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David Copperfield - Group Read 1
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May - June 2020: David Copperfield: chapters 1-14
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"This may be premature. I have set it down too soon, perhaps. But let it stand."
Here is the quotation:
(view spoiler)
He doesn't spell it out with this quotation, but it's quite a dark prediction, and does intrigue us :) It makes me want to carry on reading, so I think it must have kept his original audience on tenterhooks for a month until the next episode!
I am loving all of the illustrations and comments. The passage where Davy is explaining to Little Em’ly how he and his mother live in “the happiest state imaginable” really tugged at my heart. I am very glad that Peggotty didn’t spoil Davy’s visit to Yarmouth by telling Davy about his “new pa”. For me, the fairy tale references highlight Davy’s innocence and vulnerability. He’s still so young and he seems to be an avid reader but he has not yet progressed to adult reading material. The world Davy lives in is still filled with the fantastic elements he reads about in that genre. Is it safe to say most people reading David Copperfield read or were told fairy tales as children? Dickens was brilliant to use what his readers hold close to their hearts. I still read fairy tales occasionally but never without triggering some nostalgic memories.
I almost forgot. Thank you, Jean, for the info on St. Paul’s dome. 🙂
Mod
People at the time will have been even more familiar with the old fairy stories. (I feel sad sometimes, when children know more about "celebrities" than the traditional fairy stories, but most parents do still tell them, I think.)
It's strange to think that many of Charles Dickens readers were not able to read for themselves! They would pay someone a penny or so, to have each installment read to them. So they had to commit quite a lot to memory, and were more used to listening to stories as a regular thing. Perhaps this is coming full circle though, with the popularity of audio books :)
This is also why we get some characters popping in now and again, so we don't forget them. And also probably the reason why Charles Dickens includes quite a lot of catch phrases, to help us remember the various characters. And we love them, as they become like little "in-jokes".
I'm still intrigued by the pink dome! Perhaps I should keep an eye out in junk shops, or on ebay, to see if they have any antique Victorian workboxes with an illustration featuring it ;)
The first three chapters were great and I can easily imagine getting hocked to the story when it was published every few weeks. Thanks Jean, for explaining the Sheffield joke. It's challenging to understand 'local' jokes.
David is a great character to follow around. I love his way of observing the things happening around him. I agree with many of you - he incorporates fairy tales in his tellings because those are the stories he is most familiar with. I remember making similar remarks when I was a child.
Chapter 3 was lovely. Seeing David have such a good time with Pegotty and her 'family' was great. I loved to read about his relationship with Em'ly although it's hard to forgive Dickens for his way of foreshadowing. Kind of casually throwing it out there but I guess it worked well on his readers.
Kathrin wrote: "The first three chapters were great and I can easily imagine getting hocked to the story when it was published every few weeks. Thanks Jean, for explaining the Sheffield joke. It's challenging to..."
I agree that the foreshadowing with Em'ly was pretty abrupt, and in normal circumstances you would not expect an author to give away something of that nature, but when you consider that Dickens needed to involve readers quickly and give them a reason to keep reading, it is pretty masterful. You'd keep putting out your pennies, because who wouldn't want to know what was going to happen to this sweet little girl?
Yes, I think this foreshadowing is a great way to keep a reader hooked! You won't want to miss an installment, because you never know when something might come to pass! I still see this being done in later writings and even contemporary ones as well. I admire Mr. Peggotty and his big heart. This seems like a happy, patched-together sort of family. Except for the woebegone Mrs. Gummidge, who of course is worse off than most ;)
Mod
And don't we all know someone like Mrs. Gummidge? Mr Peggotty must have such a big heart, as you say Candi, because when you think of living in such an enclosed space with someone who complains all the time, it couldn't be easy! But he makes allowances :) I'd forgotten that the men had to erect hammocks each night to have somewhere to sleep.
But then each time I reread a book, I find there's something I had forgotten. And sometimes I don't pick up on the foreshadowing, either.
Yesterday I read something which said it was always more satisfying to know what happens in a story beforehand, as then you enjoy it more. Straightaway I thought, well I don't! I like to wait for the surprise the author has up their sleeve. But then many blurbs tell you a lot, and soaps always announce the main plot feature first. So obviously some people like to know ...
And I suppose there is a kind of enjoyment all of its own, when we read something not for the first time, or why would we do it, and why would we watch a film of it, sometimes more than once?
Children clamour to hear their favourite story over and over, don't they? But I'd never do as a friend does, and look at the last page first :(
Chapter three was delightful! I love the Peggotty clan, and I already hate Mr. Murdstone a lot. ;)
Mod
For me, chapter three was sad. With the foreshadowing about Em'ly, and the ending of the chapter. So sad.
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But I think Dickens is telling us to steel ourselves, because already we know what Mr. Murdstone is like.
Poor Clara. Poor Davy :( How could his readers bear to wait a whole month to read the next bit?!
I've read chapters 1 & 2 and read the comments to Post 149:I loved Aunt Betsey. Dickens managed to tell us so much about her background in so few words. It's a shame she is so hurt and didn't hang around to befriend David and his mother. His mother, particularly, could have used some guidance. That woman is making me itchy already with her vanity and innocence. LOL.
David's mother doesn't seem to mature over the years. It seems to me that if a family of 3 is impoverished and living in a cottage with 2 parlours, that one could economize by moving to a cottage with 1 parlour. That would give her enough to purchase a parasol to replace her tatty green one. LOL.
I suppose this would mean that one is moving down in the world and to be avoided by all costs but it seems such a simple solution to a problem.
Ohhhhh, Mr. Murdstone! Poor Clara! Vanity comes beforeth a fall.
The description of Mr. Murdstone's eyes being flat and dark was chilling. I wondered how Clara didn't see those dead eyes.
Onwards to chapter three. I love the humor in this book. Despite the humor, Dickens is telling a somber, dark tale.
Mod
We were told she was a kind of nursemaid before marrying Davy's father, so she must love children. But yes, we can all see that she is in for a bad time, because she can't see the obvious.
We don't get an idea that Clara has many friends - in fact the opposite. Perhaps she does not know how to go about looking for another place to live. She isn't at all practical but wouldn't have the money to pay a lawyer to help her. Didn't she make blots, and put curly tails on her letters when her husband tried to teach her accounting? I imagine Davy's father would have done all that - although Aunt Betsey said he was an innocent too!
Yes, it's wonderful how Charles Dickens's irrepressible humour lifts this story :)
Petra's message 164 made me think of something. How can David's mother afford a servant (Peggotty). Is there something I missed?
Mod
She clearly loves both Clara and Davy, so if they can manage on Clara's small inheritance, then she will stay there. Also, she would not easily find another place of work!
Peggotty is not a "servant" in quite the usual sense, ie., not as she would be in a grand house, as they all share food at the same table. So in a way she's like a companion - although not genteel.
It also occurs to me that as she has the same first name: "Clara" Peggotty, she is like the sensible practical mother of the family; a counterbalance to Clara Copperfield.
Thanks Jean. That makes complete sense.
I love the little house made out of a boat, it sounds so cosy.The two weeks at Yarmouth are an idyllic period for David.
Mr. Murdstone is bad news.
In some literature class I took years ago, the professor mentioned how many stories of childhood feature a time of Eden and then the child is metaphorically thrown out of the garden. That certainly happens to David.
This is probably a late comment, but just wanted to add that National Emergency Library has multiple copies of David Copperfield to download (https://archive.org/search.php?query=...). Some of them are older editions with great illustrations.
Bionic Jean wrote: "It also occurs to me that as she has the same first name: "Clara" Peggotty, she is like the sensible practical mother of the family; a counterbalance to Clara Copperfield. .."I like this observations, Jean. I've been thinking that Peggotty is like a mother to both David and Clara Copperfield. Poor Clara needs someone to take care of her; someone who has her needs in mind, not a Mr. Murdstone, who wants something from her.
I also really enjoyed Chapter 3 but found it sad in that it's an ending to an innocence. The setting, people and days were idyllic, while at home the situation was becoming dark. This visit was the last time of idyllic pleasure in a small child. That's always sad to observe. Childhood is so short and David's probably ends here.....at least in many ways, from what we're getting from the foreshadowing.
The reference to Emily's future brought a stab to my heart. That Dickens can make a reader care for his characters, that's for sure.
I do hope the Peggotty family remains in David's future to give him stability of some sort.
I just started David Copperfield tonight — I wasn’t sure if I had bandwidth for it, but I decided to just make time. :) So I’ve read chapter 1, but I see I have a spot of catching up to do. I thoroughly enjoyed the portrait of Great-aunt Betsey, the discontented fairy.By the way, Gutenberg has both an illustrated and unillustrated version of this book to download. I’ve downloaded the illustrated version, which has old pen-and-ink drawings (original edition perhaps?). They’re really delightful. ETA: Yes, I Googled and they’re the original magazine illustrations by Hablot Browne or “Phiz.”
Mod
Helen - that is an excellent resource - and never too late! Thank you :)
Tadiana - LOL yes, "make" time :)
"Phiz" is definitely the go-to illustrator for Charles Dickens in my opinion. Nobody quite captures the author's eccentric humour as well.
So far I've been sharing the work of other illustrators I particularly like, such as Fred Barnard. As I said, he had the advantage of being contemporaneous with the publications in novel form, whereas Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz") had to almost have second sight to get the characterisation right!
Petra and Debra, we see further confirmation of Peggotty as viewed by another mother, by Davy himself, in the next chapter.
An "end to innocence" indeed, as you, Robin and Rosemarie have all pointed out. As a Christian, Charles Dickens often makes Biblical references, and some are more overt than others. I agree that many Victorian and earlier novels feature children whose lives suddenly become less than idyllic.
It's also occurred to me how in some ways David Copperfield parallels Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, in a sense. And since that was published a mere two years earlier, in 1847, it will have been fresh in Charles Dickens's mind.
Mod
So before we quite leave the "Garden of Eden", I can't resist posting another favourite image of mine, showing this daredevil little mite:
Little Em'ly - Jessie Willcox Smith
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The longest chapter so far, but sadly the easiest to paraphrase :(
Davy has arrived home, to find he and his mother have a new master. Gone are the kind words and the cuddles. All is now "firmness".
Mr Murdstone's sister Jane arrives, and takes over the household. Clara briefly tries to object, but is soon overcome emotionally, and never speaks out of turn again.
Mr Murdstone, Miss Jane Murdstone, and Mrs, Clara (Copperfield) Murdstone - Sol Etynge Jnr.
Davy's days become filled with learning, which he finds difficult because he is so unhappy.
The climax of the chapter is the savage beating of David with a cane, enough to cut him. After this he has to stay in his room alone for 5 days, and then is told (secretly by Peggotty, through the keyhole) that he is going to school near London. He leaves in the same cart by which he came back from Yarmouth. His mother Clara has not been allowed to say a proper goodbye to Davy, because of the "firmness" which is the watchword of both the Murdstone brother and sister.
Mod
There's a part here which seems to show the older David, not the child Davy, remembering:
"He [Murdstone] drew her to him, whispered in her ear, and kissed her. I knew as well, when I saw my mother's head lean down upon his shoulder, and her arm touch his neck—I knew as well that he could mould her pliant nature into any form he chose, as I know, now, that he did it."
Mr "Murdstone", with his insistence that what everyone needs is "firmness", both horrifes and intrigues me. What does his name imply? Something dark - Murk? Murder? "Merde"? (French for excrement) followed by the hardness of "stone".
He's clearly the archetypal Victorian gentleman of his class, believing that a wife needs to be "instructed" and children learn best by being beaten into submission. I guess the savagery was because he himself was in pain from David's bite (hurrah!)
And yet in the middle of all this cruelty and fear, we have a tiny bit of humour:
"'School. Near London,' was Peggotty's answer. I was obliged to get her to repeat it, for she spoke it the first time quite down my throat, in consequence of my having forgotten to take my mouth away from the keyhole and put my ear there; and though her words tickled me a good deal, I didn't hear them,"
Mod
"a gloomy-looking lady she was; dark, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and voice; and with very heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over her large nose, as if, being disabled by the wrongs of her sex from wearing whiskers, she had carried them to that account."
All the illustrations I've found shy away from picturing her with those meeting eyebrows!
Clara seems to have completely lost the ability to stand up for her child. I understood that she was also a victim, cowed and frightened, but to reproach Davy, for "hurting someone she loved" took my breath away. She has been completely brainwashed and manipulated, and as David says, she now believes her own child now to be the wicked one.
A psychologist would have a field day here! Why is Clara so easily manipulated and without the maternal urge to defend her child? What has happened in the Murdstones' past to make them feel that a severe beating never did a boy any harm? Was their father perhaps a sadist? And look at the terrible guilt Davy himself feels as a result of all this :(
Mod
The Adventures of Roderick Random, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, all by Tobias Smollett,
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith,
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Adventures of Gil Blas by Alain-René Le Sage
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
plus Arabian Nights: Tales Of Thousand Nights & A Night Vol 1 and The Tales of the Genii.
Incredibly, he had read all these before he was nine years old! Like Davy Copperfield, he liked to live in a fantasy world :)
He was ill for a while as a child and reading was one thing he could do. Note that most of those authors are comic and he himself cited them as influences.
Mod
Sometimes I despair of current "literary novels"without an ounce of humour, as the 18th century ones (and their descendant, Charles Dickens ) are packed with it!
Chapter 4 broke my heart. Jean, I think Clara has become, sadly, an abused spouse. She can't stand up for David, despite loving him. Standing up for him means more "firmness" both for herself and for Davy.
However, the comment that David "hurt someone she loved" was hurtful and shows she's moved away from being his protector in any way. Perhaps her heart has taken in the "firmness". I hope not but it seems that it could be.
Miss Murdstone is a hard, cold person. The description of all the steel and chains was chilling. To have her in a home would make the home cold.
I also felt awful that David could hear the neighbourhood kids at play but could not join them.
I'm so glad that David has his father's books. It's a gleam of hope and a showing of love beyond the grave for poor David. It's all he's got right now.
This chapter made me sad that Aunt Betsey had stormed out. She would have recognized Murdstone for what he was (having been abused herself) and she would have had more sway with Clara, because Clara was frightened of her. It seemed sad to me that Clara would trust Murdstone instead of Peggotty, a person she knows has her best interest at heart, but that is not unusual where "love" is concerned. (I use the word lightly). Dislike for Murdstone turns to absolute hatred by the time this chapter is done. I feel sorry for Clara because she felt she would be better off in the hands of a man than alone. I'm sure she felt at sea. She failed to see that Mr. Copperfield was a different man than Mr. Murdstone.
Chapter 4 was sad, I felt so sorry for Davy as he struggled to get his lessons out. It's no wonder he couldn't do it with their eyes on him, waiting for a mistake. It's a big comment by Dickens on the wrong way to educate a child.Clara is so frustrating, her love for her son is genuine but she is so easily manipulated and controlled by the malevolent Murdstones. She surrendered the keys of the house, symbol of her position as the mistress, allowing Miss M to usurp her position. Sadly she had little option in Victorian times as once she was married she had to obey her husband's wishes. Still, she was too easily convinced that Davy was wicked, she is a bad judge of character all round.
Thank heavens for Peggotty!
I don't remember if the book says how long Clara was married to David's father, but obviously not long. So she has little idea of how a husband can or should be. Older and smarter women than she is have been intimidated and "gaslighted" by overpowering husbands and boyfriends even in modern times. Clara is isolated and has no one to turn to, except Peggoty. The reinforcement of the horrible sister makes it even harder. Also, she may buy into the idea that she wouldn't know how to raise a boy once he is a little older and that he needed the "firmness". It was normal for people of any means to send boys away to school from a fairly young age.
Mod
Yes, in the present day vernacular I have not doubt that we would call Clara an abused wife, Petra. And as you say Candi, it's such a shame that Aunt Betsey is not there at present to observe it. As a fellow sufferer, she would have recognised it, and perhaps have the strength to help Clara resist.
Peggotty, I feel, has a different sort of strength, but is unable to speak out, or she would be dismissed on the spot by the Murdstones. She is immediately relegated to a servant status, "curtseying herself out of the room."
It's even clearer now that Peggotty has effectively been mother to both Davy and his mother, because Clara can only see her own hurt at the moment, and is behaving selfishly like a spoiled brat:
"'This is your doing, Peggotty, you cruel thing!’ said my mother. ‘I have no doubt at all about it. How can you reconcile it to your conscience, I wonder, to prejudice my own boy against me,"
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(view spoiler)
The way Charles Dickens keeps dropping these enormous hints as to how the story will unfold, indicates just how planned out in broad terms this novel was, in his mind. His earlier novels were more organic and just developed on a whim - or according to audience sales!
Mod
We were given information about the first Mr Copperfield in chapter 1, from Aunt Betsey. She thought of them both as very naive - almost as bad as one another - giving their house such a romantic name.
‘David Copperfield all over!’ cried Miss Betsey. ‘David Copperfield from head to foot! Calls a house a rookery when there’s not a rook near it, and takes the birds on trust, because he sees the nests!’"
(Father and son had the same first name.)
Yes, boys were often sent to boarding school from a young age, to become "young gentlemen" although it's doubtful whether this pair would have had the money for it! Neither would they have made any plans, either for a son or a daughter, even if they had been responsible parents, because Davy was only born 6 months after his father died, so they had no way of anticipating the gender of their child.
Any caring parents who were wealthy, would have chosen a good one. We wonder at the moment if that will be so ... And if Davy had only been a girl, we are given to understand, Aunt Betsey would have helped. No doubt at the beginning, the courteous Mr Murdstone with his noble bearing (the snake-in-the grass!) looked like a good opportunity to Clara, both for herself and for Davy.
At the moment though it looks as if the superstitious idea of bad luck: being born on a Friday, and at midnight (clocks are always important in Dickens!) is holding :(
Chapter 4. Oh my!!!! Mr Murdstone and his sister, Miss Murdstone, are awful and I hate them. I am also angry with Clara even though I understand she is being abused, so I am trying not to hate her. My brain is screaming, it is your child, stand up for him. Oh my!!I love the statement the "education" part makes. I have known teachers that should have taught in a different way.
I would be interested in reading some of the novels mentioned.
My thoughts about this chapter were very similar. Mr. Murdstone said early on that if he had “an obstinate horse or dog to deal with”, “I beat him”, which pretty much ensured things would go south for Davy. That said, I was cheering for Davy when he bit Murdstone even though I assumed there would be a price to be paid for it. Everything about this chapter was sad and gloomy. Davy’s only comfort was his father’s books. Finally, his father can provide some much needed companionship via the collection of books he left behind. I half expected the ghost of Davy’s father to put in an appearance here.
At this point my thoughts also ran to Aunt Betsey and I regretted more than ever her absence from Davy’s life.
Jean: Count me in for reading some of the Bildungsroman novels!
Mod
EDIT - And Lori too, YAY!
Mod
Everything? Even the whispering at the keyhole I mentioned? And isn't there a sort of ghastly humour about the metallic Miss Jane Murdstone?
I agree we are due for a bit of Dickensian humour though, and think we might be about to get it :)
Lori wrote: "That said, I was cheering for Davy when he bit Murdstone even though I assumed there would be a price to be paid for it. ..."Me, too. David has more backbone than his mother, even if this incident was unplanned.
Okay, you make a good point. I concede especially about the keyhole. Lol! But, things aren’t exactly looking up when even the washstand is discontented.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Any caring parents who were wealthy, would have chosen a good one. We wonder at the moment if that will be so ...."It seems doubtful that the Murdstones would look for "good" but I do hope that David isn't as scared at school and finds a friend or two to help him.
Petra: It seems the Murdstones only look for submission. I hope Davy finds a friend at school too.
Jean: You would certainly know the answer to this but didn’t young Ebenezer Scrooge also read adventure books? Like Robinson Crusoe, etc.
Mod
There's probably a bit of Dickens even in Mr Scrooge - and of course he is (view spoiler) in the end :)
What a sad chapter this was - it did have some humor in it but it nearly broke my heart. It was hurtful to read about Davy and the way he was treated. I love Pegotty in this chapter. She was way more of a mother than Clara. I wondered if the Murdstones were really as bad (like in a black-and-white kind of way) or if they just appeared all horrible and violent to a child. Somehow I can't wrap my mind around such a (one dimensional) characters.
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Steve - yes, the button trail earlier is very reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel :) Well spotted! And another one right at the end of this chapter, (as it was before) is this:
"a great dog—deep mouthed and black-haired like Him—and he was very angry at the sight of me, and sprang out to get at me."
Doesn't it remind you of the Big Bad Wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood"?
So, the fairytale boat ...
"If it had been Aladdin's palace, roc's egg and all, I suppose I could not have been more charmed with the romantic idea of living in it. There was a delightful door cut in the side, and it was roofed in, and there were little windows in it; but the wonderful charm of it was, that it was a real boat which had no doubt been upon the water hundreds of times"
Dickens actually disliked Phiz's illustration of this, which had the boat turned upside down. But the illustration I posted, by Fred Barnard, had the benefit of hindsight. Although it was still contemporary with Charles Dickens, Fred Barnard was lucky enough to be able to read the entire novel, whereas Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) had to illustrate each monthly part as Dickens gave it to him, not knowing where the story was going to go next.