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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is my favourite book. Every other book I read is measured to how it compares to the joy of reading David Copperfield!
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Horrible. I only read this in preparation for Demon Copperhead. Dickens has not gotten any better since high school.
emotional
funny
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Not my favorite Dickens but a good one. 800 pages, wow.
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
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.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
New favorite novel alert! This one is going on my list of all-time greats. I've always been a Dickens fan in the way that anybody who likes Victorian literature must be. Obviously his prose are exquisite, his social commentary about London's underclass is affecting and deep, and his characters are some of the most vibrant and memorable in the world. Before reading this novel, I probably would have said my favorite Dickens was Oliver Twist. Now, David Copperfield takes the trophy by a LONG SHOT. This novel was amazing! I never wanted to stop living in this world with these characters.
There were so many outstanding portraits of fascinating, original, flawed yet ultimately good people. The whole Peggoty clan, Betsey Trotwood (icon and owner of my whole soul), Steerforth, who kind of broke my heart... all of them are so vivid and interesting to me. I'm always somewhat surprised to find that Dickens writes very good morally grey characters. Not everyone is a total paragon of virtue (although Agnes seems to be) or a totally villainous cretin (we can probably safely put the Murdstones in this category). For the most part, people fall in the middle. Steerforth is a selfish and privileged young man who has never had to face real hardship in his life, and he does terrible things and seems unfeeling to the plight of others. BUT, he seems to form a genuine connection with the people of Yarmouth, and while we don't get a ton of insight into his relationship with Emily, it seems likely that there was an underpinning of genuine feeling there. Micawber is obviously primarily there as a comedic figure, but his pecuniary troubles are not to be confused with malicious fraud or manipulation. He is a mess, but he actually genuinely loves and cares for his family and for David, Traddles, and the rest.
Look at David himself - sure, in some ways he's a bit generic. A steadfast and hard worker who undergoes many trials and tribulations in his life, but never turns away from the path of good. But he's also realistically a person. A person who, when a child, goofs off and falls into ridiculously simple traps. A person who falls in love too easily and fails to understand that Dora will not make him a good match. A person who let Agnes and her father suffer under the yolk of Uriah Heep for far too long, when he might have had the means of preventing it. He has his flaws, and yet his goodness ultimately shines through, and the proof is in the pudding - he is well liked by so many of the truly good-natured characters that fill the pages of this book.
I also love the way that the "ruined" women in this book are not completely written off as sad and wasted waifs, or as completely "damaged" human beings. In fact, while Steerforth meets an untimely end, his "victim" Emily lives out her days in comfort with her uncle and seems genuinely contented. Another "fallen woman," Martha, actually gets married, and her past is known and accepted by her husband. That's a level of open-mindedness that you might not expect from a book published in 1850. But that's part of what makes Dickens so great. He is genuinely trying to write about people as people. His well-meaning narratives can tend to favor the idea of poverty as nobility, which is obviously troubling, but he allows for some morally grey characters to fill his world at every station of life, and ultimately creates an interesting and touchingly personal array of characters along the way.
I also loved that this story had a happy ending for almost everyone! There was tragedy - Dora, Ham, David's mother, even Steerforth - and those losses cut deep and make a lasting impact on David (the fact that he and Agnes name one of their daughters Dora gave me all the feels. How many times to you read a story about a second marriage where the first marriage is given such honor?). But despite the losses, almost everyone lives happily ever after. The last time I read a Dickens novel that I didn't know anything about, it was The Old Curiosity Shop. And when I realized that Nell was going to DIE, I was kind of thrown. I thought it was a book about patient suffering that would then be rewarded, and I guess it kind of was, but Nell dying just felt like too harsh of a blow. In this book, I was seriously afraid that Emily, or Mr. Peggoty, or maybe Aunt Trotwood, weren't going to make it to the end. But instead most of the large cast survived and prospered, and it didn't feel trite or contrived whatsoever.
I'm just so happy with this book. God, that Dickens guy can really write, huh?
There were so many outstanding portraits of fascinating, original, flawed yet ultimately good people. The whole Peggoty clan, Betsey Trotwood (icon and owner of my whole soul), Steerforth, who kind of broke my heart... all of them are so vivid and interesting to me. I'm always somewhat surprised to find that Dickens writes very good morally grey characters. Not everyone is a total paragon of virtue (although Agnes seems to be) or a totally villainous cretin (we can probably safely put the Murdstones in this category). For the most part, people fall in the middle. Steerforth is a selfish and privileged young man who has never had to face real hardship in his life, and he does terrible things and seems unfeeling to the plight of others. BUT, he seems to form a genuine connection with the people of Yarmouth, and while we don't get a ton of insight into his relationship with Emily, it seems likely that there was an underpinning of genuine feeling there. Micawber is obviously primarily there as a comedic figure, but his pecuniary troubles are not to be confused with malicious fraud or manipulation. He is a mess, but he actually genuinely loves and cares for his family and for David, Traddles, and the rest.
Look at David himself - sure, in some ways he's a bit generic. A steadfast and hard worker who undergoes many trials and tribulations in his life, but never turns away from the path of good. But he's also realistically a person. A person who, when a child, goofs off and falls into ridiculously simple traps. A person who falls in love too easily and fails to understand that Dora will not make him a good match. A person who let Agnes and her father suffer under the yolk of Uriah Heep for far too long, when he might have had the means of preventing it. He has his flaws, and yet his goodness ultimately shines through, and the proof is in the pudding - he is well liked by so many of the truly good-natured characters that fill the pages of this book.
I also love the way that the "ruined" women in this book are not completely written off as sad and wasted waifs, or as completely "damaged" human beings. In fact, while Steerforth meets an untimely end, his "victim" Emily lives out her days in comfort with her uncle and seems genuinely contented. Another "fallen woman," Martha, actually gets married, and her past is known and accepted by her husband. That's a level of open-mindedness that you might not expect from a book published in 1850. But that's part of what makes Dickens so great. He is genuinely trying to write about people as people. His well-meaning narratives can tend to favor the idea of poverty as nobility, which is obviously troubling, but he allows for some morally grey characters to fill his world at every station of life, and ultimately creates an interesting and touchingly personal array of characters along the way.
I also loved that this story had a happy ending for almost everyone! There was tragedy - Dora, Ham, David's mother, even Steerforth - and those losses cut deep and make a lasting impact on David (the fact that he and Agnes name one of their daughters Dora gave me all the feels. How many times to you read a story about a second marriage where the first marriage is given such honor?). But despite the losses, almost everyone lives happily ever after. The last time I read a Dickens novel that I didn't know anything about, it was The Old Curiosity Shop. And when I realized that Nell was going to DIE, I was kind of thrown. I thought it was a book about patient suffering that would then be rewarded, and I guess it kind of was, but Nell dying just felt like too harsh of a blow. In this book, I was seriously afraid that Emily, or Mr. Peggoty, or maybe Aunt Trotwood, weren't going to make it to the end. But instead most of the large cast survived and prospered, and it didn't feel trite or contrived whatsoever.
I'm just so happy with this book. God, that Dickens guy can really write, huh?
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced