In your reading life you encounter all sorts of books; books you like; books you love; and books perhaps you wish not to have come your way. On rare occasions, you come across a book, which you feel privileged to have read. David Copperfield undoubtedly falls into this rare category.

The book needs no praise from me. It is only yet another addition to the millions of readers who have loved and appreciated this great work from the time of its first publication. Charles Dickens himself had said that David Copperfield was his "favourite (literary) child". All these are proof of the book's worth and greatness.

Charles Dickens has written so many great books. There is no argument about it. But if he ever wrote a book with his whole heart and soul, it is David Copperfield. Even though I haven't read all his books, I've read enough to be assured of that, for how it could be otherwise, when it is almost autobiographic of the author? Dickens is well known for his clever and witty writing, his satirical observations on English society. But if Dickens is ever known for beautiful, passionate, and sincere writing, the credit falls upon David Copperfield.

David’s life resembles Dickens’s in many respects. Like David, Dicken had a troubled childhood; and like David, Dickens had to leave school for employment at a tender age to support him (and in Dickens’s case his family too as his father was imprisoned for his pecuniary liabilities). The experience which David obtains at a very young age helps him learn about life and the need to work hard with consistency and devotion to become successful in life. This was Charles Dicken’s motto too. He was a self-made man, whose craving for knowledge and learning made him successful despite the difficulties that surrounded his childhood. Like David, Dickens was a Parliamentary reporter before completely turning in to authorship. In short, David is his literary presentation of himself, more or less.

The main story in David Copperfield is the life journey of David Copperfield from birth to old age, filled with loss, hardship, struggle, adventure, success, and happiness; and is narrated by him. The story is also about the moral and personal development of David from his childhood to youth to adulthood; how he grows up from his childhood fantasies and mistaken impressions, shaking off his vanity, self-importance, and mistakes of the undisciplined heart and learning the true meaning and value of life. Also are included the stories of the other characters which are closely connected with his. These stories allow the reader to gain a broad perception on the then English society, the differences of people according to their classes, the vain superiority of the rich, the difficulties and struggles of average men and women, and tragic lives of young innocent girls who become victims of wicked and lustful men. A wider area of life, of the relationship between parent and child, husband and wife, of morals and principles, of tragic lives of "fallen women" (due to no fault of theirs), of society, are addressed in these stories making it a complete work.

David Copperfield is truly a great book. In my reading life, I have come across many that emotionally affected me; but only a handful had been able to tug at my heartstrings. David Copperfield is certainly one. There were many instances that I was in tears, my lips trembling and my heart weeping; and that I couldn’t go on. The stories, the characters, all were so true and so real. If anyone thinks of reading only one book of Dickens, it should, without doubt, be David Copperfield.

To the opening statement of the book that “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 know”, I have this to say as a reader. David is the hero of his life because of the unconditional love and support of two heroines: his aunt Betsy and Agnes.

I have a bookcase in my study, displaying some artefacts of my immediate ancestors and from my own childhood.

Arrayed neatly on the shelves are a few of my grandfather’s and father’s engineering texts (mechanical and electrical respectively) grandfather’s leather-cased measuring tape, dad’s slide rule and my mother's schoolgirl cartoon drawings, from the thirties. Plus my Biggles books and a hardback copy of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.

I used to have such things in boxes, but my good lady wife said; ‘Why not put them out on display?’ So I did. Wise to take heed.

One evening long ago, my dad drove into the carport after work, opened his briefcase (one of my lasting childhood memories is the smell of his newspaper coming from the open bag), and handed me a 1961 reprint of a 1952 (Collins) edition of David Copperfield.

I was nine years old, ten at the most.

I was not nearly ready to read it then and I never did, until now, much, much later. I am a latecomer to literature. My wife learned recently about this paternal gift and said: ‘You have to read it.’ I mentioned this in a Goodread’s review, which a little later prompted a direct question from one of my friends: ‘Have you read David Copperfield yet?’ Note to self: if you say something on Goodreads that smacks of an undertaking, you had better deliver. So I read it. Just finished.

It has been quite my most satisfying reading experience for some time, certainly since Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, which interestingly also has a strong boy to manhood motif. Come to think of it, I also really liked Kipling’s Kim for much the same reason. David Copperfield has an absorbing narrative, of David’s progress over thirty years and it’s full of beautifully drawn characters, many of whom change and grow before our eyes, for better or worse. It’s immensely satisfying to be involved with characters worthy of our support, interest or devotion, but also those who raise our apprehension or merit our poor opinion.

I have rarely encountered an author so sure footed at supplying emotion and temperament through words and action, or through the clever view of the narrator, in this case David Copperfield himself. Having the narrator David, writing as an adult, spend so much time with himself as a boy, gives us the boy’s experience. It tells us of his early affections and affiliations, for his mother, for Peggotty and for the young Agnes Wickfield; but also his foreboding and anguish at the Murdstones, his wariness of Uriah Heep. Young David can be perceptive beyond his years: witness the account of his mother and Peggotty being scared of aunt Betsey Trotwood. Nevertheless he perceives something kind about his aunt which leads him to seek her out when he runs away from Salem House School: his journey from London to Dover to find her is one of the most vivid in the story.

Apart from the loss of his father before he was born the first dark cloud in his life is the advent of the Murdstones. Jane Murdstone moves in after David’s mother marries Mr Murdstsone:

It was Miss Murdstsone who was arrived, and 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.

Not an appealing description, which is what Dickens does so well, like when he talks later about Uriah Heep writhing and twisting in paroxysms of ‘umbleness. Meanwhile Dickens goes on to describe Miss Murdstone’s luggage, to hammer home the point:

She brought with her two uncompromising hard black boxes, with her initials on the lids in hard brass nails. When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm in a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite. I had never, at that time, seen such a metallic lady altogether as Miss Murdstsone was.

Incidentally, this is a splendid illustration of what David Lodge talks about in The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts. Dickens is masterly at repetition, (‘hard’), and using the sound of words to convey personal hardness, viz: ‘nails’, ‘brass’, ‘steel’, ‘chain’ and then short sharp words with edge ie ‘jail’, ‘shut’ and ‘bite’. Very clever.

I have a son, who is eight and a half years old, the exact age of David Copperfield at the beginning of the story, which make me think there a was a good cosmic reason for me reading the tale at this time rather than earlier, when the significance of my circumstances would have been less or non-existent. A child’s view of the world is very particular: in my observation children are often perceptive about what is going on, including how people feel and their motivations. An eight year old child can have a clear idea of the truth. Whether my boy could do the London to Dover run by himself I doubt, but Dickens manages to put himself into the head of an eight year old boy.

David is, however, sometimes blind to charm, notably towards the older boy Steerforth, his idol at Salem House School. Steerforth can do no wrong, until he reveals his class-based snobbery, when David suggests Steerforth would be delighted to see Mr Peggotty’s household. Steerforth responds: ‘Should I?...It would be worth a journey… to see that sort of people together, and to make one of ‘em.’ (p278, emphasis mine). This rings a small jarring note in David’s head; and of course ours.

The book is about a boy’s changing fortunes and his growth in understanding and experience as he makes his way throughout a tumultuous childhood and advances to adulthood, employment and adventure and finally, family responsibility. On the way he gets a horrible step father, is sent to a concentration camp of a school after biting the horrible step father (‘Take care of him. He bites.’ p87) and loses his mother early.

His emotional nanny Peggotty is made of the right stuff and so is her brother. David asks Little Em’ly about Dan Peggotty and suggests to her that he must be very good:

'Good?’ said Em’ly. ‘If I was ever to be a lady, I’d give him a sky blue coat with diamond buttons, nankeen trousers, a red velvet waistcoat, a cocked hat, a large gold watch, a sliver pipe and a box of money.’ (p49)

This sets up later events: Emily’s seduction by James Steerforth, with the implicit understanding that he would make her a ‘lady’, and establishes the outstanding character which underpins Dan Peggotty’s later quest to find her again after she is gone.

David Copperfield is also romantic. I was intrigued to speculate as to who David was going to end up with (little Emily Miss Larkins, Agnes or Dora). Along the way, of course, he gets some marriage jaundice from his Aunt and Miss Mills, but to her credit Miss Mills sets that aside to urge our hero and her friend to get it together. Miss Mills to David and Dora:

‘Mr Copperfield and Dora,’ said Miss Mills, with an almost venerable air. ‘Enough of this. Do not allow a trivial misunderstanding to wither the blossoms of spring, which, once put forth and blighted, cannot be renewed…’ (p447)

After David realises that his lovable, simple wife Dora is not going to gain any useful accomplishments and more significantly, is not going to provide the support a partner needs for the marriage journey, Mrs Strong, the pretty young wife of the scholarly old teacher Dr Strong, talks of a childhood relationship with her cousin Jack Maldon, and reflects:

‘There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.’ And a little later: ‘There is nothing,’ said Annie, that we [Jack Maldon and I] have in common. I have long found that there is nothing. If I were thankful to my husband for no more, instead of for so much, I should be thankful to him for having saved me from the first mistaken impulse of my undisciplined heart.’ (p605)

This is a profound sentiment, beautifully expressed, worth savouring: ‘the first mistaken impulse of my undisciplined heart’. David is maturing, beyond his time and years. For the narrative to work and for him to end up with Agnes, where he should end up, something must be done about Dora, and Dickens has her simply fade away and die of an unspecified malady, but not before she anoints her successor. Bit cynical I thought, but acceptable in the context of the story and the times. David did not treat Dora badly, the opposite in fact – he gained the wisdom that Mr Murdstsone never achieves, by accepting his consort for who and what she was. Just fortunate she was sickly.

Speaking of the Murdstones, you just know they are going to turn up after their initial appearance and indeed, one of the charms of David Copperfield is the way characters come and go -there are no wasted personnel in Dickens: we get multiple and enjoyable doses of Steerforth, the Micawbers, Tommy Traddles, even Mr Creakle, the nasty overseer of Salem House School, returns as the overseer of a ‘modern’ penitentiary. I wondered why David and Traddles were visiting this establishment. The penny drops when they meet prisoners 27 and 28, Uriah Heep and Littimer, two proper bastards who absolutely deserve incarceration. This contributes to the deep satisfaction which comes from the good people working out OK, pretty much, Micawbers included, and the bad people getting what they deserve: Murdstones, Steerforths, Rosa Dartle, accepting that there are casualties along the way: Ham Peggotty and Little Emily for example.

There are heroes and there is Mr Peggotty, hero among heroes. Mr Peggotty speaks with Mrs Steerforth after he has started his search for his adopted daughter Emily, gone away with Steerforth and whereabouts unknown. Mrs Steerforth has just dismissed out of hand the possibility of a marriage as entirely unsuitable and ruinous of her son’s prospects. She hints at compensation and Mr Peggotty responds:

‘I am looking at the likeness of the face,’ interrupted Mr Peggotty, with a steady but kindling eye, ‘that has looked at me, in my home, at my fireside, in my boat – wheer not? – smiling and friendly, when it was so treacherous, that I go half wild when I think of it. If the likeness of that face don’t turn to burning fire, at the thought of offering money to me for my child’s blight a ruin, it’s as bad. I doen’t know, being a lady’s, but what it’s worse.’ (p433)

And the unexpected heroine: Betsey Trotwood. Initially severe and always blunt, she has a profound sense of duty. She gives it to the Murdstones about poor David’s dead mother, after David has run away to find his aunt and begged her to keep him rather than give him back to the Murdstones:

‘Mr Murdstone,’ she said, shaking her finger at him, ‘you were a tyrant to the simple baby, and you broke her heart. She was a loving baby-I know that; I knew it years before you ever saw her- and through the best part of her weakness you gave her the wounds she died of. There is the truth for your comfort, however you like it. And you and your instruments make the most of it.’ (p207)

There is, of course, and relievedly so, a happy ending, although for some reason I imagined Agnes Wickfield as looking like a real person, Olivia de Havilland, not from her Errol Flynn period, but more like she was in Gone with the Wind; serene, self-sacrificing, smart, sweet and good.

When you read an old book, and smell the pages, the physical volume comes alive, the pages breathe and the action of turning them makes the dust disappear. The memory of my father comes through as well, speaking to me over the years. He always put stuff in front of me, to see whether I would take to it. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes it took a long time.

I will remember this lesson for my own eight year old David Copperfield.

-Ian’s Book of the Year 2015

(Book 898 from 1001 books) - David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

David Copperfield is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens. The novel's full title is The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account). It was first published as a serial in 1849–50, and as a book in 1850.

Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens's own life, and it is often considered as his veiled autobiography.

It was Dickens' favourite among his own novels. In the preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens wrote, "like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield."

The story follows the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity.

David was born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, England, six months after the death of his father. David spends his early years in relative happiness with his loving, childish mother and their kindly housekeeper, Clara Peggotty. They call him Davy.

When he is seven years old his mother marries Edward Murdstone. To get him out of the way, David is sent to lodge with Peggotty's family in Yarmouth. Her brother, fisherman Mr Peggotty, lives in a beached barge, with his adopted relatives Emily and Ham, and an elderly widow, Mrs Gummidge. "Little Em'ly" is somewhat spoiled by her fond foster father, and David is in love with her. They call him Master Copperfield.

On his return, David is given good reason to dislike his stepfather, who believes exclusively in firmness, and has similar feelings for Murdstone's sister Jane, who moves into the house soon afterwards.

Between them they tyrannize his poor mother, making her and David's lives miserable, and when, in consequence, David falls behind in his studies, Murdstone attempts to thrash him – partly to further pain his mother. David bites him and soon afterwards is sent away to Salem House, a boarding school, under a ruthless headmaster named Mr Creakle.

There he befriends an older boy, James Steerforth, and Tommy Traddles. He develops an impassioned admiration for Steerforth, perceiving him as someone noble, who could do great things if he would, and one who pays attention to him. ...

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «دیوید کاپرفیلد»؛ «سرگذشت دیوید کاپرفیلد»؛ «داوید کاپرفیلد»؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز نخست ماه نوامبر سال 1971میلادی

مترجم: مسعود رجب نیا؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، 1342، در سه جلد، کتابهای پرستو، چاپ ششم، 1367 در 665ص، چاپ امیرکبیر، 1384 ، در 1030ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا- سده 19م

مترجم: رضا همراه، انتشارات اشراقی، 1353؛

مترجم: محمدرضا جعفری؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، کتابهای طلایی 19، در 43ص، مصور؛

مترجم: فرینوش ایرانبدی - خلاصه داستان؛ تلخیص: میشل وست؛ تهران، توسن، 1363، در 117ص

مترجم: ثریا نظمی - خلاصه داستان؛ تهران، دادجو، 1365، در 160ص

مترجم: علیرضا نعمتی؛ تهران، افشار، 1365، در 175ص

مترجم: خسرو شایسته؛ تهران، سپیده، 1369، در 174ص

مترجم: احمد پناهی خراسانی؛ مشهد، بنگاه کتاب، 1369، در 150ص

مترجم: امیر صادقی؛ تهران، ارغوان، 1372، در 144ص

مترجم: فریده نونهال؛ تهران، جانزاده، 1375، در 120ص

مترجم: ناصر ایراندوست؛ تهران، اردیبهشت، 1377، در 159ص

مترجم: علی فاطمیان؛ تهران، وزارت ارشاد - نشر چشم انداز، 1379، در 236ص

مترجم: مهدی سحابی؛ تهران، کتاب مریم، مرکز، چاپ چهارم برای نوجوانان 1385، در 120ص

مترجم: مهسا یزدانی؛ تهران، بهجت، 1388، بدون شماره ص

مترجم: محسن سلیمانی - متن کوتاه شده؛ تهران، افق، 1388، در 679ص

مترجم: امیر باهور؛ تهران، امیرکبیر کتابهای جیبی، 1389، در 211ص

مترجم: مریم سلحشور؛ قم، رخ مهتاب، 1391، در 242ص

مترجم: حسن زمانی - تلخیص؛ تهران، همشهری، 1391، در 118ص

مترجم: لیلا سبحانی؛ تهران، ثالث، 1392، در 208ص

مترجم: آرمین هدایتی؛ تهران، پارسه، 1393، در 243ص

مترجم: نعیمه ظاهری؛ قزوین، سایه گستر، 1393، مصور در 48ص

همین کتاب با عنوانهای: «سرگذشت دیوید کاپرفیلد» و «داوید کاپرفیلد» نیز چاپ شده است

دیوید کاپرفیلد، نام رمانی نوشتهٔ «چارلز دیکنز»، نویسندهٔ انگلیسی، و نیز نام شخصیت اصلی همین داستان است؛ این کتاب برای نخستین بار در سال 1850میلادی منتشر شد؛ «دیکنز» این کتاب را از سایر کتابهای خود برتر می‌دانستند، شاید از اینروی که رخدادهای هیجان‌انگیز، و بسیاری از عناصر داستان، برگرفته از رخدادهای زندگی خود ایشان بوده است، و می‌توان گفت: «بیش از دیگر رمانهایش، قالب اتوبیوگرافی دارد.»؛

شخصیت اصلی این داستان، «دیوید کاپرفیلد»، کودک مورد علاقه ی خود «دیکنز» نیز می‌باشد؛ «دیوید کاپرفیلد» به دوران پختگی، و کمال هنری «دیکنز» تعلق دارد؛ حجم انتقاد صریح اجتماعی، در این رمان کمتر از نوشته‌ های دیگر ایشان است؛ در این داستان، توجه نویسنده، بیشتر به ماجراهای خانگی، و روحانی است، تا بیدادهای اجتماعی؛ هرچند، با توجه به زندگی خود نویسنده، همچنان در این رمان، به مسائل روانشناختی، از دید اجتماعی، آشکارا توجه شده است؛ خفت‌های شخصیت «پیپ»، در این رمان، فرازجویی‌هایش، بزرگ منشی‌های به خود بسته‌ اش، و نیز ترقی و تنزلش، همه، نمادهای اجتماعی قابل شناخت‌، هستند؛

طرح کلی داستان: در داستان «دیوید» اول شخص است؛ در فصلهای نخست، «دیوید» را، همراه مادر جوانش می‌بینیم، مادری معبود «دیوید»، که آفریده ای است شیرین، و نازنین، اما ضعیف، و سبک مغز؛ «پگاتی»، که موجودی عجیب و غریب، و رفتارش تند و خشن، ولی دلش سرشار از مهر، و عطوفت است نیز، در کنار آنان است؛ رشتهٔ این زندگی آمیخته به عشق و محبت، با ازدواج بیوه ی جوان، با آقای «موردستون» مردی سنگدل، که در پس نقاب متانت مردانه پنهان شده، گسسته میشود؛ این مرد، به تحریک خواهرش، سرانجام باعث مرگ پیشرس همسر جوان و ساده دل خود میشود؛ «دیکنز»، تأثرات این کودک را، که نمی‌تواند با محیط تازه سازگار شود، و در لاک خود فرو میرود، استادانه شرح داده‌ است؛ ناپدری، کودک عاصی را، به مدرسه میفرستد، تا بدرفتاریهای آقای «کریکل ظالم» را تحمل کند؛ وی در مدرسه، نسبت به یکی از رفیقان خود، به نام «استیرفورث»، حس ستایش بی‌حدی پیدا میکند؛ او جوانکی است فریبنده، که بعداً باعث سرخوردگی دوستش میشود، و کودک با «ترادلز» مهربان، و خوش‌بین، که با کشیدن اسکلت، وقت میگذراند، صمیمی می‌شود؛ ناپدری «دیوید»، پس از آن، او را به کارهایی پست، در فروشگاه «موردستون و گرینبی»، در «لندن» محکوم میسازد؛ وی در آن ایام، در نهایت رنج و محنت، به سر میبرد، و این خود، بارتاب روزهایی است، که «دیکنز» در کودکی، در کارگاه کفش گذرانده بودند؛ خوشبختانه، دوستی با آقای «میکابر» و خانواده اش، جان تازه ای به او میبخشد؛ آقای «میکابر» یکی از آفریده های فناناپذیر «دیکنز» است.؛ و ...؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 16/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I found this book in a junk pile in a nearby neighborhood shop. I've been burnt by Dickens before (Tale of two Cities). I swore up and down I would never suffer through a another Dickens book ever again. When I spotted this beautiful mint condition vintage copy of David Copperfield, I just couldn't resist. It was free and it seemed like such a shame to just leave it there. It was snowy and damp and I knew if someone didn't rescue it it would become sinfully ruined. I knew if I took it home I was going to force myself to read it sooner or later, one way or another. So picking it up and actually taking it home was an inevitable commitment. The book is 881 pages long.. Once I start reading I go all the way. I have a no abandonment rule, but this one almost pushed me to change that rule. It started off great, at first I couldn't believe that this was the same writer who wrote A Tale of Two Cities. To me reading a Tale of Two Cities was like trying to read Sanskrit. I was initially glad to have given Dickens a second try because I would have otherwise missed his literary diversity...that's what I first thought...Then like 250 pages in I realized I was suckered into it AGAIN!! Gorgeously written but incredibly and painfully dull. David Copperfield annoyed me so much. There was nothing romantic or noteworthy about his entire story. It was like being forced to watch someone else's boring home-videos. It lacked maturity. It seemed like he never grew up to be a man, and remained a rosy-cheeked, self-back-patting little ass-kisser. Then you gotta love how Dickens conveniently kills off his wife Dora so he can have the opportunity to marry his REAL true love, Agnes, whom he never even knew he loved. How romantic. Just what every woman dreams of being.. sloppy seconds. It's not even worth getting into the rest of the reasons why I didn't enjoy the story, so I'll wrap it up by saying:
If I'm ever rummaging through another junk pile of books, and I run across another Dickens, I don't care if the light of God is shining it's golden rays on it, and inside is a map that leads me to a treasure of flawless fist-full chunks of diamonds, I will never ever take another Dickens home ever again.



To all the people who gave this 5 stars..

you lie.

My first Dickens, this book came highly recommended to me and after jumping around this for almost three years I finally managed to read it this time. This book was also a big achievement for me in terms of classics last year. I started three classics, putting them on halt for other books at different times. This is the only tome (classic) that I finished. So yeah, it was a huge achievement for me, especially because I loved it.

So am not going to write here what this book is about as almost everyone must be aware of its content here. Instead I will put in few lines what I like about this:

I loved that little scared child, who loved his mother from the bottom of his heart who despite all her efforts couldn’t save him from the Murdstones. My heart went out for this afraid, stammering kid. And perhaps this hard behavior honed him into something strong that held him up in the tough times, inspired him to go on and never stop.

If Murdstones’ cruelty made him strong then his aunt Betse Trotwood and his nurse, Peggotty, showed him how to love, trust, and hope. It was just so beautiful to see them carve him into a good man.

As he became a man, friends i.e. Micawber and Traddles, taught him to smile and made him an honest man.

But Agnes put soul into this hard, strong, and loving man. She inspired him to keep doing good deeds. She calmed him in spite of going through hell herself. Just like David, I was in awe of this girl/woman throughout the book.

This book left me bittersweet. Bitter because I was not ready to say good bye to these characters yet and sweet because it ended on a high note. I heaved a huge sigh of relief after seeing my favorite people getting what they deserved.

Such a simple yet an absolutely beautiful book.

n  "Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest."n
–Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

When I began my journey with David Copperfield, I could hardly have expected the emotion that this book would wring from me.

The story opens just before David’s birth and progresses throughout his lifetime. I laughed along with him and his carer, Peggotty, as they played together. I settled in by the fire with David and his widowed, childlike mother to bask in the warmth of their family and, as Master Copperfield grew, my love for him swelled. But this tale is not all sunshine and lollipops - far from it! By the time I had realized what lay ahead, I was too enmeshed to turn back. My heart was shredded so many times that I had to put my kindle down and walk away because I couldn’t stand another moment of pain. I always returned because I couldn’t leave the dear boy alone.

I cursed those who had hurt my treasured lad, but David remained ever hopeful and bright, even in the face of impossible odds. He shared this faith with me, along with laughter, love, and hope of a more glorious day to come.

David Copperfield will, from this day forth, be one of my favorite books. Dickens' writing, of course, is pure gold with delicious, buttery prose gracing every page. This novel may have splintered my heart and dragged it through the mud, but in the end, Charles Dickens put everything right, and I’m all the better for reading it!

A big thank you to Martha. Her passionate review convinced me to add this!


n  "At the appointed time, we stood at the door—the door of that house where I had been, a few days since, so happy; where my youthful confidence and warmth of the heart had been yielded up so freely; which was closed against me henceforth; which was now a waste, a ruin."n

n  "That at this sight Mrs. Markleham dropped the newspaper, and stared more like a figure-head intended for a ship to be called The Astonishment, than anything else I can think of."n

n  "How well I recollect the wintry ride! The frozen particles of ice, brushed from the blades of grass by the wind, and borne across my face; the hard clatter of the horse’s hoofs, beating a tune upon the ground; the stiff-tilled soil; the snowdrift, lightly eddying in the chalk-pit as the breeze ruffled it; the smoking team with the waggon of old hay, stopping to breathe on the hill-top, and shaking their bells musically; the whitened slopes and sweeps of Down-land lying against the dark sky, as if they were drawn on a huge slate!"n

Ever since I learnt that this book was Tolstoy's inspiration behind Andrei and Lise's marriage in War & Peace I've been desperate to read it...

n  BETWEEN SORROW AND JOYn

Charles Dickens
by Dorothy Parker
Who call him spurious and shoddy
Shall do it o'er my lifeless body.
I heartily invite such birds
To come outside and say those words!

I would like to avoid a close encounter with Dorothy Parker’s ghost at all costs – although I bet it is as witty and smart as she was! – so let us put down the curtain of silence on:

☛ My severe mid-novel crisis when I considered ditching David Copperfield.

☛ All the moments when I felt exhausted with Dickens’ verbosity. Some passages felt like padded with cottonwool of words.

☛ The annoying child wife, Dora, aka Little Blossom – a young woman who behaves like a five-year-old, calls herself ‘a silly goose’ and acts accordingly. Everyone but me seemed to be thrilled by her. I turned out to be immune to this mist of love and beauty.

☛ An abrupt ending. On the one hand, I could not wait for the finale because the novel truly dragged in the last chapters. It felt as if Dickens had been appointed a certain number of pages by the publisher and had to stick to it, which is actually quite probable, as David Copperfield was published as a serial first. On the other hand, there was something superficial in concluding the protagonist's love life so fast and easily. The novel appeared in instalments over a period of eighteen months and that can explain Dickens' haste in some passages and unevenness. Some chapters are like intricate medallions while others seem rough and messy.

☛ A series of unbelievable coincidences, like a stranger from England handing a newspaper with a description of the storm and its sad consequences to Mr Peggoty and Em’ly.

☛ Sometimes melodrama verges on the cloying.


Illustration by Glen Ketchum.

Let us not discuss these topics then but bask in the warmth and beauty of this novel instead. This warmth and beauty are facts, no matter how irritating some passages are.

Writing a review of David Copperfield (1850) is a task similar to squishing impressions from a five-week journey into a postcard. Suffice it to say, silence is tempting. Nabokov confessed in his Lectures on Literature: If it were possible I would like to devote the fifty minutes of every class meeting to mute meditation, concentration, and admiration of Dickens. Mute meditation might not translate well into an online review so let me tell you about the things that surprised and struck me the most:

✵ The musicality of Dickens’ prose which turns into poetry at times.
That was the biggest surprise! Just an example: “No, Copperfield!—No communication—a—until—Miss Wickfield—a—redress from wrongs inflicted by consummate scoundrel—HEEP!” (I am quite convinced he could not have uttered three words, but for the amazing energy with which this word inspired him when he felt it coming.) “Inviolable secret—a—from the whole world—a—no exceptions—this day week—a—at breakfast time—a—everybody present—including aunt—a—and extremely friendly gentleman—to be at the hotel at Canterbury—a—where—Mrs. Micawber and myself—Auld Lang Syne in chorus—and—a—will expose intolerable ruffian—HEEP!” Of course, it was Mr Micawber whose tirades sometimes drove me crazy. Another example of such lyrical, musical style is Em'ly's dramatic letter which sounds like a lament. Besides, some characters' sayings constantly recur like a refrain, for instance, Mrs Gummidge's: I'm a lone lorn creetur, which I adored!

✵ The theatricality of David Copperfield.
Most of the events take place in interiors, there are lots of dialogues, there is something theatrical in the way Dickens' characters behave at times - for example, the way Em'ly acts when Rosa screams at her. And the chapter in which the narrator tells us what happened to the characters afterwards: it looks like they were called onto the stage one by one to bow, receive applause and stand in the spotlight for the last time. It does not surprise me much that the number of theatrical and film adaptations of David Copperfield is vast.

✵ The psychological portrayals of characters.
Dickens nailed it. My favourites are unforgettable aunt Betsey Trotwood, Peggotty, a living proof that a loving heart was was better and stronger than wisdom (how could Dickens marginalise her in the last chapters!) and obsessively sentimental Miss Julia Mills (I felt livid when I read what happened to her afterwards according to Dickens, I refuse to believe in that!). And I must not forget about simple Dick - mad Dick - if I had not been Dickens' fan already, I would have become one immediately seeing how emphatically he portrayed a mentally challenged person in the times when people like Mr Dick were usually treated with disgust and fear. And Miss Rosa Dartle! No way I can forget her. I think she is one of the best and most controversial characters ever! Last but not least: Jip, Dora's spaniel and his complex relationship with aunt Betsey! As for David Copperfield and me, well, it was not a crush. He frequently irritated me and I cannot forgive him two moments of passivity: when it was revealed what had happened to Em'ly and during the conversation between Em'ly and infuriated Rosa which he was eavesdropping.


Illustration by Ron Embleton.

✵ Dickens' sense of humour.
I simply fell in love with it again. A lovely and unique blend of hilarity, irony, melancholy and compassion.

✵ The originality of David Copperfield as a novel.
In 1850 Dickens' book was probably assessed as genre-defying. It is not just a typical, predictable novel. There are elements of an autobiography, a social novel, a novel of manners, a bildungsroman. Besides, it includes a newspaper article, a few letters, Miss Mills' diary - a brilliant parody of a sentimental journal (Are tears the dewdrops of the heart?). Some parts are written in the present tense which was probably shocking then, just like the usage of the Suffolk dialect of the Peggottys (by the way, they were Dickens' favourite characters of the novel).

What was different from my first encounter with David Copperfield many years ago? I was about thirteen then. My reaction to the episodes from David’s childhood changed. When I read this book aeons ago I felt very sorry for the poor boy but it felt like an exciting adventure story at the same time. Now I found this part of the novel emotionally draining. David’s experiences made me even think of The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski though of course, Dickens’ book is not as brutal. The grisly things that kept happening to David really hurt me, especially when he was abused by adults. Nevertheless, I think it was the best part of the book. It was written so vividly! No wonder George Orwell, reading David Copperfield at age nine, was sure the author was a child.

It is depressing to realize that the protagonist's misfortunes were based on the author's: Charles was employed in a blacking factory when he was twelve. I am not surprised Dickens was not able to talk with his family and friends about his traumatic experiences as a child labourer. In a way his situation was worse than David’s – the protagonist was an orphan while Charles’ parents were the ones who decided to send him to work. He could never come to terms with it.

I was surprised to find out that Dickens considered David Copperfield his best novel. Unfortunately, I beg leave to differ. Maybe the autobiographical background might have distorted his objectivity. Personally, I much prefer Great Expectations. David Copperfield was much more to Dickens than just another book. In his letter to John Foster from 21st October 1850 he describes the final touches: I am within three pages of the shore; and am strangely divided, as usual in such cases, between sorrow and joy. Oh, my dear Forster, if I were to say half of what Copperfield makes me feel to-night, how strangely, even to you, I should be turned inside-out! I seem to be sending some part of myself into the Shadowy World.

That is exactly how I felt when I finished the last page of David Copperfield. Between sorrow and joy.


Illustration by Felicita Sala.

Dickens competes for the running in my top spots, with Kafka and Tolkien. This novel marks the most potent, well-written, and skillful piece of literature I have yet read. It may be my favorite; time will reveal.

In the preface, Dickens writes, “…like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.”

My first experience with the impact of Dicken’s potency unfolded when he had rebelled against Murdstone, his stepfather, and would be sent away. Pegotty, the housekeeper, comes to his room at night, where he is locked in, and kneels by the door in tears and pleading goodbye to him, pouring out her heart of love upon him. It’s emotional and intense. I couldn’t refrain from an unconscious tendency to hear sad violin music and hear people around me weeping at the scene. He has many of these potent moments, especially in the end.

Here are some characters, in brief:
Murdstone: As mentioned already, the step-father, a hard, mean man, who manifests the times concerning child mistreatment. His sister treats David like a wild, troublesome dog.

Betsy Trotwood: His aunt, who in the beginning sounds harsh, but accepts David when he runs away in tears, with deep love and compassion. She has enormous self-will and is bold in her wordings.
I enjoy how Dickens lets the reader make the judgments and shows skill in unveiling someone’s character as life would unveil it, until circumstance show that person who they are. Perfect examples of the famous writer line: “show, don’t tell.”

Micawber: A man who struggles throughout the novel to take care of his family, with continual hardship. David loves the man.
Another point about this novel—the main character isn’t the center. If you take away the people in his life, his personal well-being doesn’t change much, except that he cares deeply for his friends.

Steerforth: David idolizes the young man, a charismatic leader type, the kind girls in high school swoon over. He calls David “Daisy,” which I found rather disdainful, but David loved, although he seemed blinded by what psychologists call “The Halo Effect.” Steerforth also becomes a revelation of character.

Traddles: David’s friend. Comical guy. I remember him for his red hair always sticking up and having a worried look on his face. Again, Traddles changes throughout the book, so the use of development and revelation both.

Ham: Peggoty’s nephew and fiancé to Emily, a crush of David, in the beginning.

Emily: A young, sweet lady who finds herself in trouble throughout the novel, but again, David helps his friends.

Dora Spenlow: She becomes David’s wife, and I judged her as rather a mistake, as David regretted marrying her for a respite, urged by his infatuation with her cuteness and childlikeness.
Another thing about Dickens: he shows you yourself through his characters. I judged her one way, but when Dora goes through some things later, I realized that I loved her very much, and wanted the best for her. I guess I can hint a spoiler and say this made me terribly sad.

Uriah Heep: In my opinion, the greatest villain ever created, so far that I’ve read. He had me, even though Copperfield believed otherwise (another talent of Dickens, letting the reader differ in opinion from a first-person narrator). In the end he shows what really hides inside him, and it scared the hell out of me. I’ve read the most dangerous weapon in an enemy’s hand is trust, and Heep had mine, until that “moment.”

Agnes: This woman grows up with David and stays by his side through all his troubles, always giving him hope and reminding him to look up. Agnes has a secret, and it pulls the whole book together at the conclusion.


He pulls everything together with precision and accuracy, the best ending writer I’ve read. He has powerful resonance that makes you close it and stare at the cover, then when you see the book again, it comes over you again, and you feel it.

Dickens has sentiment, heart and emotion.

The end is worth the entire journey of this long masterpiece. It’s like a reward for our time and attention. The ending holds my favorite parts. I’ll never forget this book because of it.

At one point in the book, near the end, Copperfield becomes depressed. Through all this he remembers one constant, which he, and the reader notice only in passing, as David did until the end, when that becomes the main thing (*review writer forces himself to stop there to prevent spoiler.)

The characters are real people to me, like I’ve been with them and know them.

David Copperfield shares his deepest, most intimate thoughts in the experience. I liked when he refers to, “I can see it now. I see…,” as if you are old acquaintances up late by a fire, sipping tea or coffee and catching up on life, until early hours of the morning, because the book ends, and you have to go back across the sea.

I already miss them. They are as real and loved to me as the characters in The Lord of the Rings, whom I visit again every year, in another turn of Middle Earth’s great Wheel.

Most of all, Copperfield himself, this biblical Job of nineteenth-century England, with such a kind, humble heart, who lives for and loves his friends.

I picked up this book in a bookstore (if you can believe it), not really thinking I'd buy such a big pile of pages in classical English, figuring it would bore the hell out of me.

I read the first page.

I then proceeded to the counter, and bought it.

This is the beginning of my love story with "David Copperfield", an absolute favorite. It takes a particular mindset to read it I think, so it took me a while to finish it, matching my reading moments with that mindset as much as possible. You need a romantic side and you need to be able to get in touch with it in order to enjoy this book, but if you give this tale a chance, it will nurture that sensitive side and make you get tears of joy.

This book is a biography of a wonderful, semi-fictional person, David Copperfield, whose ordeals and adventures are based on those experienced by Charles Dickens. David's thoughts are generous and because this book is written from his perspective, everything he describes around him is depicted in their best possible light. The world is such a nice place through his eyes, even in the most dreary situations of poverty, abandonment and death of loved ones. Plenty of songs of happiness and love are sung in this book, but like in every life, there is not just that. Sadness, death, loss, heartache become beautiful because of their purity and their core of warmth, a warmth so well expressed in this book. Betrayal and jealousy become even uglier when put next to the purer feelings.

It hasn't always been an easy read. Some passages are rather slow and a rare couple of segments that were meant to be funny have somehow lost their edge (most humourous instances still retain their power over your mouth corners and unshaken belly, though. They will yield, I assure you!). The local dialects in which some of the protagonists speak sometimes make it very difficult to understand for a non-native English speaker like myself.

I have read this book with a little notebook next to me to take down the most memorable quotes. It was difficult not to just simply copy entire pages at times. Here are some of my favorite quotes -who are really stories in themselves- which show the timeless humour and the great pen of an author who has shown that the most naive thing to be is to be anything but continuously amazed with the wonders all around you:

“Be thankful for me, if you have a kind heart, as I think you have, that while I know well what I am, I can be cheerful and endure it all. I am thankful for myself, at any rate, that I can find my tiny way through the world, without being beholden to anyone; and that in return for all that is thrown at me, in folly or vanity, as I go along, I can throw bubbles back.”

"Very much admired, indeed, the young woman was. What with her dress; what with the air and sun; what with being made so much of; what with this, that, and the other; her merits really attracted general notice."

"This country I am come to conquer! Have you honours? Have you riches? Have you posts of profitable pecuniary emolument? Let them be brought forward. They are mine!"

"Oh the river! I know it's like me! I know that I belong to it. I know that it's the natural company of such as I am! It comes from country places, where there was no harm in it - and it creeps through the dismal streets, defiled and miserable - and it goes away, like my life, to a great sea that is always troubled and I feel that I must go with it."

"If, any sunny forenoon, she had spread a little pair of wings and flown away before my eyes, I don't expect I should have regarded it as much more than I had had reason to expect."

"And if ever, in my life, I have had a void made in my heart, I had one made that day."

"I shall never forget the waking next morning; the being cheerful and fresh for the first moment, and then the being weighed down by the stale and dismal oppression of remembrance."

"It would be no pleasure to a London tradesman to sell anything which was what he pretended it was."

"...and that she desired her compliments, which was a polite fiction on my part."

"When I woke next morning, I was resolute to declare my passion to Dora, and know my fate. Happiness or misery was now the question. There was no other question that I knew of in the world, and only Dora could give the answer to it."

"Love must suffer in this stern world; it ever had been so, it ever would be so. No matter. Hearts confined by cobwebs would burst at last, and then Love was avenged."

If you love Love, with the big L, you'll love this Book.

David Copperfield is an early queer novel by Charles Dickens. It follows David Copperfield, a gay man in early 19th century England, as he tries to seduce and betroth another gay man, James Steerforth. Copperfield first sets his eyes on Steerforth at Salem House where they both must subdue their love for each other, giving their age difference and the society of the time. However, as the novel progresses, Copperfield and Steerforth live openly as a homosexual couple.

Their relationship comes into peril when Dora Spenlow, a jealous fag hag, refuses to continue living as Copperfield's beard and forces him to marry her. Thus, Copperfield and Steerforth break apart. All seems lost until Copperfield befriends Tommy Traddles, another boy whose acquaintance he had made at Salem House. They partake in a salubrious love affair to which Dickens pens several hundred pages of steamy man-on-man action. However, once again this relationship is cast into peril by that bitter old queen Uriah Heep.

Uriah Heep is a mean gay and the epitome of masc4masc culture. Heep sees Copperfield as fit young otter and attempts to kill off Traddles by throwing pearls beneath his feet à la Showgirls. However his plan is spoiled after his findom daddy, Mr. Micawber (the man who famously threw the first brick at Stonewall), repossess his pearls because Heep refuses to send him any more daguerreotypes of his feet.

Or, in other words:

David Copperfield is more of the same from Dickens. More straight-forward than some of his previous novels, Dickens instead relies on verisimilitude rather than ridiculousness in order to tell this story. It is a pity as the more outrageous Dickens is, the more I enjoy him. However, despite this novel only receiving three-stars from me, it is still better than most novels ever written. It is only 'three-stars' within Dickens' own bibliography and not the greater Western canon. It probably would have been four-stars if he had included more chapters with Miss Mowcher.

4+ stars. Charles Dickens has an amazing (if long-winded) way with words.

We follow David Copperfield from his very youngest days as a baby, through boyhood (featuring his childlike mother and cruel stepfather), school days (starring opposite friends Steerforth and Traddles), unhappy child worker, falling in love with a lovely but frustratingly dim young lady (echoes of his mother), and young manhood.

A few of the characters in this semi-autobiographical novel are Victorian stereotypes, but others fairly leap off the page—wonderful Aunt Betsey and loyal Traddles were two of my favorites.

Full review to come!

May/June 2020 group read with the Dickensians! group. The discussion threads are amazing. Somehow I bypassed this one when I was a college English major, so I’m rectifying that omission now.