David Copperfield is Charles Dickens' most autobiographical novel and, like his other works, exposes the underbelly of human life in Victorian society. It starts with David Copperfield's unhappy childhood. David's father dies when he is young and his mother marries an unpleasant man who beats David. One day, David decides to retaliate and bites his stepfather's hand, upon which he is sent away to boarding school. However, with his mother's death, David's stepfather has him removed from the school and makes him work in a factory.
This incident is taken directly from Charles Dickens' own life. When Dickens' father went to prison as a result of unpaid debts, young Charles was forced to work at a boot blacking factory from 8 am to 8 pm, walking three miles to get to work and back. This episode of his youth is echoed in David's being forced to do the same. Eventually, however, David moves away and gets his aunt, Betsey Trotwood, to take him in. Betsey is eccentric but does not treat him badly and David continues his education.
As a grown man, David becomes a proctor, another incident taken from Dickens' own life, since Dickens first trained to be a lawyer and then realized that it wasn't the profession for him. David falls in love with his boss' daughter, Dora, and marries her. She is essentially a spoilt child who has no idea about housekeeping but they love each other and they're happy. Meanwhile, David's school friend Steerforth persuades David's old nurse's daughter, Little Em'ly, to run away with him, thereby ruining her, since he has no intention of marrying her.
As an adult, David comes into contact with a large cast of characters and, each time, he must consult his heart and decide who to trust and who to avoid. When Dora dies of a miscarriage, David ends up marrying his childhood friend, Agnes, who, unlike Dora, has a great deal of common sense. Given that Dickens is a sentimentalist, he makes sure that everyone gets what they deserve. David eventually gfinds happiness while the evildoers must suffer for their crimes.
Dickens' life story is an inspiring one because he rose above his mean beginnings, becoming a reporter and later, a fiction writer. He married an editor's daughter and was with her for twenty years, fathering ten children before he fell in love with an actress half his age and moved in with her instead. He wrote fifteen novels and many more short stories and non-fiction articles. He also did many readings of his works, really acting out the various parts. However, the strain of all this work finally proved too much for him and he suffered two strokes, which finally led to his death.
Download David Copperfield now from The Audio Bookstore for an in-depth look at Victorian society and mores. Even though Dickens wrote so many years ago, his insight into human nature was so great that his characters resonate with us even today.
"An enforced assignment of "Great Expectations" in high school turned me off Dickens for life, or so I thought for the next 30 years, until a friend told me how much he was enjoying the books much later in life. I began with "David Copperfield" - Dickens' own favorite - and found myself completely absorbed after only a few chapters. Written in serial form, the story of a young boy's growth into manhood, accompanied by many reversals in fortune, love, and happiness, is so well-told that we forgive the implausible plot elements (characters who miraculously recur in Copperfield's life). There are passages of terrific writing, athough a characteristic of Dickens' style is its naturalness -- the writing doesn't call attention to itself, even when it is extraordinary, and one doesn't sense a giant ego wielding the pen. In the end, what distinguishes "David Copperfield" the most for me are the finely-drawn, absolutely memorable characters -- from the protagonist himself to his villanous step-father and step-aunt; his beloved nurse, Peggoty; his idolized schoolmate Steerforth; the voluble and continually ruined Mr. Micawber; the steady, faithful Agnes; and one of the English language's most unforgettable antagonists, the writhing, fawning, ever 'umble Uriah Heep -- through whom Dickens explores human nature and human society.
I read "David Copperfield" on the Kindle app on my Android phone - it was a free download, and I liked being able to carry this hefty book around with me wherever I went. One unfortunate aspect of reading this way is that I had no idea what page I was on -- and, unbeknownst to me, "David Copperfield has many, many pages: 950+ in fact. Before I realized that, I couldn't understand why the location indicator barely moved after each reading session! If I have any criticism of the book, it's that it went on and on, especially toward the end. I did skim some sections, but most of the time read more attentively than usual. My reading experience couldn't have been more different from that long-ago, well-established prejudice. As a mature adult, I could easily see the brilliance I'd failed to understand when young: the excellence of the writing in service to both story, and the keen social commentary about Dickens' world which is not, in fact, all that far from our own."
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Elizabeth (4 out of 5 stars)