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?

LOL palegreenstars

Relieved that so many of you are holding off on the film for now, I don't feel so bad about waiting for a while too.

I have read my nine chapters and have also enjoyed them! I think having to go at a slow pace really helps me with this type of fiction - as obviously it was intended to be. Like Piggy, I have been modelling "everyone reads in class!". I might even show them a bit of this thread so they can see examples of people reading for pleasure.

Is it today we are discussing?

(Settles in with a cup of tea)

Just ploughing through chapter 9. Have remembered that one of the things I dislike about dickens is the mawkish sentimentality about death, especially when the "good" die. I know it was a Victorian thing, and his readers would have LOVED it, but I find it like wading through treacle.

The rest so far has been...ok, but I found myself more irritated than amused at most of the humorous bits, and unmoved by the sadder bits. Hoping Steerforth gets him comeuppance though.

I’m finding that so far the mawkishness is well outweighed by humour and his wonderful observations of childhood, though. I always get the feeling with Dickens that his godly passages don’t totally come from a natural place. I suspect he put them in because he felt he had to.

I am glad you don't like Steerforth and I'll be interested to see what they do with him in the film. Poor Mr Thingamibob.

The mawkishness over death is definitely a Victorian taste : but they were so surrounded by it! The intro to my copy of Bleak House has a very interesting section on municipal graveyards. Horrific.

Dickens does write bullies very well, I always think. His depiction of - if you like- coercive control is really rather chilling. Poor whatsherface.

I am enjoying it and finding the funny bits funny.

So far so good.

I do at times find his writing a little overwrought. Copperfield is so annoyingly young and naive. But it’s so far been really fun. Even the death. I hope he comes to understand the ways of the world better and his various enemies get their comeuppance.

I'm really enjoying it. How funny and how inventive he was - I think he evokes the mind and thinking of a child so convincingly.

I honestly didn't know what to expect and have no idea where the story goes from here. Overall I'm enjoying it despite finding certain sections overwrought as mentioned by others.

Such a terribly naïve chap!!

But how worldly-wise would he have been - a solitary small boy, an only child with no family other than his doting mother, living in a fairly isolated place in the 1840s....?

He definitely would have been naive but he doesn’t seem to have learnt anything from Steerforth taking advantage of him at all. The only time he’s pushed back is biting his step farther. Hopefully he’ll get a bit more gumption as it progresses.

Just in case anyone wants to get started again, our next instalments are Chapters 10 -18! February is a shorter month!

DC' naivete reminds me of Pip a little,and, of course, Oliver Twist. But I find Pip annoying mostly whereas I feel sorry for David at present. I find the wide eyed innocence tone similar to Oliver Twist in Dickens' use of irony.

I am excited that his Aunt is due to make a reappearance!

Yes, Steerforth is awful. Will DC learn who his true friends are? I do hope so....

I feel like having spent all of Jan waiting impatiently for 1st Feb, I have now forgotten everything I might have said about DC! Will leave the next chapters until later in Feb.

I sat the other night wondering how many LTB’s David’s mother would have if Mumsnet was around. There was a marked contrast between David’s Aunt and mother who were both victims of domestic abuse and how they handled it. Was Dickens particularly enlightened on the plight of women?

I just stumbled on this thread whilst scrolling, I didn't know readalongs were a thing. That's ace, I'm going to look out for them more now. David Copperfield is my all time favourite comfort book, I'm actually disappointed to see that it's becoming a series because I can't imagine it doing the book justice. Where are you all up to? My brain didn't make sense of the 3x instalment thing and I want to join in

By all accounts, Dickens was terribly sympathetic to all women - except his own wife...I try to pretend I don't know this. Women had such a dreadful position in marriage and divorce in the Victorian period.

I may have got carried away and finished to the end of chapter 10, says the woman who doesn't like Dickens.

Well, how very rebellious of you!

I’m really enjoying this! I don’t know the story so don’t know where it’s going. I loved the cheeky waiter and the flute playing teacher! Looking forward to the next few chapters, am hoping we get to hear more of his schooldays.

Im really enjoying this, it's almost like dickins bingo (naive child who becomes an orphan, death of a saintly woman, domestic abuser) however some bits have elevated up it for me.

I find dickins portrays mental domestic abuse quite well, just the sheer psychological torture. The humour I've found genuinely funny in places and I was actually shocked at steerford getting that teacher sacked using the modern equivalent of 'your mum sponges off the state'

Yes, I felt really sorry for the teacher (was it Mells?)

Also feel sorry for Barkis - he’s willin’ but she’s not interested!

I felt really sorry for his mother, I though Dickens did the emotional abuse and gaslighting really well (did Victorians recognise this at all?) when it was probably legal to beat your wife with no consequences. She was in a pretty impossible situation. Anyone else willing her not to marry him?

I do enjoy Dickens names though.

Does anyone think the great aunt Copperfield from Chapter 1 who buggered off when David wasn't a girl will make a reappearance somewhere down the line?

I'm also rooting for Barkis and Peggoty

Essentially, married women had no rights, so yes, Murdstone could do what he liked. I'm sure the fact that coercive relationships existed was absolutely acknowledged, but legally women were unprotected.

Dickens was terribly sympathetic to all women - except his own wife

Yes, this is pretty much the case, Piggy - the defining event for him was the sudden death of his young sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth (his wife Catherine's sister). She lived with them in Doughty St - where the Dickens Museum is now - and was taken ill very suddenly one evening, then died the next day. Dickens was totally devastated by this and it goes a long way to explaining the way he portrayed women in his books, as passive, ever-perfect objects of adoration, often dying young, like David's mother. He really couldn't deal very well in his writing with women as flesh-and-blood creatures, I don't think. They tend to be either comic, or stuck up on a pedestal to be venerated.