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    David Copperfield
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    David Copperfield
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    David Copperfield
    Ebook1,226 pages21 hours

    David Copperfield

    By Charles Dickens

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    About this ebook

    In this coming-of-age novel set in Victorian England, David Copperfield recalls his childhood, youth, and early adult years. He remembers living with his deceased mother's cruel husband, falling in love for the first time, and dealing with the outwardly innocuous but inwardly evil Uriah Heep. As he writes of his life—for Copperfield, much like the novel's author, Charles Dickens, eventually becomes a novelist—he observes his transition from youthful naiveté to mature thinking on issues such as unfair class discrimination and equality in marriage. Dickens' novel was first published in 1850 in England. This unabridged version is taken from an edition published in 1869.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLerner Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2015
    ISBN9781467787383
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens (1812–1870) gehört bis heute zu den beliebtesten Schriftstellern der Weltliteratur, in England ist er geradezu eine nationale Institution, und auch bei uns erfreuen sich seine Werke einer nicht nachlassenden Beliebtheit. Sein „Weihnachtslied in Prosa“ erscheint im deutschsprachigen Raum bis heute alljährlich in immer neuen Ausgaben und Adaptionen. Dickens’ lebensvoller Erzählstil, sein quirliger Humor, sein vehementer Humanismus und seine mitreißende Schaffensfreude brachten ihm den Beinamen „der Unnachahmliche“ ein.

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    Reviews for David Copperfield

    4/5

    3,371 ratings106 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This classic Dickens work follows the life of an orphaned David Copperfield and the people who shaped his life. He and his mother lived with a beloved servant Peggoty. After his mother's death, his stepfather removes him from school, sending him to work in a factory. Life is terrible, so David runs away to his aunt who agrees to give him a home. She calls him "Trotwood." He encounters the people from his past on many occasions and encounters more people who play a role in his life. The strength of the work lies in character development. The Penguin classics edition includes a large introduction as well as excerpts from a Dickens biography and early outlines of the novel.
    • 2/5
      Child manipulation.
    • 5/5
      What a terrific story! This book was part of our school curriculum when I was doing my seventh grade. I simply loved it. If you haven't read, you must read it.
    • 5/5
      The story is narrated in the first person by Davis Copperfield who describes his birth to start things off. His mother is a timid creature who fall for the wrong person and alter marries him. This person along with his sister terrorize David and his mother. After his mother's death David runs away from his house and goes to stay with his eccentric aunt. Her he gets an education and as young man studies law. But in the meantime he discovers that he can write and makes a huge success of himself.The book is mostly satirical but has its moments of sadness. Most of the characters are eccentric but oh so lovable. Dickens' narration flows like a river and is very crisp.A slow but great read.
    • 4/5
      Rich, dense, and very good. The problem I ran into with this is the archaic morality, the way women are irredeemably ruined at the hands of cads and bounders. Aside from that, I enjoyed this long and excellent book. The cast of characters is multitudinous and well-differentiated, the plotting is delightful, and the turns of phrase memorable. "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."
    • 3/5
      Great, memorable characters are the highlight of this book. Those are what I remember.
    • 2/5
      Once again, I listened to the audiobook of this classic. Thank goodness for that, as I do not know whether I would have made it through the novel had I been reading it, or, if I did, it would have taken a matter of months. It's funny how though listening to audiobooks is slower than reading it can, at times, be much faster.

      The reason this would have been a really slow novel for me to read was the complete lack of plot. It is the autobiographical fictional biography of the title character. He begins with his childhood and goes into his old age. There is no narrative to speak of. What I expected was that it would be about how David Copperfield overcame the incredibly evil Uriah Heep, since the only thing I knew about the novel was that he was the bad guy, but that's not really how it was.

      While the story wasn't bad, and I am glad that I managed to get through it just because of its fame, I definitely was never anywhere close to loving it. I never connected with the characters and saw a lot of the plot twists coming from a ways away. If interested in Dickens, I would recommend instead the rather less well-known Bleak House (and watching the miniseries...so good!).

      There are a number of audiobook versions of this novel, I do believe. I would certainly recommend this one, although I have not listened to the others, for one determined to get through the classic novel David Copperfield. For one thing, you get to listen to fancy classical music at the beginning and conclusion of each of the 60 chapters. I love that, although I do regret that an already incredibly long book is made longer. The production seems to have been fairly good, although they did miss editing quite a bit of Griffin's breathing.

      Griffin does a really good job as a narrator, as his pompous voice fits quite well to the lofty air of Dickens' writing. He also is remarkable at doing voices, not to Robin Williams' level, but his various characters were generally quite distinct. In fact, many of the voices did not much resemble his his regular voice, so much so that it was sometimes difficult to believe that the whole thing was recorded by this one man.

      Unfortunately, some of the voices were rather creepy or annoying. Uriah Heep, of course, is intentionally given an irritating, writhing voice, but creepiest by far is the voice he uses for young Davy Copperfield. I will be haunted by this voice for a while.
    • 3/5
      At last away from the Murdstones, the plot started to pick up, then, thud, Wickfield, Old Soldier, and Micawbers balancedthankfully by Peggoty, Aunt Betsey, and Dick.3/4 of the way through DAVID COPPERFIELD and here's what needs to happen:1. Uriah and Steerforth, pistols at dawn = no survivors2. Dora falls in love with Malden, divorces fading Davey, & rides off on stallion3. Davey absently, yet quickly, recovers, and marries Agnes4. Agnes locates Martha and Emily who then move into a nice small picturesquecottage with Aunt Betsey - the Peggotys move nearby5. Hans sails to America to lead an Abolitionist Crusade6. Traddles finds Wickfield and Betsey's stolen $7. The Micawbers are written out of the plot where they never should have appeared8. The Mudstones, Mrs. Steerforth, and Ms. Dartle are admitted to any asylum wherethey make each other, and not us, insane&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Finished the book and, at last, Davey and Agnes Marry!Definitely wrong about Micawbers, at least the Mister, who comes to playa pivotal role, at last.
    • 4/5
      Een van de beste van Dickens. Grote vaart, minder feuilletonachtig dan vorige; maar structuur is schakelgewijs, met enkele grote sprongen; sommige personages komen na 10 hoofdstukken weer terug; vanaf hoofdstuk 52 neemt de spankracht duidelijk af. Kaleidoscoop van personages, de ene al interessanter dan de andere; bijna allemaal blijven ze aan de oppervlakte steken; opvallend is de engelachtigheid van de vrouwen (op tante Betsy na); Centrale thema: mengeling van hoe iemand op zijn jonge leven terugkijkt, en anderzijds een oefening in relatievorming (het huwelijk van de Micawbers als rolmodel)Centrale waarden: goedheid, zorg, trouw; geluk in huiselijk leven;
    • 4/5
      Well, it is not to be missed, but Dickens was paid by the column inch, and it shows. Still...you need to read it.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      A heart-warming story of the struggles of a young boy growing up in England, in the 19th century, without a loving family. This is a good story to teach the history of life and the struggles of growing up in a world where children were not well cared for. Charles Dickens shares the struggles that he faced as a child. Good for teaching that you can become successful even if you have problems as a child.
    • 4/5
      It took me a long time to read David Copperfield -- because I stalled in the middle for... well, about three months. It's hard for me to review it as a whole, in that light. I remember reading it when I was younger quite vividly, but I'm not sure I ever got past the first few chapters, back then. It's contrived to get tangled up in my mind with Great Expectations, somehow.

      It's interesting to know that this book is thought to be based largely on Dickens' own life. I don't know if he ever said that himself, or whether it was deduced by other people. If he did look on David as himself, it's a wonder he wrote about him so frankly. It certainly seems like a lifetime's worth of Dickens' experience went into creating it, anyway.

      I liked it a lot, despite the length and Dickens' tendency to go on a bit. I felt sorry for David a lot, and sometimes wanted to slap him -- which is the way I feel about some of my favourite characters, and shouldn't make you think I didn't like him.
    • 4/5
      I do so enjoy Dickens when he's at the top of his game. It's as though he's emptied a box of thread on the ground and let it roll off in a million different directions, and then somehow he manages to weave the each one into something glorious and beautiful as the book concludes. Dickens at his best is immensely satisfying, complete literature.

      I loved reading this, although I must say not so well as I loved "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities."

      Things to bear in mind when you read this book:

      1) Be patient with Dora. She's doing her best.

      2) It is appropriate to want to run certain characters over with a mail-coach at important points of the story.

      3) Uriah Heep. That's all.
    • 5/5
      Admittedly, I am a huge Dickens fan. I have read many of his books and enjoyed all of them. His bizarre characters, complex plots, and humorous dialog resonate with me. That being said, David Copperfield stands out as being one of the my favorites. With the audiobook classics, I usually listen only while driving. I can only take so much of the elaborate prose and sentences that span an entire page. But I found myself completely mesmerized while I was listening to Simon Vance's recording. I brought the audiobook with me everywhere and finished the book (almost 34 hours) in under 2 weeks. Brilliant and unforgettable.
    • 4/5
      DIdn't love it and am feeling rather insecure about this. I think my problem was that the plot to page ration was a bit skimpy for my tastes. He did publish this as a weekly serial, which does explain why he dragged it out so long.
    • 4/5
      This reads like a memoir of David’s life starting with his birth. His life as an orphan, mistreated by his stepfather and eventually running away to his aunt who had wished he were a girl, his marriage to his child bride and eventual success as an author gives this book has a blending of fairy tale with bildungroman. The story compares punitive father figure Mr. Murdstone with the eccentric fun of Mr Micawber. There is elements of problems that surround class and gender mostly in the tale of Emily and Steerforth and Agnes and Uriah. My conclusion is “all’s well that ends well”. This book is the most autobiographical of Dicken’s works. This book was written in the usual serial method but also encompasses some of the newer, psychological realism and social details of the changing novelistic style.
    • 4/5
      The first time I've read a book on the recommendation of a fictional character in another novel. The main character in Per Petterson's 'Out Stealing Horses' re-reads David Copperfield regularly and finds it inspiring for his approach to life. I hadn't read any Dickens since school days so when I saw it in a charity shop I thought 'why not?'. And I'm glad I did. A 700 odd page meander through the life of David Copperfield is known to be a heavily fictionalised and romanticised autobiographical novel by Dickens. What a pleasure it is to wade through the high Victorian mannered and florid language at such a leisurely pace. Characters sculptured rather than sketched so it's no wonder they have endured as much as those in Shakespeare. Great also to get a view of life in the mid 19th century. Pre-electronic and pre-motor car life was nevertheless full and varied. But with it a clue to the sytle of writing. Long and leisurely. How else to fill the evenings?
    • 4/5
      This is a wonderful novel, in which David feels like a real person, unlike many of Dickens’ characters. As a reader, I sympathized with his painful childhood, the vicious characters he has to survive, his mistakes and what he learns from them. As he begins to mature, I felt, yes, he’s growing up, and he’ll be okay. The development of David, in association with so many extraordinary and memorable characters, lets you overlook the plot devices and improbable coincidences that Dickens uses to move the story in the direction he wants to take it. And what characters – among Dickens’ most inspired. (Is snake-like Uriah Heep really the inspiration for Harry Potter’s snaky enemies? Rowling seems to have a Dickens-like love of incident and odd characters.) And even though the trajectory is perfectly obvious, it remains satisfying because David is a character you’d like to know as a friend. After reading over 700 pages, it’s a bit sad to have it end.
    • 5/5
      I was thoroughly entertained by this and never found it a slog reading through its 800 plus pages--and that actually came as a surprise to me because I am by no means a Dickens' fan. I decided to read this one because it's on the the list of 100 Significant Books I've been reading through--and because a friend told me that I should at least try this one before giving up on Dickens. This was actually his own favorite among his novels, and the one most autobiographical. Even knowing as little as I do of his life, I could certainly see plenty of parallels between the young Charles Dickens and David Copperfield. And especially given this was written in first person, this book has a confessional quality that drew me in and propelled me forward.The thing is this novel I so enjoyed is guilty of every sin that so often drove me batty in Dickens: the rambling plot riddled with unlikely coincidences, the long, long length, the at times mawkish sentimentality, the phrases repeated again and again, the characterizations that often seemed more caricatures, and above all, the women characters that convince me Dickens thinks of the female gender as not quite human--or at least I felt so at first. David's mother Clara in particular drove me up the wall--I wanted to reach into the book and throttle her. It seemed to me in my reading of several of Dickens novels that his women run to four types or combinations and at first David Copperfield seemed no exception. There is the angelic creature who is often a victim, such as Clara, Little Em'ly, Agnes and Dora. There is the evil harridan such as Miss Murdstone or Rosa Dartle. There is the sacrificing Earth mother such as Peggoty. And finally, there is the (often rich) eccentric such as Betsy Trotwood. But ah, often the eccentric characters are so richly comic--and in the case of Trotwood there is more than initially met the eye--in fact I wasn't a third way through the novel before I loved her. And Agnes grew on me too. Not everyone's reaction--George Orwell, among others, despised the character. But she was the first female character who struck me as being a rational creature. But they're memorable--and not just the women. I don't think I'm ever going to forget Mr Micawber. I know I'll never forget Uriah Heep, the most odious, shudder-worthy villain I've met in literature. So yes, after this book I got more of a sense of Dickens' charms. A Christmas Carol has been a favorite since childhood. And I did love Great Expectations--till the end, which I found a bit of a cheat. But I hated Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. It's David Copperfield that's convinced me I should try more of Dickens. It was worth traversing its long and winding length.
    • 4/5
      Well, I've always enjoyed Dickens anyway, with my favorite still being Great Expectations, but this story now comes in a close second :) The story of Copperfield's life, from the night he was born, to the stage in his life where he is finally settled & prosperous is an eventful one. Along the way he meets some interesting characters, like Mr. Micawber, & the 2 villains of the tale, Murdstone & Heep. He finds friends that are true, like Tradderly, & the Peggotty clan, & ones that are false, like the charismatic Steerforth. This story is nevr boring, always down to earth, & the characters approachable.If you've never read Dickens, this is a good place to start :)
    • 4/5
      This is, of course, the life story -- the very detailed life story -- of Mr. David Copperfield, from his birth onwards, including his horrifically unhappy childhood, his romantic entanglements, and the doings of his various interesting friends.It's definitely the characters that make this one enjoyable. Copperfield himself is carefully and believably drawn, and he knows a lot of entertainingly quirky people, many of whom turn out to have some interesting hints of depth underneath their quirks. I imagine I will be unlikely ever to forget Mr. Micawber, or Uriah Heep, or David's formidable, eccentric Aunt Betsy.I'm not sure it has a plot, exactly, so much as a loose connection of subplots, but that's fine; they're decent enough subplots. It does all get a little melodramatic at the end, although I suppose for Dickens, it's probably pretty mild on that score. I do have to say, though, that Victorian ideas about women and relationships and marriage inevitably strike my modern sensibilities as weird and kind of creepy, which always puts a little uncomfortable distance between me and the characters in such novels, and this one doesn't really qualify as an exception.It also goes on a bit too long. Not that this is the sort of book one picks up expecting a rollicking, fast-paced thrill ride. It's more the sort to immerse yourself in when you're looking to live somebody else's life for a while, and if you're rushing through it, you're probably doing it wrong. Still, I think I would have been happier with it if it were a couple hundred pages shorter. It doesn't help that Dickens has this habit of writing characters who tend to repeat themselves over and over. I don't know whether that's his attempt at naturalistic dialog, or whether it's the result of him trying to make a word count, but it does get annoying. Although, fortunately, either that eased off substantially by the middle of the book, or I'd gotten used to it enough by then that it stopped bugging me quite so much.In the end, it's a book I am glad to have read, but also glad to finally be finished with.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      How is it possible to review David Copperfield? I think it is only fair to say that David Copperfield is my favorite Dickens work. And also the first I ever read of his, back when I was only a little girl. If I am not mistaken, I first read it when I was about 11 years old. I reread it many times since; I love this book. It is so rich, the characters are so magnificently drawn, and David himself seems to be the most charming, irresistible little boy. Dickens also did a pretty good job in combining tragedy with wit and madventure; David Copperfield is indeed a complete novel in every sense.
    • 3/5
      I feel bad about rating a Dicken's book so low. I guess in comparison to his other works I just didn't get as much from this one. The beginning of the book had some very amazing and moving moments. The scene where he lays his mother and infant half brother to rest was such an emotional scene. I wish the bulk of the book had remained as engrossing as the beginning. I believe the length and shear scope of the volume may have had an influence. Perhaps with some editing some of the less critical parts could have been shored up and left the story that much better.
    • 4/5
      This is definently my fave Dicken's book. The story is great, and it's easy to read.
    • 5/5
      ****CONTAINS SPOILERS****Virginia Woolf calls David Copperfield "the most perfect of all the Dickens novels" and I agree that it is quite the tour de force (not having read all of Dickens' novels yet, I can't say for certain that this is the best one). Dickens' talent shines the greatest in the characters he invents. In one respect, these characters are so unique and ludicrous that one keeps reading to see what he will come up with next. On the other hand, something in some, if not all, of his characters strikes a chord of familiarity that makes them quite human after all. In fact, much of the book, for me, lies in this plane intersecting the fantastical with the all too real. To some degree, one has to suspend reason to believe all the coincidences that occur throughout the novel. But then again, real life does quite often through you in the path of an old acquaintance, former roommate, friend of a friend, etc. etc. In one respect, it seems as though the ending of the novel is too good to be true with all the "good" characters successful and happy and all the villains getting their just desserts. But this is an over simplification if the reader recalls how many of the good characters are killed off or are exiled to another continent, separated from their family. And what of the bad lot? Uriah Heep and Mr. Littimer are worshipped as demigods in jail and catered to their every need. Mr. and Miss Murdstone are up to their old games, terrorizing another young woman. So while Dickens gives an ending that feels all too warm and fuzzy at first glance, there is a bit of reality in there, as well. Likewise, there is the character of David Copperfield himself. Critics have argued that he is more of an observer than an actor - a character who things happen to, not who makes things happen. As I was first reading the novel, I felt this way. But as I got further in, I realized that at many times and places, Copperfield does step up and act, but it's that as the narrator, Copperfield doesn't note his actions in the same way as he does others' actions. When Traddles works day and night to rise in the world, Copperfield praises to the skies Traddles' good spirit, his earnestness to work, and so forth. When Copperfield puts himself to the grind, he notes it as a matter of course and moves on with his narrative. Although the novel doesn't focus on social issues as much as say Hard Times for These Times, many of the issues of the time are touched upon - child labor, corruption in the government, the nonsensical prison system. All these elements together, along with others, make this novel an incredibly interesting read that will give the reader plenty to think about. It is a long novel that is well worth the read.
    • 5/5
      In this semi-autobiographical novel, a successful writer reminisces about his early life and education. What starts as episodic memories soon becomes a vast witty narrative delight of over eight hundred pages with multiple intertwining plots and over thirty distinctly memorable characters from every level of nineteenth century English society. The false humility of the repulsive Uriah Heep and the grandiloquent optimism of the ever impoverished Wilkins Micawber, a character Dickens based on his own father, have become characters that have grown to be cultural touchstones beyond the novel.
    • 5/5
      This novel is another reason Dickens is read generation after generation after generation. I certainly remember reading Dickens in school, by my appreciation for him has grown greater in my later years. There are probably many who grasp Dickens at the high school level and can enjoy him greatly, it is not until my later years that I have come to really enjoy him. This novel origianlly published in magazine form over a duration of time can at first seem long and daunting and yet is seemed in no time that I was able to finish it. The title character obviously is David Copperfield and this is somewhat of a autobiographical sketch of the author Charles Dickens life. (Notice the initials DC and CD). While the first of the novel can seem almost unbearably painful with the character's father dying just several months befor his birth and hiss aunt abandoning the family immediately after Copperfield's birth and the loss of his mother at at young age, things do get better. Dickens introduces us to a cast of characters that are enjoyable and we get to follow along as David Copperfield goes through his own life. If you enjoyed Dickens in high school, than you are ahead of the game. If you did not enjoy Dickens in high school, than give him another chance.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable novel. What to say about this classic? I enjoy Dumas, Hugo, Hardy and Scott - but somehow I always struggle with Dickens. It isn't that I don't enjoy it, it is just that I'm not sure that I care about where the plot is going. I think the characters are interesting, but I'm not quite as interested in what is happening to them.