David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show’
Dickens’s epic, exuberant novel is one of the greatest coming-of-age stories in literature. It chronicles David Copperfield’s extraordinary journey through life, as he encounters villains, saviours, eccentrics and grotesques, including the wicked Mr Murdstone, stout-hearted Peggotty, formidable Betsey Trotwood, impecunious Micawber and odious Uriah Heep.
Dickens’s great Bildungsroman (based, in part, on his own boyhood, and which he described as a ‘favourite child’) is a work filled with life, both comic and tragic.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #23: The other book with a similar plot)
2024 Audiobook Challenge
The Classics Club
The Reason
I’ve been wanting to read more Dickens, and I guess all the raving reviews about Demon Copperhead and the similarities between these two books encouraged me to pick them both up sooner rather than later! It also helped that they fit the 52 Book Club Challenge, and I was also doing The Classics Club challenge!
The Quotes
“I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time.”
“There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.”
“It’s in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present.”
“It has always been in my observation of human nature, that a man who has any good reason to believe in himself never flourishes himself before the faces of other people in order that they may believe in him. For this reason, I retained my modesty in very self”
“My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.”
The Narrator(s)
Richard Armitage. Oh, I have such mixed feelings! Intellectually, I feel like the narrator did such an amazing job and is incredibly talented. Emotionally, I hate his voices for some of the characters because they are just so vile and annoying and disgusting! Which are entirely suitable to those characters and brought them to life for me, both a good and bad thing because oh, I hated them!
My Thoughts
It’s weird because my thoughts about this book I think will be forever linked to my thoughts about Demon Copperhead. This book has existed for way longer than Demon Copperhead and has been on my radar before Demon Copperhead was ever written, but since I heard so much hype about Demon Copperhead and ended up reading it first, I almost feel like it’s a duology, each taking place centuries apart.
I had no idea what either book was about, and I had no idea to what extent Demon Copperhead was similar to David Copperfield, so everything was still a surprise to me as I read it. I also thought both books were brilliant, but to be quite honest, my respect and admiration for Barbara Kingsolver has gone up after reading David Copperfield and seeing how she incorporated all the elements of the story into Demon Copperhead. They are both incredible books, and I’m very likely to reread both sometime down the line soon.
My Feels
This is a gorgeous book, and in some ways, I regret not reading it before Demon Copperhead because I would’ve liked to have seen it from a fresh perspective, especially since it came first. But either way, I’m glad I read both. I feel like this book has its ups and downs, but it feels more hopeful, and I love that.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
