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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
OMG get an editor other than yourself. Consider fewer commas. Brevity can be your friend. As a librarian pointed out to me, he was paid by the word. Yeesh.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
This took a long time it’s quite rambly and also sometimes difficult to understand since I wasn’t born in the 1800s England. I loved getting to see how Demon Copperhead compared that was the best.
Impressive craft and characters for a story that's like 855 pages. I like this one better than Oliver Twist.
I loved this book! Thank you, Richard Armitage, for bringing these characters to life so vividly on audio. I shall never forget Miss Betsey Trotwood (and vile Uriah Heep!) and how much your performance added to the experience.
While this book was too long and wordy for me to say that I loved it, I did enjoy it — Dickens has crafted quite a cast of characters and does a magnificent job tying up every loose end one could possibly think of. Obviously this is a semi-autobiographical work, so Dickens has taken some liberties with character arcs, but there are other scenes that breathe so vibrantly that he had to have experienced that exact memory, for to create it from thin air would be nothing short of magic.
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.
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.
DNF.
I enjoyed the first-person perspective.
The wit, the humor, the poetry in Dicken’s writing is absent here. Those elements will usually make the dry portions interesting and pleasant, but with none here then. It was a long and slow read.
It starts out fast: death and misery. A hard time for young naive David as he’s passed around, mistreated and neglected. Then it slows to crawl.
Maybe it gets better, but there’s a point when nothing significant happening for chapters and chapters.
Up to the point I read, the usual Dickensian colorful characters are mosty missing. Uriah may be only strange one.
“ In fact,’ said Mrs. Micawber, lowering her voice,—‘this is between ourselves—our reception was cool.’
‘Dear me!’ I said.”
Edit:
Skimming...skimming...
“Her life will be well employed! Useful and happy, as she said that day!”
“When I loved her—“. Wait, no longer? This is the problem of skimming.
Edit:
Wait, that doesn’t make sense. She made deathbed promise, but then made no effort. That’s not cute.
Edit:
Not much in lessons here except bad things happen, and good things happen.
“Did it change her much?” We asked.
“Aye, for a good long time,” he said...
“but I think the solitoode done her good...”
Edit:
“...thus they wear their time away,”
I enjoyed the first-person perspective.
The wit, the humor, the poetry in Dicken’s writing is absent here. Those elements will usually make the dry portions interesting and pleasant, but with none here then. It was a long and slow read.
It starts out fast: death and misery. A hard time for young naive David as he’s passed around, mistreated and neglected. Then it slows to crawl.
Maybe it gets better, but there’s a point when nothing significant happening for chapters and chapters.
Up to the point I read, the usual Dickensian colorful characters are mosty missing. Uriah may be only strange one.
“ In fact,’ said Mrs. Micawber, lowering her voice,—‘this is between ourselves—our reception was cool.’
‘Dear me!’ I said.”
Edit:
Skimming...skimming...
“Her life will be well employed! Useful and happy, as she said that day!”
“When I loved her—“. Wait, no longer? This is the problem of skimming.
Edit:
Wait, that doesn’t make sense. She made deathbed promise, but then made no effort. That’s not cute.
Edit:
Not much in lessons here except bad things happen, and good things happen.
“Did it change her much?” We asked.
“Aye, for a good long time,” he said...
“but I think the solitoode done her good...”
Edit:
“...thus they wear their time away,”
If I could give it ten stars I would. I've never belly laughed and then sobbed so much at a book. It is absolutely perfect.