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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Descrita por el propio Dickens, como su “hijo favorito”, pues muchos de los elementos que en la misma encontramos es una versión narrada de la vida de Dickens, y que caen en la categoría de la mas autobiográficas de todas sus novelas. Una novela contada desde el punto de vista de un narrador en primera persona que replica la historia de las aventuras de un joven, que desde su infancia, algo infeliz sin perder sus intenciones de crecimiento de toda índole, y empobrecida hasta el descubrimiento de su vocación como novelista exitoso.
Las aventuras y desventuras de su protagonista, siempre salpicadas por la presencia de personajes de los cuales fueron formando el carácter del mismo, donde su identificación por lo minucioso de la educación lo moldeaban para formarse como abogado, pero en la otra esquina están los doblegados al sistema, que procuran por todos los medios sobresalir ante la sociedad, y esto le era motivo para futuras consideraciones. Entre el elenco gloriosamente vívido de personajes se encuentran Rosa Dartle, Dora, Steerforth, el ególatra e imprudente, y El avaricioso e insidioso Uriah Heep, junto con el Sr. Micawber, un retrato del propio padre de Dickens que evoca una mezcla de amor, nostalgia y culpa. Eterno moroso, capaz de pasar de la desolación del deudor acosado a la exaltación del soñador seguro de su prosperidad (un personaje que tiene, por cierto, bastante aire quijotesco); su esposa, «que nunca se separará de él»;. La madura y preocupada Agnes Wickfield y el abnegado y misericordioso Sr. Pegotty. el brutal educador Creakle –luego singular director de prisiones por una pirueta de la trama–; la sorprendente tía Betsey Trotwood y su amigo Dick, curioso y perspicaz «inocente»; el circunspecto procurador Spenlow, y su socio… Y añadiría a Traddles, el amigo jubiloso, al sicario Lattimer, al «disponible» Barkis, a la enana Mowcher, y a todos esos personajes episódicos, camareros, criadas, criados, patronas, que llenan de verdad tantos lugares a lo largo de los escenarios de la novela.
David Copperfield fue uno de esos libros, los cuales uno va rezagando hasta abrirle un hueco en nuestras lecturas. En lo personal, la lectura, conjuntamente con una buena adaptación al cine, valió la pena leerlo. Leer en cierto modo las propias experiencias de su creador, de como los errores de la vida nos paga, y como uno paga por ellos, ya sea que se castiguen a sí mismos o sean castigados por la sociedad, nos ubica en la actualizada, y en nada hemos cambiado. La humillación, el abandono, la violencia infantil, la ambición, la estratificación de la sociedad y por ende el deterioro de la moral, el hogar y la familia, y un sin numero de temas de la dan forma a este texto.
Las aventuras y desventuras de su protagonista, siempre salpicadas por la presencia de personajes de los cuales fueron formando el carácter del mismo, donde su identificación por lo minucioso de la educación lo moldeaban para formarse como abogado, pero en la otra esquina están los doblegados al sistema, que procuran por todos los medios sobresalir ante la sociedad, y esto le era motivo para futuras consideraciones. Entre el elenco gloriosamente vívido de personajes se encuentran Rosa Dartle, Dora, Steerforth, el ególatra e imprudente, y El avaricioso e insidioso Uriah Heep, junto con el Sr. Micawber, un retrato del propio padre de Dickens que evoca una mezcla de amor, nostalgia y culpa. Eterno moroso, capaz de pasar de la desolación del deudor acosado a la exaltación del soñador seguro de su prosperidad (un personaje que tiene, por cierto, bastante aire quijotesco); su esposa, «que nunca se separará de él»;. La madura y preocupada Agnes Wickfield y el abnegado y misericordioso Sr. Pegotty. el brutal educador Creakle –luego singular director de prisiones por una pirueta de la trama–; la sorprendente tía Betsey Trotwood y su amigo Dick, curioso y perspicaz «inocente»; el circunspecto procurador Spenlow, y su socio… Y añadiría a Traddles, el amigo jubiloso, al sicario Lattimer, al «disponible» Barkis, a la enana Mowcher, y a todos esos personajes episódicos, camareros, criadas, criados, patronas, que llenan de verdad tantos lugares a lo largo de los escenarios de la novela.
David Copperfield fue uno de esos libros, los cuales uno va rezagando hasta abrirle un hueco en nuestras lecturas. En lo personal, la lectura, conjuntamente con una buena adaptación al cine, valió la pena leerlo. Leer en cierto modo las propias experiencias de su creador, de como los errores de la vida nos paga, y como uno paga por ellos, ya sea que se castiguen a sí mismos o sean castigados por la sociedad, nos ubica en la actualizada, y en nada hemos cambiado. La humillación, el abandono, la violencia infantil, la ambición, la estratificación de la sociedad y por ende el deterioro de la moral, el hogar y la familia, y un sin numero de temas de la dan forma a este texto.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Oh David. Davy. Trotwood. Trot. Daisy. Doady. Copperfield. All of these are words that are used to name the boy that we watch grow into a man - David Copperfield. David, whose early life is so painfully tragic, whose story is told in a first person narrative as our author remembers the small tendernesses that sustained him and the large injustices that plagued him as he tried to navigate the world without the kind of loving adult one so desperately needs. And this is the same David who learns to ask for and accept help, who works things out, who finds his footing and turns into the kind of man whose compassion and patience make him a friend to all kinds of people - an an enemy of a few. You aren't reading this book because you're dying to know what happens next, necessarily, you read because you start to care about David. You feel protective of him. You want him to find happiness. You sometimes wish he wouldn't be so trusting and you sometimes think he's made a really poor decision. And yet, in the end, you finish this monster of a story so surprisingly pleased with the journey.
I truly try not to shy away from particular books just because they are exceedingly long - but I absolutely do it. I have read several of Dickens' books thus far and they've been both hit (Christmas Carol, Tale of Two Cities) and complete miss (Great Expectations). I haven't had it in me to try another one - until I heard that Barbara Kingsolver was writing a modern retelling of this novel and that was enough to get the idea of trying another Dickens start to simmering in my brain. Eventually I decided to go the audio route and I am so truly glad I did. I listened to an edition narrated by Will Watt and he was phenomenal. It made it so much easier to keep SO MANY CHARACTERS straight by the different voices. There are villains and fools, school mates and companions, random neighbors that keep showing up, opportunists, mentors and family members and friends that become family. I actually looked it up and there are 75 distinct characters in this book and they keep showing up! That person from the beginning? They are going to show up again! And maybe again! So many circumstantial meetings of the same people! But in the end, I was able to roll with it. Again, the different voices genuinely helped me to not just track people but to remember how I felt about them too, keeping me continually invested in the story. Also, sometimes they were just actually funny - David's Aunt Betsy? Eccentric and Redoubtable, she made me literally cackle out loud at one point, she's so snarky.
I liked that this is not historical fiction - this is contemporary fiction from the PAST so that the life Dickens is telling me about is the actual kind of lives that people lived in that time from the point of view of a contemporary. The things they worried about, the way they lived their lives, the ways people could cause harm to each other - those were real, even if the people doing them weren't flesh and blood. I'm not going to gush. This wasn't the best novel I've ever read. It is seriously longer than it needs to be - some of these characters just talk and talk and talk, using an entire page to say what could've been conveyed in two strong sentences. But once I was invested in this character and his life, I was all in. By the last two hours, I felt actual feelings for him and for how far he'd come in knowing himself.
I enjoyed reading "Oliver Twist" and "Bleak House" so I was a little disappointed that my next Dickens book was a bit bland for my taste. Some good characters but only Uriah Heep is worth remembering with his great line "but I am so humble". Great little jewels of scene setting descriptions, but not worth it given the length of the book.
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A very Charles Dickens kind of book. It didn’t have much of a plot, it was just the story of this orphan boy, David Copperfield, mostly during his childhood-teenager-young adult years. Oh perhaps it was supposed to be a bildungsroman? Except that there wasn’t really that much character development or growth. There is a lot of child abuse (physical, verbal, emotional). Many strangers take advantage of him even though he was a CHILD, like tricking him into giving them his food, or his little money, or his clothes. Victorian England was BLEAK. The novel tries to make a villain out of Uriah Heap, but Heap is a marginal character, and his devious behaviors seem on par with all the other people who scam children (at least Heap was scamming an adult?). The end of the book felt very rushed. After going on and on about little things for 33 hours, suddenly everything falls into place and they get married and then have a bunch of children etc etc . Maybe the newspaper ran out of money to pay him LOL
Sooo long. But sooo good. I read and listened to this in order to keep getting through it before next year. I kept reading pieces to my husband so we could discuss it.
I particularly enjoyed the morality implicit throughout the story. Not that immorality, fraud, deception and weakness did/does not occur in the story (it did), but the response to it and the idea that there was an expectation of honor and integrity was refreshing. Having read broadly from that period, it is a pleasure to see the good and bad described.
I particularly enjoyed the morality implicit throughout the story. Not that immorality, fraud, deception and weakness did/does not occur in the story (it did), but the response to it and the idea that there was an expectation of honor and integrity was refreshing. Having read broadly from that period, it is a pleasure to see the good and bad described.
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Outstanding, heartfelt prose in this coming-of-age tale of a young man and the odd characters who populate his life. A bit dry when it leans too hard on matters of business, but Copperfield's unrestrained expressions of emotion for those around him make the novel warm and compelling.
What the Dickens? Turns out I like Dickens!
There were definitely some moments in this novel that tried my patience, but having read the bulk of it during a massive snowstorm, I found myself surrendering to the story and fully appreciating the richness of the prose, the colorful characters, the humor, and the humanity suffused throughout.
There were definitely some moments in this novel that tried my patience, but having read the bulk of it during a massive snowstorm, I found myself surrendering to the story and fully appreciating the richness of the prose, the colorful characters, the humor, and the humanity suffused throughout.
I am planning to read Demon Copperhead and figured I should read David Copperfield first. I think that if I had tried to read this in my youth it would have been wasted on me. I am glad I waited and came back to him now, because I was so moved! I must put by in a good word for Richard Armitage’s fantastic narration.