For ten years I have had this lurking in my bookshelf, looking sad and lonely somewhere behind my nail polishes, waiting patiently and stoically to be picked up. To me, although Dickens is one of my favorite authors, David Copperfield with its less than interesting premise was always the least alluring of his novels. I was starting to lose hope that I would ever get the chance to just get on with it. Copperfield's story has similarities with Dickens's own life story and apparently it was his favorite novel, but why should I care about this particular one?

The answer to that is this: it's Dickens. You begin by looking tiredly at the page count (in my Finnish copy it's 1036) and plough through the first few chapters thinking it's never going to work. Might as well give up and read a comic or something. Well, I did give up with the Richard Armitage audiobook, because despite his amazing performance, I couldn't get into the atmosphere as well as I did with my own paper copy.

Anyway, then something magical happens. You start getting into it. You almost start talking to the characters, warning them, congratulating them, weeping with them when they fail or lose someone. You get attached. Copperfield has a cavalcade of interesting characters, but that's not enough in itself. Like in so many other novels he wrote, Dickens is great at bringing his characters to life. I mean that in the most intense way possible.

David's quirky great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood, hates donkeys and has a bit of temperament, but when it's time to act decent, she delivers by speaking the truth in a strikingly frank manner and lashing out at the people responsible for so much hurt. An iron lady and trustworthy at heart, and she of all people deserves a place to look disapprovingly at the customers of Betsey Trotwood pub.

At the other end of the spectrum is Uriah Heep (possibly based on Thomas Powell, a writer and fraudster), a two-faced little weasel, a manipulating twit who has the nerve to act like he's just a poor and humble creature, all the while plotting against other people. His insincerity and empty flattery makes him one of the most memorable antagonists in the world of Dickens.

Then of course there's the obsessive letter writer and credit hoarder Wilkins Micawber (modelled after Dickens's father), Copperfield's harsh stepfather Edward Murdstone, the handsome and well-liked but ultimately deceitful and spineless James Steerforth, the hardworking and honourable Tommy Traddles, the beautiful and childish but surprisingly self-aware Dora Spenlow (believed to be Maria Beadnell, Dickens's sweetheart from his younger days) etc. All of them appear from Copperfield's memories, as parts of his life journey through misery and through success, through good and bad, but the more you spend time with them, the more strongly they turn into flesh from that hazy and unclear fog of past we all have.

Even the most minor characters who stay more in the shadows are portrayed with utmost precision. Martha especially is a memorable one: she has fallen because of her scandalous past, but it's never said clearly what she did. Many of her kind populated Victorian London, but whether she had succumbed to prostitution or not, she turns out to have more kindness than many other characters.

What's notable is that all the characters (with the exception of maybe Heep) are true to life in that they all have their faults just as they have their good moments. Even Copperfield himself, whose experiences and career progression in part mirror those of Dickens himself, is not painted in some cold heroic light, but is shown as someone who is aware of his shortcomings and is regretful about some of the (possibly even hurtful) decisions he has made in his life. Hindsight is a bitch, and Copperfield realizes that more than once.

When you're invested in the characters, it's inevitable you don't want to let them go. When I turned the last page and read the last words, I felt kind of empty (okay, I also cried like a fucking waterfall). What now? A long novel like this and with this many characters has the potential to be not worth the time and effort, but when it's done well, it stays with you forever. The way Dickens writes is captivating, and in none other scene is it more evident than in the tempest scene. Of course, there are some pitfalls in the narrative, but those are inevitable in any novel. Like its protagonist, David Copperfield isn't perfect, but it's engrossing, rewarding, beautiful, and the best company in the world.

David felt like a friend, and I miss everything about this already. As with everything, the end is inescapable, but unlike with your own life, you can live David's all over again whenever you want. ...more

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