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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Read this a second time (first time in high school) after reading Demon Copperhead, and my memory was right - this is a far superior book. Dickens has strong politics and amazing character development, and he doesn’t shy away from real emotion and relationships. The monsters aren’t one-dimensional bad guys, which makes them all the more monstrous. A wonderful read (even though Agnes is kinda boring, but quite 19th century popular novel heroine, so
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-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
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Apparently this was the first novel which followed the life of an individual from birth. David Copperfield, claimed by the author to be his favourite work, does indeed start with the namesake's birth and follows him through vicissitudes and triumphs until middle age. Along the way we meet many memorable characters, and Dickens succeeds in making them more real and familiar to us than many we meet in real life. His observations and the skill with which he depicts individuals are memorable. While some parts of the book are a little sentimental and drag somewhat for the modern reader, what is particularly satisfying is the way in which there are no loose ends. Dickens scrupulously informs us of the end of each significant character from the scurrilous Uriah Heep and Littimer to Little Emily and Mr Micawber. This contributes to the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction one feels on completing the novel.
My overwhelming impression of this book is that it is Dickens at his most Dickensian. I don't mean that it is the best thing he ever wrote, the most literary or influential. (I have yet to read "Great Expectations" and have expectations it will be truly great.) However, I think in "David Copperfield," those qualities which distinguish every Dickens work are exemplified to an inordinate degree: funny names, sentimental domestic scenes, attention to detail, improbable coincidences, lots of action, wry bits of humor and wordplay, characters from all strata of society, truly bleak scenes of cruelty and injustice, foreshadowing, critical comments on politics, law, and institutions of all kinds.
I happened to read "David Copperfield" in a very old volume of P. F. Collier's "Works of Charles Dickens," apparently published before the date of publication was infallibly recorded somewhere in the book itself, and with twenty illustrations by...somebody apparently not worth mentioning. But what an experience to read Dickens in a cloth-bound folio made when pages were still sewn together and decorated on the front by illustrations of Pickwick and Fagin and Sidney Carton in gold leaf! In this edition, the text appears on each page in two columns, side by side--like most Bibles--and I think this, along with the sensation of time-traveling, did much to speed my reading. Or maybe Dickens simply knew how to write a gripping yarn.
I happened to read "David Copperfield" in a very old volume of P. F. Collier's "Works of Charles Dickens," apparently published before the date of publication was infallibly recorded somewhere in the book itself, and with twenty illustrations by...somebody apparently not worth mentioning. But what an experience to read Dickens in a cloth-bound folio made when pages were still sewn together and decorated on the front by illustrations of Pickwick and Fagin and Sidney Carton in gold leaf! In this edition, the text appears on each page in two columns, side by side--like most Bibles--and I think this, along with the sensation of time-traveling, did much to speed my reading. Or maybe Dickens simply knew how to write a gripping yarn.
"I could pass a reasonably good examination already, as a pilot in these waters, I think." James Steerforth in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.