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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
The first 200 pages were fun fun fun. I loved the nanny whose buttons pop off when she gets excited.
But so much of this was just OK. The romances were predictable and the deaths were weird and unexplained. Some of this was redeemed by the aunt and Mr. Dick, who were well-drawn and easy to root for.
I'm glad I read this, but it didn't wow me like [b:A Tale of Two Cities|1953|A Tale of Two Cities|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344922523s/1953.jpg|2956372] or [b:Oliver Twist|18254|Oliver Twist|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327868529s/18254.jpg|3057979]. David's childhood was interesting, but perhaps an abridged version is a good choice for folks wishing to get the gist but not willing to spend weeks David's ho-hum adult years.
But so much of this was just OK. The romances were predictable and the deaths were weird and unexplained. Some of this was redeemed by the aunt and Mr. Dick, who were well-drawn and easy to root for.
I'm glad I read this, but it didn't wow me like [b:A Tale of Two Cities|1953|A Tale of Two Cities|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344922523s/1953.jpg|2956372] or [b:Oliver Twist|18254|Oliver Twist|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327868529s/18254.jpg|3057979]. David's childhood was interesting, but perhaps an abridged version is a good choice for folks wishing to get the gist but not willing to spend weeks David's ho-hum adult years.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
…34 hours later. The audiobook was charming and relaxing, but I think the only characters I will miss are Aunt Trotwood, Mr. Dick, and Jip.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have a lot to say about Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. So I’m going to fly through the reviews as best I can.
Synopsis: Loved Demon Copperhead. Made me look back and realize I actually like most of the Pulitzer-winners that I’ve read. (The Goldfinch had me feeling otherwise for years.) Also had a few strange experiences with the reading, which I will detail below. Appreciate David Copperfield, but not my favorite Dickens. In fact, I was yelling at the car playing the audio because I was so frustrated with some narrative choices.
Even though I read Copperfield because I was about to read Copperhead, I’m going to save the chief attraction for last, and begin with the classic. I read it first. It came first.
David Copperfield is a very large book, 175 years old. I knew it would be a slog. (I do love A Christmas Carol, but it’s so much briefer.) Therefore, I found myself an audio copy and listened during my 10-hour drive to and from a writing residency in not-east Tennessee. (And once again I am reading a book in the place where it was written, in this case on a farm in rural Appalachia (though the foothills). This happens to me surprisingly often, by accident. I’m referring to Copperhead here. You’ll see.) I still had hours of audio left when I returned. The audio is more than 34 hours.
First: it was worth it. It was very similar to reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) before reading James (Percival Everett). Both James and Copperhead stand on their own, but there is so much missed without reading the book it was adapted from. I’ll just say it now: chances are you’ll read Copperhead without Copperfield, and that’s okay. But doing so gives you a deeper, more contextual experience when you’ve just read the classic.
I was pretty impatient with Copperfield, even though I was listening to it. (Some people say that Copperhead is too long, but it felt like a breeze, to me. I’m not being facetious. I thought Kingsolver tightened things up admirably.) Dickens is ridiculously long-winded in David Copperfield, which I am told is because he was being paid by installment, but I also understand it to be because people didn’t have much to do of an evening except read some long-winded story together. And their attention span and patience were generally much better.
The yelling at the car was because some of the plot turns and characters were actually infuriating, and I don’t mean the villains (though they fall prey to the Victorian idea that bad guys look like bad guys). Dora was the worst. And Copperfield’s relationship with her was toxic and weird, all the way through. Also, you know because of the stupid choices regarding her that Copperfield makes, that she’s gonna have to be a casualty to the larger story, and it’s like, “Why? Why paint her into this tragic corner?” Dora’s a big part of the story. Yuck. (There is also a fair amount of older man-marries-woman-who-is-his-charge-in-some-way, which I know some modern readers freak the heck out about. Admittedly, it was a bit over-the-top in this one, even for me, who has a stomach for it (and its societal context) usually.)
Such drama! Such tears! Dickens can go on for pages about a description or a transition, repeating ideas until you’re bored to tears, and then he’ll round a corner, and something will finally happen and all the characters dissolve into tears, anger, fear, just about any giant emotion, throwing their bodies around and, just, crying. Like all the time. There are also a number of tricks Dickens uses to keep his first-person POV which don’t quite work (like going someplace just to listen at a door? Like being a random witness called for who-knows-what reason? Like getting inexplicable letters or running into people). I was already balking at some of this when near the end, Copperfield goes to tour a jail with Tommy. Um, why? And that those two prisoners are the ones featured on the tour is laughably ridiculous. Word-of-mouth or a letter would have sufficed.
At the same time, Dickens is a brilliant writer, and Copperfield is important not just for the well-drawn and diverse characters, the humor, the intricate plot, the turns of phrase, but also because Dickens was writing to expose the mistreatment of children and the poor. He was pointing at victims of the social structure, including women. Copperfield is an important book in history and also a classic for a reason. But it’s long. And it has some issues, owing partly to the way books were written, sold, and consumed at the time.
And then I picked up Demon Copperhead. I was in with the lyrical, descriptive, and voice-y writing from page one, yet I still had to adjust before I could read it fluidly. (This happens to me with plenty of books. I am told this is the way people read my books. It takes some adjustment.) Because of the type of story it is (same with Copperfield), we’re not asking any big questions about the plot; we are on a journey. Modern readers mostly like a “mystery,” a question to ask, from page one (or at least that’s what publishers tell us). There is not really a specific question we’re asking here, just “What will become of this kid?” Copperhead is a character-driven life-story. Likely, you will be swept up into it, eventually. I was.
Copperhead won the Pulitzer in 2023. It also won the Women’s Prize. It also won a number of other things. It has a Goodreads rating of 4.48, which means a vast majority of readers really like or love it. It is now available in paperback (which took three years!). And I loved it. It’s frankly just a great book.
The voice is so strong and endearing. The writing is great. It is funny and tragic. It is engaging. I thought it suffered a little from the sprawl of it all, but that’s thanks to the pattern it was given and the type of book it is (see earlier paragraph). Because this is an adaptation, even more than James. It follows the plot, the order of scenes, directly. It has almost all the same characters, just with modified names, like David to Damon, Copperfield to Copperhead. (See below.) Kingsolver did not event this story, but she did a freaking amazing job at moving it into rural, Southern Appalachia, the 90s and naughts. What was the vulnerability of Victorian children is now the vulnerability of entire communities before the opioid epidemic and crisis. There are other issues at play here, but that is the main one.
I was not depressed by Copperhead’s story or Demon’s circumstances because 1) the book does have a certain amount of levity, including humor; 2) I knew exactly what was going to happen to these people because I just read Copperfield; and 3) our narrator is an older version of Demon, so we know that at least he’s going to be alive to tell his story. What I did find upsetting was the occasional realization that Dickens wrote this story in the 1850s and Kingsolver was able to still tell it now. Things have changed, but they haven’t. We still have the vulnerable and exploited with us, and children are still so much at risk. We also still have villains with us, which includes a handful of bad apples, but also whole institutions. Boo.
Like I said, if you read Copperhead without Copperfield, you are a little bit missing the point. You can be okay with that. But some of the criticisms online underline this point. I have seen readers complain about the stereotypes used in Demon, but I can’t help but think they must not be familiar with Copperfield. Kingsolver wasn’t reinventing the wheel. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and I found her characters to be deeply sympathetic and nuanced, and also realistic, unfortunately. It reads most like a parable or mythology—like the original to an extent—and so we’re not exactly surprised by the journey itself. But that it represents a reality that is universal, timeless, worldwide? Such a bummer. (We even have characters and situations in the text as far-flung as Indian dumps and Ohio that let us know this doesn’t end with Appalachia.) I find readers are surprised when I tell them that this is an adaptation more than a reference to. (Maybe I’ll get in trouble for saying that. I am working on a similar project with a classic that I’m turning post-apocalyptic and basically going scene-for-scene.) Even minor scenes have mirrors, like Demon encountering the hippie tent homeless people on the road and Master Copperfield encountering the man who beats his wife on the road. I think they both steal his apple and scare him into staying lower-profile.
Two more specific instances:
“Agnes laughed again at her own penetration, and told me that if I were faithful to her in my confidence she thought she should keep a little register of my violent attachments, with the date, duration, and termination of each, like the table of the reigns of the kings and queens, in the History of England” (David Copperfield, ch25). “Angus said I’d better start a little notebook on my girlfriends, to keep them all straight. That was just Angus being Angus, not mad, more like she’s proud of my success” (Demon Copperhead, p268).
“I shall never desert Mr. MiCawber!” (Copperfield, many times). “And still Mrs. McCobb sometimes would up and tell me for no reason, like while she’s putting in a load of laundry, that she would never divorce Mr. McCobb” (p171).
If you like to make connections, reading Copperfield first makes this into a sort of game. Most people find that fun. I do. Like a puzzle.
Also, I thoroughly enjoyed a kid’s perspective of it, no matter how mature that kid had to be in some ways. There are two voices happening here, really. One is the narrator’s adult voice (version of Demon). But the other is Demon-in-time, and Kingsolver nails the boy and teen-boy perspective unbelievably well. (I did find the past- to present- and back and again tense to be a little off-putting.)
Let me tell you, too, how weird it is to read yourself in print. I have never encountered a character that was so much me as Angus. When I read aloud certain paragraphs about her to my husband, he just laughed because it was so on brand for me as a child and even now. Of course, there are some differences (in experience and in particulars). Still, I write this character all the time because she is me. I can’t say that’s happened to me before. It’s a weird feeling.
Is the ending abrupt? Enigmatic? (It’s like exactly like Benevolent, my first novel, and I got some flack for it, too.) I believe Kingsolver modified the ending without changing it, so that it didn’t piss off modern readers with a too-obvious bow tied on top. But I don’t think we need to be all mystified. We know the ending because we have David Copperfield, and this is much more of an adaptation than a reinvention, much more than I was led to believe before reading. Everything else in the book was the same. The ending wouldn’t be different unless she explicitly wrote it that way (and that would be seriously weird after what she did with the rest of the book). SOMEWHAT SPOILER SENTENCES: What I’m saying here is that there is no room for interpretation at the end. We know because Dickens told us that there is marriage and children and basic happiness and longevity. If you’re in the dark, it’s because you haven’t read the source material and perhaps you enjoy enigmas and don’t enjoy being led.
Speaking of, here is my list of characters and their counterparts (which I couldn’t find, at least as thoroughly, online), Copperhead first, then Copperfield:
Damon/Demon Fields/Copperhead – David/Trotwood Copperfield
Mom/Ms. Fields – Clara Copperfield
Dr. Watts – Dr. Edward Chillip
Nance Peggot/Mammaw – Clara Peggotty aka. Peggotty.
Mr. Peggot – maybe a little Mister Peggotty, but most of that falls to June
Matt/Maggot Peggot – not a direct correlation. I agree with the idea that he is meant as a link between the Peggots and Damon, as otherwise this would be difficult to do in modern times. He also acts as Martha sometimes, but he is mostly the link to the actual character of Martha.
Murrell Stone/Stoner – Edward Murdstone AND Jane Murdstone?
Hammerhead Peggot – Ham Peggot, in part
June Peggot – Mister Peggotty
Emmy – Emily/Little Em’ly
Mr. Crickson/Creaky – Mr. Creakle
Tommy/Waddles Waddle – Tommy Traddles
Sterling Ford/Fast Forward – James Steerforth
Swap-Out – covers a few b/g characters, like the other boys at Creakle’s and the two boys at the bottle factory
Ms. Barks – Mr. Barkis, but largely in name and in them taking rides together
Martha – Martha
? – Minnie Omer
Mr. McCobb – Wilkins MiCawber
Mrs. McCobb – Emma MiCawber (and their kids, including the twins)
Mr. Ghali/Golly – Mr. Omer?
Betsy Wood – Betsey Trotwood
Brother Dick – Richard Babley/Mr. Dick
Jane Ellen – Janet
Coach Winfield – Mr. Wickfield
Agnes/Angus Winfield – Agnes Wickfield
Ryan Pyles/U-Haul – Uriah Heap
Mattie Kate – Minnie Omer? Or some of Annie Armstrong?
Lewis Armstrong – Dr. Marcus Strong
Ms. Annie – Annie Armstrong nee Marklehem
? – Mrs. Marklehem
Mr. Maldo – Jack Maldon
Martha – Martha
Vester Spencer – Francis Spendlow
Dori Spencer – Dora Spendlow
Jip – Jip
?, maybe some Rose Dartell – Mrs. Steerforth
Rose Dartell – Rosa Dartle
Big Bear, basically – Littimer
Mouse – Miss Mowcher
Mrs. Pyles – Mrs. Heep
Sophie – Sophie
Most people seem to learn something reading Copperhead, about history or about current reality. Do you know what a Meludgeon is? What about the origin of the phrase “red neck”? And a lot of stuff about drugs, rural life, and the foster care system. For further education, maybe read Dopesick by Beth Macy or watch the Dopesick (2021) series. Or read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
The bottom line: Demon steals your heart with his unique, narrative voice. Kingsolver gives context to the stereotypes, gives them humanity. The novel has what I call literary acrobatics and is a truly great adaptation in conversation with the original that stands alone as a masterpiece.
MOVIES:
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019 movie)
My original review back in 2023: “A racially diverse adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, this is one of my favorite recent movies. Did anyone else even notice it? I really liked it.” Honestly, now that I’ve read the book (and the adaptation book), it was like watching the story on fast forward. I like a lot of what they did with acting and cinematography, but it was weirdly warp-speed, some of it nonsensical without knowing the actual story. Also, the same actress for his mom and girlfriend was creepy. SPOILER SENTENCE: But at least they ended the Dora romance before they had to kill the poor girl off, like Dickens did.
David Copperfield (1999 mini-series)
This is, as legend has it, where Daniel Radcliffe was discovered. It is, indeed, a tiny little Harry Potter. I watched this years ago, curious about this baby Harry Potter and all the other A-list actors in it. It is solid. It is what probably made me feel like I’d read David Copperfield before as I was listening to it. It’s long enough to allow it to be true to the original. I couldn’t say that for sure, but it seems like the most solid one to watch if you want accuracy with watchability.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
Synopsis: Loved Demon Copperhead. Made me look back and realize I actually like most of the Pulitzer-winners that I’ve read. (The Goldfinch had me feeling otherwise for years.) Also had a few strange experiences with the reading, which I will detail below. Appreciate David Copperfield, but not my favorite Dickens. In fact, I was yelling at the car playing the audio because I was so frustrated with some narrative choices.
Even though I read Copperfield because I was about to read Copperhead, I’m going to save the chief attraction for last, and begin with the classic. I read it first. It came first.
David Copperfield is a very large book, 175 years old. I knew it would be a slog. (I do love A Christmas Carol, but it’s so much briefer.) Therefore, I found myself an audio copy and listened during my 10-hour drive to and from a writing residency in not-east Tennessee. (And once again I am reading a book in the place where it was written, in this case on a farm in rural Appalachia (though the foothills). This happens to me surprisingly often, by accident. I’m referring to Copperhead here. You’ll see.) I still had hours of audio left when I returned. The audio is more than 34 hours.
First: it was worth it. It was very similar to reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) before reading James (Percival Everett). Both James and Copperhead stand on their own, but there is so much missed without reading the book it was adapted from. I’ll just say it now: chances are you’ll read Copperhead without Copperfield, and that’s okay. But doing so gives you a deeper, more contextual experience when you’ve just read the classic.
I was pretty impatient with Copperfield, even though I was listening to it. (Some people say that Copperhead is too long, but it felt like a breeze, to me. I’m not being facetious. I thought Kingsolver tightened things up admirably.) Dickens is ridiculously long-winded in David Copperfield, which I am told is because he was being paid by installment, but I also understand it to be because people didn’t have much to do of an evening except read some long-winded story together. And their attention span and patience were generally much better.
The yelling at the car was because some of the plot turns and characters were actually infuriating, and I don’t mean the villains (though they fall prey to the Victorian idea that bad guys look like bad guys). Dora was the worst. And Copperfield’s relationship with her was toxic and weird, all the way through. Also, you know because of the stupid choices regarding her that Copperfield makes, that she’s gonna have to be a casualty to the larger story, and it’s like, “Why? Why paint her into this tragic corner?” Dora’s a big part of the story. Yuck. (There is also a fair amount of older man-marries-woman-who-is-his-charge-in-some-way, which I know some modern readers freak the heck out about. Admittedly, it was a bit over-the-top in this one, even for me, who has a stomach for it (and its societal context) usually.)
Such drama! Such tears! Dickens can go on for pages about a description or a transition, repeating ideas until you’re bored to tears, and then he’ll round a corner, and something will finally happen and all the characters dissolve into tears, anger, fear, just about any giant emotion, throwing their bodies around and, just, crying. Like all the time. There are also a number of tricks Dickens uses to keep his first-person POV which don’t quite work (like going someplace just to listen at a door? Like being a random witness called for who-knows-what reason? Like getting inexplicable letters or running into people). I was already balking at some of this when near the end, Copperfield goes to tour a jail with Tommy. Um, why? And that those two prisoners are the ones featured on the tour is laughably ridiculous. Word-of-mouth or a letter would have sufficed.
At the same time, Dickens is a brilliant writer, and Copperfield is important not just for the well-drawn and diverse characters, the humor, the intricate plot, the turns of phrase, but also because Dickens was writing to expose the mistreatment of children and the poor. He was pointing at victims of the social structure, including women. Copperfield is an important book in history and also a classic for a reason. But it’s long. And it has some issues, owing partly to the way books were written, sold, and consumed at the time.
And then I picked up Demon Copperhead. I was in with the lyrical, descriptive, and voice-y writing from page one, yet I still had to adjust before I could read it fluidly. (This happens to me with plenty of books. I am told this is the way people read my books. It takes some adjustment.) Because of the type of story it is (same with Copperfield), we’re not asking any big questions about the plot; we are on a journey. Modern readers mostly like a “mystery,” a question to ask, from page one (or at least that’s what publishers tell us). There is not really a specific question we’re asking here, just “What will become of this kid?” Copperhead is a character-driven life-story. Likely, you will be swept up into it, eventually. I was.
Copperhead won the Pulitzer in 2023. It also won the Women’s Prize. It also won a number of other things. It has a Goodreads rating of 4.48, which means a vast majority of readers really like or love it. It is now available in paperback (which took three years!). And I loved it. It’s frankly just a great book.
The voice is so strong and endearing. The writing is great. It is funny and tragic. It is engaging. I thought it suffered a little from the sprawl of it all, but that’s thanks to the pattern it was given and the type of book it is (see earlier paragraph). Because this is an adaptation, even more than James. It follows the plot, the order of scenes, directly. It has almost all the same characters, just with modified names, like David to Damon, Copperfield to Copperhead. (See below.) Kingsolver did not event this story, but she did a freaking amazing job at moving it into rural, Southern Appalachia, the 90s and naughts. What was the vulnerability of Victorian children is now the vulnerability of entire communities before the opioid epidemic and crisis. There are other issues at play here, but that is the main one.
I was not depressed by Copperhead’s story or Demon’s circumstances because 1) the book does have a certain amount of levity, including humor; 2) I knew exactly what was going to happen to these people because I just read Copperfield; and 3) our narrator is an older version of Demon, so we know that at least he’s going to be alive to tell his story. What I did find upsetting was the occasional realization that Dickens wrote this story in the 1850s and Kingsolver was able to still tell it now. Things have changed, but they haven’t. We still have the vulnerable and exploited with us, and children are still so much at risk. We also still have villains with us, which includes a handful of bad apples, but also whole institutions. Boo.
Like I said, if you read Copperhead without Copperfield, you are a little bit missing the point. You can be okay with that. But some of the criticisms online underline this point. I have seen readers complain about the stereotypes used in Demon, but I can’t help but think they must not be familiar with Copperfield. Kingsolver wasn’t reinventing the wheel. Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and I found her characters to be deeply sympathetic and nuanced, and also realistic, unfortunately. It reads most like a parable or mythology—like the original to an extent—and so we’re not exactly surprised by the journey itself. But that it represents a reality that is universal, timeless, worldwide? Such a bummer. (We even have characters and situations in the text as far-flung as Indian dumps and Ohio that let us know this doesn’t end with Appalachia.) I find readers are surprised when I tell them that this is an adaptation more than a reference to. (Maybe I’ll get in trouble for saying that. I am working on a similar project with a classic that I’m turning post-apocalyptic and basically going scene-for-scene.) Even minor scenes have mirrors, like Demon encountering the hippie tent homeless people on the road and Master Copperfield encountering the man who beats his wife on the road. I think they both steal his apple and scare him into staying lower-profile.
Two more specific instances:
“Agnes laughed again at her own penetration, and told me that if I were faithful to her in my confidence she thought she should keep a little register of my violent attachments, with the date, duration, and termination of each, like the table of the reigns of the kings and queens, in the History of England” (David Copperfield, ch25). “Angus said I’d better start a little notebook on my girlfriends, to keep them all straight. That was just Angus being Angus, not mad, more like she’s proud of my success” (Demon Copperhead, p268).
“I shall never desert Mr. MiCawber!” (Copperfield, many times). “And still Mrs. McCobb sometimes would up and tell me for no reason, like while she’s putting in a load of laundry, that she would never divorce Mr. McCobb” (p171).
If you like to make connections, reading Copperfield first makes this into a sort of game. Most people find that fun. I do. Like a puzzle.
Also, I thoroughly enjoyed a kid’s perspective of it, no matter how mature that kid had to be in some ways. There are two voices happening here, really. One is the narrator’s adult voice (version of Demon). But the other is Demon-in-time, and Kingsolver nails the boy and teen-boy perspective unbelievably well. (I did find the past- to present- and back and again tense to be a little off-putting.)
Let me tell you, too, how weird it is to read yourself in print. I have never encountered a character that was so much me as Angus. When I read aloud certain paragraphs about her to my husband, he just laughed because it was so on brand for me as a child and even now. Of course, there are some differences (in experience and in particulars). Still, I write this character all the time because she is me. I can’t say that’s happened to me before. It’s a weird feeling.
Is the ending abrupt? Enigmatic? (It’s like exactly like Benevolent, my first novel, and I got some flack for it, too.) I believe Kingsolver modified the ending without changing it, so that it didn’t piss off modern readers with a too-obvious bow tied on top. But I don’t think we need to be all mystified. We know the ending because we have David Copperfield, and this is much more of an adaptation than a reinvention, much more than I was led to believe before reading. Everything else in the book was the same. The ending wouldn’t be different unless she explicitly wrote it that way (and that would be seriously weird after what she did with the rest of the book). SOMEWHAT SPOILER SENTENCES: What I’m saying here is that there is no room for interpretation at the end. We know because Dickens told us that there is marriage and children and basic happiness and longevity. If you’re in the dark, it’s because you haven’t read the source material and perhaps you enjoy enigmas and don’t enjoy being led.
Speaking of, here is my list of characters and their counterparts (which I couldn’t find, at least as thoroughly, online), Copperhead first, then Copperfield:
Damon/Demon Fields/Copperhead – David/Trotwood Copperfield
Mom/Ms. Fields – Clara Copperfield
Dr. Watts – Dr. Edward Chillip
Nance Peggot/Mammaw – Clara Peggotty aka. Peggotty.
Mr. Peggot – maybe a little Mister Peggotty, but most of that falls to June
Matt/Maggot Peggot – not a direct correlation. I agree with the idea that he is meant as a link between the Peggots and Damon, as otherwise this would be difficult to do in modern times. He also acts as Martha sometimes, but he is mostly the link to the actual character of Martha.
Murrell Stone/Stoner – Edward Murdstone AND Jane Murdstone?
Hammerhead Peggot – Ham Peggot, in part
June Peggot – Mister Peggotty
Emmy – Emily/Little Em’ly
Mr. Crickson/Creaky – Mr. Creakle
Tommy/Waddles Waddle – Tommy Traddles
Sterling Ford/Fast Forward – James Steerforth
Swap-Out – covers a few b/g characters, like the other boys at Creakle’s and the two boys at the bottle factory
Ms. Barks – Mr. Barkis, but largely in name and in them taking rides together
Martha – Martha
? – Minnie Omer
Mr. McCobb – Wilkins MiCawber
Mrs. McCobb – Emma MiCawber (and their kids, including the twins)
Mr. Ghali/Golly – Mr. Omer?
Betsy Wood – Betsey Trotwood
Brother Dick – Richard Babley/Mr. Dick
Jane Ellen – Janet
Coach Winfield – Mr. Wickfield
Agnes/Angus Winfield – Agnes Wickfield
Ryan Pyles/U-Haul – Uriah Heap
Mattie Kate – Minnie Omer? Or some of Annie Armstrong?
Lewis Armstrong – Dr. Marcus Strong
Ms. Annie – Annie Armstrong nee Marklehem
? – Mrs. Marklehem
Mr. Maldo – Jack Maldon
Martha – Martha
Vester Spencer – Francis Spendlow
Dori Spencer – Dora Spendlow
Jip – Jip
?, maybe some Rose Dartell – Mrs. Steerforth
Rose Dartell – Rosa Dartle
Big Bear, basically – Littimer
Mouse – Miss Mowcher
Mrs. Pyles – Mrs. Heep
Sophie – Sophie
Most people seem to learn something reading Copperhead, about history or about current reality. Do you know what a Meludgeon is? What about the origin of the phrase “red neck”? And a lot of stuff about drugs, rural life, and the foster care system. For further education, maybe read Dopesick by Beth Macy or watch the Dopesick (2021) series. Or read Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
The bottom line: Demon steals your heart with his unique, narrative voice. Kingsolver gives context to the stereotypes, gives them humanity. The novel has what I call literary acrobatics and is a truly great adaptation in conversation with the original that stands alone as a masterpiece.
MOVIES:
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019 movie)
My original review back in 2023: “A racially diverse adaptation of a Charles Dickens novel, this is one of my favorite recent movies. Did anyone else even notice it? I really liked it.” Honestly, now that I’ve read the book (and the adaptation book), it was like watching the story on fast forward. I like a lot of what they did with acting and cinematography, but it was weirdly warp-speed, some of it nonsensical without knowing the actual story. Also, the same actress for his mom and girlfriend was creepy. SPOILER SENTENCE: But at least they ended the Dora romance before they had to kill the poor girl off, like Dickens did.
David Copperfield (1999 mini-series)
This is, as legend has it, where Daniel Radcliffe was discovered. It is, indeed, a tiny little Harry Potter. I watched this years ago, curious about this baby Harry Potter and all the other A-list actors in it. It is solid. It is what probably made me feel like I’d read David Copperfield before as I was listening to it. It’s long enough to allow it to be true to the original. I couldn’t say that for sure, but it seems like the most solid one to watch if you want accuracy with watchability.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-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
I now know why, when I asked for a Dickens recommendation, this was the one that people told me to read. It's awesome! Definitely my favorite Dickens' book so far, and now one of my favorite classic books. The language is really beautiful, and the story is at time hilarious, tragic, infuriating, and romantic. The characters are all so wonderful (except for the villains, who are the worst), and I loved watching David grow up over the course of the novel. Seriously, this is a very long book, but it's totally worth reading.
Can’t believe I finally finished this 800 page monstrosity. Its the first Dickens I’ve finished (never finished tale of two cities in high school) and I enjoyed it more than I expected. Parts of it felt longer than they needed to be but since this is semi autobiographical I’ll give Dickens some space to be lengthy :)
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this is just a fun read. i decided to read it after reading demon copperhead and im really glad that i did. first dickens (other than a christmas carol) done!
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes