David Copperfield Dickensalong

Yes, no actual spoilers please!

Sorry I am only (checks watch) 7 days late to the party :)

I don't feel I have much to add to the discussion though! I absolutely agree with Terpsichore above about the relatability, the description of common human emotions or experiences and the joy of feeling that you KNOW this person despite there being almost 200 years between you.

How do people feel about speculative comments about things that we think might happen? I know my DH hates me doing this after I inadvertently guessed correctly a plot twist in something we were watching which he said spoiled the whole thing.

Thank you I

Are we reading to end of CH37 for 1st May?

The clues (or 'clews', as Dickens would have spelt it) are steadily building up against Steerforth. He had the poor schoolteacher sacked....Rosa Dartle clearly has some dark mystery attached to her (that scar, inflicted by Steerforth throwing a hammer at her )....Littimer the servant is definitely up to no good, and and Miss Mowcher is a very unsettling character at this point too. Steerforth may be charming and have David in thrall but it's pretty obvious he's a bad' un.

NB.....not-quite-a-spoiler-alert!! I read that Miss Mowcher was based on an actual person, Mrs Seymour Hill, who was one of Dickens's neighbours. He was originally going to make her a much more sinister character but Mrs Hill recognised herself when the instalment came out (she was of restricted growth) and threatened him with legal action, so he had to re-think the role he was planning for Miss Mowcher quite significantly.

Miss Mowcher is the short woman who climbed onto the table and did Steerforth's hair. I only remembered her because I was looking back through the chapters and there was a drawing of her. I can't explain why the description of her made me uncomfortable, because she had to play up to her disability, because she had to act in a certain way to get work and to try to ingratiate herself with unpleasant people like Steerforth just to survive in life. And there were plenty like her I'm sure.

Miss Dartle is the one who lives with Steerforth's mother. There don't seem to be many likeable women in this book. Is that deliberate? To make the good ones like Agnes (and I agree, I can never quite remember why she is in the story, she's the daughter of his old school teacher?) stand out against the not so likeable ones?

I did read all the chapters but I have to say that with all that's gone on in the whole world, and in my immediate world, recently I can't remember much of what I read.
Some chapters stick with me, lots seem to pass me right by. Lots of the chapters this month didn't make much of an impression on me, I don't know why. There seemed to be lots of people appearing and disappearing, I couldn't really keep up.

I found the passage with Miss Mowcher quite uncomfortable for some reason, although I guess she is someone in a difficult situation who has made the best of it, and good for her. Miss Dartle is another odd one, I didn't much like her either. He doesn't portray a lot of these people in a very favourable light.

I also do not like the Micawbers. I suspect they are up to no good. I don't think they have taken any money or anything from David so far, but I keep thinking they will. Or they will somehow get money from Traddles who is obviously working so hard to earn enough to be married. Whenever I hear that the Micawbers have made a re-appearance my heart sinks.

Agree Terp. He's also very good at describing that painful feeling of knowing that you're young and gauche and longing to be grown up and sophisticated.

I'm continuing to marvel at how fresh and timeless the writing seems, to me anyway. I think this is the secret of Dickens's appeal - we all know teens who put gunk on their hair and fall violently in love, we've all been drunk and had terrible hangovers, we've all had that weird, creepy feeling of deja-vu.....he describes all this with such vivid immediacy, and we realise much of life was really just the same for people in 1850 as it is today.

I only just finished last night. The bit where he got drunk was hilarious! It was nice to see Little Em’ly settled although I was slightly disappointed she and David didn’t get together (I know they wouldn’t have been suited though). I’m also intrigued why Miss Murdstone has been brought back and I was pleased to see the Micawbers again.

I'm late posting today as just finished the chapters today. Still not seen the film, will wait until I have finished the book now.

I am enjoying the newly adult David. I reckon Agnes has either been seduced by Steerforth, or knows someone who has. Surely he has to get his comeuppance! Also intrigued about where Dickens is going with Miss Murdstone.
I am still finding some chapters confusing, and drag a bit, but ome chapters fly by and are quite "easy". There are just so many characters and I keep needing to check back on who is who.

Where are we reading to next?

That hair

Wow, Piggy - have you got many of them? That sounds fascinating!

Dickens had his photograph taken often but he wasn't keen on having it done.....although he knew how important it was for publicity purposes. A shrewd one, was our Dickens.

Have just finished my chapters. I've increased my appreciation for the film, which does seem to have caught the spirit of the book very well. I"m enjoying all the headlong crushes, culminating in Does. And ah, the friend he can confide in about them, Dora.

Yes, a daguerrotype - looking up Whitehall. It's in the V&A and they have the copyright. Taken January 1839. Amazing, isn't it?