David Copperfield Dickensalong

[Piggywaspushed]

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?

Yes, that's what made me want to read it. I'd never heard of it otherwise

It's 22 hours on audio!

I'd never heard of it either, really enjoyed that series though, I wish they'd made more of them. I read Queenie because of it.

Agree, I thought they were really interesting.

Moving VERY slowly on the DC chapters this month. May have peaked too soon. Must buckle down!

What's the documentary you are talking about?

Knitwit It was Novels that Shaped Our World on BBC. Still available on Iplayer. Some of the readings were a bit extra but overall it was very good.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000b8mh/novels-that-shaped-our-world

I hope they make more.

Hello All.

Just issuing the end of month reminder!

2 chapters to go

Three here I think.

I have actually remembered to mark the page on my favourite quotation this month!

That's just showing off Piggy

It's a lockdown hair quote...

Well, good morning!

This has been a month of marital mayhem, mismatches and mishaps!

We were talking last month about Dora and it seems she choose to infantilise herself. I spy trouble ahead in the unsuitability of mind and purpose. She really reminds me of a young woman on Love Island... just chooses to be a pretty airhead and wants no more. Tut.

The plot with Emily revived itself and I hope she will turn out to be OK and the dastardly Littimer and Steerforth get their comeuppance. She showed some spirit escaping form a window. Dickens certainly presents us a range of women , trapped by circumstance, including the unspoken misery somewhere of David's aunt.

I was most interested in the red herring of Annie who does, after all, love Dr Strong and not the other guy (forgotten name klaxon). It's another one of those matches, like in Bleak House, of a young woman with a much older man, there for companionship and succour and I suppose it is good to see that that is what Annie says she wants, but it feels very odd to a modern readership!
I do still find Mr Dick utterly charming. I think this novel has more nice people in it than other Dickenses I have read?

I was tickled pink by Traddles' hair : 'You have no idea what obstinate hair mine is, Copperfield. I am quite a fretful porcupine' !

Uriah Heep continues to ooze marvellously batlike malevolence everywhere. DC literally imagines him hanging upside down at one point...I liked the bit about the toothache ; it's so dry I heard the next morning he went to the dentist to have a tooth removed. I hope it was a double one The way Dickens slips into the present tense there is so clever. DC still hates Uriah, even 'now'.

Obviously ,we all want Agnes and DC to end up together : I cannot see how that will happen without Dora dying. Irritant that she is, I don't wish death upon her. Time will tell!

I think Dora resembles David's mother in some ways - his mother wasn't as extreme, but we've seen her be susceptible to flattery and fairly ineffective - so I think David's attraction is psychologically plausible. I'm touched by his aunt's decision not to make the same mistake s again by interfering and becoming estranged. She's willing to learn and grow (unlike Dora). But I liked Dora standing up for her right to be herself, saying that David knew what she was like before they married so had no right to demand that she turn into someone else.

Yes, you're right biblio : she stood up for herself there.

I hadn't thought about Dora being similar to David's mother before, but you're right. Dora is so fluffily awful, she would be a comedy character if our David wasn't now trapped with her.

Does anyone else have a feeling that the ending will be either very rushed, or not satisfactory with too many loose ends? We have barely 300 pages to go and we still need to find out what happens to Emily, we need to get Traddles married, the Micawbers will probably get ruined again, Steerforth and Littimer need their comeuppance, Agnes needs to get married, we need to find out the mystery in Betsy Trotwood's past (who was the man in her carriage that day in London, the Murdstone's will no doubt have an ending of sorts. It's an awful lot to cram in.

The women of wisdom and judgment (Betsy, Agnes) are ranged on one side; poor, infantile child-wife Dora with her guitar and her pretty pouting is on the other. David needs to learn and grow as well. I suspect Dora's not long for this world.

Dora was played for laughs in the film, and it worked well.

300 pages is quite a lot, tbf - many complete books are shorter. Are we doing the remaining chapters this month? It feels like there's a certain amount of exit velocity.

I'd be happy to push on through to the end in June

Finish in June I mean

Yes, I think that could be the plan, although it is a lot of chapters. It is only about 200 pages in my copy.

What do others think?

The other alternative is to do chapters 47 -53 in June : I am set to be a lot busier this month. I await thoughts!

Dickens does like his Agneses . I am pretty sure it's the very last word of Oliver Twist.

It's 218 pages in my virtual copy. I'd be fine to carry on to the end - some of the remaining chapters are pretty short. But if we do two more that's OK by me, as you're going to be busy, Piggy.

I'm listening to an audiobook version and the voice Anton Lesser does for Uriah Heap makes my skin crawl.

I'm finding it quite oddly balanced for action. 2 months ago there was nothing to say then last month it was all go, lots happening this month too. As mentioned there's a lot to be tied up before the end. I'm finding the vast cast of characters a bit much. I'm struggling to keep up with everyone because I leave it to the end of the month and the long gap means I've forgotten everything.

I was quite interested in the language used to describe knitting. He obviously wasn't a knitter himself. I was listening out for the hair bit Piggy and it made me laugh. Lots of out of control hair here too.

My audiobook claims we're at 77%. 5 hours left at x1.6 speed so doable, but I'm equally happy to split it. I think the past sections we've done have averaged at about 3 hours worth each.

It feels like a lot to me and I don't want to route march through it and miss stuff. I have liked the slower read as I am normally a terrible skim reader and this makes me savour the writing.

Does anyone mind awfully if we do two more parts? Obviously if you want to read the whole thing, go for it, but we will discuss Chapters 47 - 57 on July 1st?

Is that OK?