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David Copperfield Dickensalong

539 replies

Piggywaspushed · 04/01/2020 11:36

Hello All

Inspired by the Bleak House readalong, I have decided this might be the year to tackle David Copperfield.

Those of us who did BH read it obediently in Dickens' instalments ,which wasn't to everyone's taste! We had a chat at the end of each month. It took 18 months and I think we had three stalwarts left at the end.

DC was published as follows (note different months!):

• I – May 1849 (chapters 1–3);
• II – June 1849 (chapters 4–6);
• III – July 1849 (chapters 7–9);
• IV – August 1849 (chapters 10–12);
• V – September 1849 (chapters 13–15);
• VI – October 1849 (chapters 16–18);
• VII – November 1849 (chapters 19–21);
• VIII – December 1849 (chapters 22–24);
• IX – January 1850 (chapters 25–27);
• X – February 1850 (chapters 28–31);
• XI – March 1850 (chapters 32–34);
• XII – April 1850 (chapters 35–37);
• XIII – May 1850 (chapters 38–40);
• XIV – June 1850 (chapters 41–43);
• XV – July 1850 (chapters 44–46);
• XVI – August 1850 (chapters 47–50);
• XVII – September 1850 (chapters 51–53);
• XVIII – October 1850 (chapters 54–57);
• XIX-XX – November 1850 (chapters 58–64).

I am happy to negotiate reading faster so that we tackle three instalments at a time? Thus , the first would be Chapter 1 -9 and we would be finished in the summer.

What does everyone think?

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Thread gallery
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Piggywaspushed · 02/07/2020 08:43

Aaarh! My eyes . No film spoilers please!! Thank you ...

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bibliomania · 02/07/2020 08:42

Grr, typos and autocorrect are a bad mix.

bibliomania · 02/07/2020 08:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request (and with huge apologies!) as it contained spoilers.

ChessieFL · 01/07/2020 13:14

I completely missed the Dora miscarriage reference.

I also found the storm at sea chapter very confusing - I had to go back and reread a couple of times to try and work out who had died!

KeithLeMonde · 01/07/2020 12:52

Also, yes. Everyone is dead or has emigrated!

KeithLeMonde · 01/07/2020 12:51

I can entirely sympathise, Piggy. The trouble with Mrs G is there is only so much time that one can devote to reading about her being a lone lorn creature etc so after a while you just skip her bits. So it's entirely her own fault if you fail to notice that in the middle of one of her repetitive soliloquies she sneaks in the fact that she's going to emigrate to Australia Grin

Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 12:35

Oh and JIP ! Sad Sad

It's like in my GCSE quizzes when I ask them for a Macbeth bodycount...

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Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 12:34

Ok, just read fortunas update and feel immensely thick.

I didn't know Mrs Gummidge went . not that I ever noticed her

I didn't know, or rapidly forgot, that Ham died. Damn you Steerforth for stealing his thunder!!

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Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 12:32

I meant Mr Peggoty myself... Blush

I think a surplus of Peggotys, Marthas and Em'lys got to me and, yes , the fact that he seems to wave the ship off twice!

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Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 12:30

She definitely passes the Bechdel test!

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Terpsichore · 01/07/2020 12:06

More revelations about Miss Trotwood too. I haven't read all of Dickens so can't definitively claim that she's his most rounded and successful female character - but she's got to be well up there. She's become a really well-developed personality with a back-story and an emotional life, not just a caricature.

KeithLeMonde · 01/07/2020 11:22

Oops sorry, my mistake for putting "Peggoty" when I meant MR Peggoty.

Terpsichore · 01/07/2020 11:17

Sorry, I mean Peggotty doesn't go, as in DC's nurse. Mr Peggotty does go, obvs, and the rest as Keith says 👆

Terpsichore · 01/07/2020 11:14

Yes, it was great. SUCH a lot to get our teeth into!

I clocked the miscarriage ref but he did it so very discreetly - I guess it wasn't an easy/socially acceptable topic for a male author to broach, although of course Dickens personally (and his wife even more so) had a lot of experience of it. One wonders how Dora would have fared with modern medical intervention.....but yes, I really liked the way DC learned his lesson about Dora and taking people as they are, not as you'd wish them to be. Even if she was, erm, supremely annoying.

I though Peggotty stayed in old Blighty. When they go aboard the ship in Gravesend DC says he 'took my weeping nurse upon my arm and hurried away'.....I gathered that she was the only one of the family not to go.

I did feel it was a bit much saddling poor Mr Peggotty with the sponging Micawbers, though......he'd never be free of them in Oz.

KeithLeMonde · 01/07/2020 10:53

I loved that too, Piggy, especially where he accuses people of waffling and using too many words after we've read 56 chapters of him doing just that Grin. I have to admit I skip over the vast majority of what both Micawbers say as it's usually pointless and not very funny.

Yes, I believe Peggoty went to Australia with Mrs G, Emily AND Martha. It was quite confusing as David visited them on board then saw the ship off twice from different locations, but I think they're all dispatched.

My absolute favourite part this month was the description of the rundown old house where Martha is living. It was so vivid.

FortunaMajor · 01/07/2020 10:53

I'd forgotten it was Dickens Day.

These were fabulous chapters, so much going on (and why I couldn't wait to finish the book - sorry ).

Piggy Mr Peggoty and Emily go to Australia, Mrs. Grummidge decides to go with them and the Micawbers also go.

Incredibly sad for Ham to die at sea as his father also did.

Very touching about Dora, although it was Jip that brought a tear to my eye. I felt bad about being so annoyed at her for everything preceding.

Delighted at the comeuppance of the Heaps.

Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 10:42

These are the lines I enjoyed, especially since Dickens then ( in a fit of, I guess deliberate , irony) bangs on for a whole paragraph about it!

We talk about the tyranny of words, but we like to tyrannise over them too; we are fond of having a large superfluous establishment of words to wait upon us in great occasions; we think it looks important, and sounds well.

Looking hard at you, Rees Mogg and Johnson!!

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Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 10:35

Totally missed that. Poor Dora Sad

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KeithLeMonde · 01/07/2020 10:06

Firstly I hope this discussion isn't upsetting to anyone here. It's interesting in the context of the book but I would hate to cause any distress.

This is what we hear about Dora

I had hoped that lighter hands than mine would help to mould her character, and that a baby-smile upon her breast might change my child-wife to a woman. It was not to be. The spirit fluttered for a moment on the threshold of its little prison, and, unconscious of captivity, took wing.

I'm still not quite sure but yes, it seems that she was pregnant and suffered either a miscarriage or a stillbirth.

I felt very sad although Dora had annoyed the hell out of me throughout the book. There's a real tenderness to those last chapters.

BookWitch · 01/07/2020 08:52

I think Dora had a miscarriage and didn't really recover. I nearly missed the miscarriage (it is given about half a line of nuanced Victorian innuedo), I only picked it up because I was reading a chapter summary. It is certainly never mentioned again, but Dora declines after that.

It's all a bit vague- it talks about David was hoping for a "Baby smile upon her breast, but it was not to be"

Piggywaspushed · 01/07/2020 06:58

Well, we have a somewhat shorter dramatis personae after this month, don’t we! Goodness : Steerforth , Dora, Mrs Steerforth lying moaning, Emily found and then gone again. The Micawbers off to pastures new, Heep’s comeuppance and endless failed attempts to imprison Micawber… I fear I am being terribly thick, though, so please help! Did Peggoty go to the New World? I got all in a muddle. Did Martha?
I did like the Explosion chapter. To see the decline of the awful Heep and his mother was most satisfying.
I also liked the drama of Em’ly’s two menfolk at sea : poor neglected Ham trying so hard to rescue the curly haired cad, Steerforth. And I was genuinely sad when Dora died. I know it’s your classic Victorian deathbed stuff but I found it quite affecting. What on earth was wrong with her?

I have more to say, including my favourite quotation! Anyone got any thoughts on anything? A lot went on! We still have a few unresolved enigmas…

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KeithLeMonde · 30/06/2020 09:33

BookWitch I loved it too - absolutely whizzed through it :) I'm about to post a review on the 50 Books thread if I get time today.

BookWitch · 30/06/2020 09:28

@KeithLeMonde I loved The Dutch House , it is one of my stand out books this year. I rattled through it pretty quickly.

Piggywaspushed · 30/06/2020 07:47

Two chapters to go! Must remember!

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KeithLeMonde · 30/06/2020 07:46

Wow. Looking forward to 1st to discuss all of that!