David Copperfield in Topeka & Shawnee Co. Public Library

Dec 26, 2012 Chris Blocker rated it liked it · review of another edition

So I finish one of the more tedious reads of my life so far.

Dickens came highly recommended. For years many have told me I'd love Dickens. “Dickens is just your type of author,” the masses (or a few) have said. No, he's really not.

If Dickens excels at one thing, I'd say that thing is his characters. They can be entertaining, funny, and memorable. Each is unique. Each has his or her own voice. There is such a large cast of characters here and Dickens is not only able to give them each their own i So I finish one of the more tedious reads of my life so far.

Dickens came highly recommended. For years many have told me I'd love Dickens. “Dickens is just your type of author,” the masses (or a few) have said. No, he's really not.

If Dickens excels at one thing, I'd say that thing is his characters. They can be entertaining, funny, and memorable. Each is unique. Each has his or her own voice. There is such a large cast of characters here and Dickens is not only able to give them each their own identity, even those who have only a couple lines, but also to keep them straight. It's a feat I've never seen accomplished elsewhere.

And what makes reading Dickens so painful? His characters. Yes, those wonderful, colorful characters gnaw at my increasingly fragile patience. They are gross caricatures of caricatures. Perhaps Dickens invented the caricatures; perhaps every exaggerated human personality was original before Dickens came on the scene. Even if that were the case, which I honestly doubt it was, they are so ludicrous they annoy tolerable little me.

It certainly doesn't help that while Dickens utilizes many voices, he employs only two basic personality types for his female characters: the shrewd, severe woman, and the helpless damsel. Though each woman Dickens creates is unique in many ways, she is essentially a variation of one of these two.

And Copperfield himself? Well, he's probably a little bit of the helpless damsel himself. He's so passive in every decision he faces it's a wonder the plot progressed. But, you see, if Copperfield acted on his impulses (like when he feels he should defend the poor girl who is being beaten page after excruciating page) then the reader wouldn't get all secret actions and dialogue Copperfield (as the narrator) wouldn't be privy to. Thank God that Copperfield stood behind that door out of propriety, letting her father handle the situation himself (in fact he was either too scared, or too concerned with his own career as an author to worry whether the girl lived or died). And that would all be fine if David Copperfield were written in a way that the reader was supposed to feel pity for Copperfield, antipathy or wonder. No, Copperfield is a delightful lad who is a hero to all. Blah.

If you ask me, David Copperfield is too sentimental, too exaggerated, too melodramatic. Perhaps others thought I'd like Dickens because I am a little bit of all these things. There's nothing wrong with these qualities, and if people like to read that sort of thing, I think they should. But me? It was too over the top. Throw in all the conveniences (Ahhh, here comes that character from chapter 4, randomly knocking on a door a hundred miles away) and the pat ending, and it's cloying. Cloying and boring in one (sort of like a Hershey's).

Dickens was good at what he did, and it's hard to judge his work negatively because of this, but I really had focus to stay with it. I wasn't interested in the story or any of the characters because I couldn't believe in any of them. It was a sort of fairytale coming from the mouth of one with a monotonous voice. It was the sort of story I'll return to in later years when I'm struggling greatly with insomnia. Sorry, Chuck, but your Hershey-flavored story wasn't for me. I'm more of a Ritter Sport or Toblerone kind of man. ...more

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Dec 13, 2023 Angie rated it it was amazing

While I liked the story and writing, this one earns five stars for the characters alone, who are all so vividly and memorably (and often, amusingly) described. It was interesting to read this after having read Demon Copperhead. In Demon, it was all about Demon and the voice Kingsolver wrote for that character for me. I've said before, I'm not sure I've ever rooted so hard for a fictional character to succeed.

In David Copperfield, however, the real draw for me were the secondary characters, wheth ...more

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Mar 12, 2016 Elise Barker rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

I read David Copperfield the first time in high school, which was 20 years ago now. This time through I would remember things as they happened but never knew exactly what was coming next.

This time I was quite aware that David was crafting his life story as a novelist might. He is an author and the book is vaguely autobiographical (about Dickens), so it is understandable that there is a quality that is both fact and fiction. David is clearly an unreliable narrator. It is interesting to wonder wh I read David Copperfield the first time in high school, which was 20 years ago now. This time through I would remember things as they happened but never knew exactly what was coming next.

This time I was quite aware that David was crafting his life story as a novelist might. He is an author and the book is vaguely autobiographical (about Dickens), so it is understandable that there is a quality that is both fact and fiction. David is clearly an unreliable narrator. It is interesting to wonder what he gets right, what he embellishes, what he omits. He is an artist at work, and you can see the mechanisms of that work sometimes.

I think a book called Umble told from Uriah Heep's point of view, explaining his unsatisfactory education and unfair treatment by his betters would be fun. I would love to see a humanized portrait of a man so driven by resentment and vindictiveness.

I wrote a comment about how reading this a second time 20 years later was like time traveling and experiencing my ignorance from an outsider's perspective. Here are a few things that made me feel dumb: It never occurred to me to not always trust David when I read it before. I loved the Peggoty family, but I felt it so much deeper this time. I didn't understand enough about the culture to really know what was going on with Emily. I didn't understand David's occasional satirical melodrama. I didn't see how abusively David was treated by a number of hands as a child (being a mom now might be why I found that stuff much harder to read). The list could go on and on.

I loved Dora for the same reasons that everybody in the book does, but I feel like David - and all the rest of the characters, including Dora - underestimate her and deny her subjectivity that MUST have been there. I might look into the scholarship on this question out of curiosity.

David himself is wonderful. Warm, cheerful, smart but not too smart, a little cheeky sometimes, good but not too good, and full of feeling, which is ultimately what makes him unreliable.

I listened to the librivox recording by Tadgh Hynes, who is my favorite reader ever. He brought these characters wonderfully to life. I wish I could shake that man's hand! ...more

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Sep 17, 2013 Lissa rated it really liked it

Dickens is just so WOW and still relevant, especially in the context of classics or writing fiction. I'd like to reread this again in a few years. ...more

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