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?

And dickens left his own wife for a younger model after she'd borne him TEN children.

Also, what killed David's mother and brother? She is described as going into a decline post childbirth - but if seems a mental illness rather than a physical one. Yet the baby died within 24 hours of his mother, which suggests a highly contagious disease??

I'm way behind, still on chapter 3 I'll need to catch up today.

Did the husband not kill David’s mother? He seemed very upset before the funeral but fully expecting him to turn on David now,

David's mother's death is conveniently vague, isn't it? But for plot purposes both she and the baby had to go, so DC is now an orphan. The scene at the undertaker is classic Dickens - horribly chilling but he finds comedy in it too.

I assumed the idea was that they both wasted away -she was ill and so could not feed the baby?

I'd look and see what Katie Lumsden says bit fear plot spoilers!

Sorry, I'm going to bow out of this thread. I prefer to read more quickly. Enjoy!

I'll go back and look too but didn't the baby die a few days after his mother? Which would make sense, especially if she'd been ill for a while and the baby was already malnourished.

The horrific Murdstones wouldn't be very likely to care lovingly for a small baby. And infant death was an everyday occurrence

True - the baby was being breast fed so when mother died it would have been v vulnerable unless a wet nurse could be found.

Apparently , this novel was Dicken's first first person novel. Interesting. Inventive and innovative for his time, Dickens.

That’s interesting Piggy. I haven’t read enough Dickens to have realised that.

I didn’t think Murdstone had killed Clara, I just assumed it was the usual case of Victorians expiring which they do with alarming regularity. It’s possible he was responsible for her death via neglect rather than directly.

this novel was Dicken's first first person novel and the one he most identified with - it's very autobiographical in places. Even down to David's initials being his own, just inverted.

The next section that we're coming to contains the parts that were more or less straight from Dickens's own childhood.

Btw - these are a few of the adverts from my replica copies of the original David Copperfield

Love those!

Over the last couple of years, pelisse has to be the word I keep randomly coming across most in books, alongside 'ordure' as two words I have never myself used.

Still not sure what a pelisse is!

A pelisse, I believe is a sort of coat/ cloak thing to wear outside- I recognise it from Georgette Heyer.
I am enjoying the slow pace, it takes the pressure off for me. I do hope Pegotty ends up "willin' "!

Oh me too!

For some reason I thought a pelisse was some sort of storage bag : that must be something else they kept carrying around in Bleak House.

I finished the chapters a couple of weeks ago and have now forgotten what I wanted to say! Next time around, I'll try to leave the chapters until later in the month and maybe jot down a few notes...

On Davey's naivety, I find it convincing - his first experiences were being loved and taken care of by his mother and the wonderful Peggotty, and for his first time away from home, he was well-treated, so he approaches the world from a position of trust, and Dickens portrays very well how that trust is repeatedly taken advantage of. There's a clever juxtaposition between the perceptions of Davey the child and the adult narrator, particularly with characters such as Steerforth. The thing about Barkis, even though he's a benign character, he is also making use of Davey's naivety by getting him to send a message to Peggoty that he, Davey, doesn't understand.

I didn't find his mother's death mawkish - I think Dickens is very good at the jarring moments in bereavement - Davey thinking about how the other boys will be impressed by him, and planning about thinking sad thoughts as he approaches home so he will look bereft, and the inappropriate cheeriness of the family who make his funeral clothes and the coffin.

The way his mother is portrayed is quite clever - on the one hand, you can see how she is a victim of the Murdstones, but you can also see how her own vanity has made her vulnerable to them (she likes being described as a pretty, silly, girlish little thing). While she had few choices by modern standards, the contrasting presences of Betsey Trotter and even Peggoty hint that a different woman could have made different choices.

I agree with you bibliomania - one thing that surprised me (it's been years since I last read Dickens) is how plausible Davey, and lots of the other characters, feel. I think I was expecting the kind of overdrawn cartoons you often get in Dickens (or mock-Dickens) dramatisations. There are just the right amount of 'glimpses' of David's father's character which, along with what we see of his mother and of his childhood with Pegotty, convince me of his naivety. And of course he read storybooks, which at that time, would have offered children a very idealised, morally straightforward view of the world. So I can see why he would trust people rather than assuming adults to be manipulative or evil.

I love the character indications through description too - Jane Murdstone's handbag snapping like a jail and Pegotty's emotionally popping buttons lol

Like others, I am finding it surprisingly easy to read. And very funny. I do occasionally feel I'm missing some references though. Almost like when you come across unfamiliar colloquialisms in a translation.

Can anyone remember and explain the "Brooks of Sheffield" joke in Chapter 2? I know Mr M is referring to Davy and he doesn't realise etc. But what does the name mean?

I've found some articles that suggest that "Brooks" was probably a play on the verb to brook (meaning to put up with) and I like that explanation. Even this early on in the book it gives a good indication of Mr M's character and adds some foreboding: he's only putting up with Davy to get to his mother. But why Sheffield? They can't have lived there if they rode to Lowestoft and back in a day!

Sorry if you can't remember that far back, but it's been puzzling me!

I also found an interesting Guardian article on the subject: www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/feb/23/why-charles-dickenss-best-character-is-non-existent I hadn't thought about the idea of Davy being an adult (and presumably understanding the joke) writing about his youthful naivety retrospectively... I am supposing Dickens wanted us to not think of him (dickens) writing the novel (hence the use of first person), but then I can't quite get my head around being able to write about my early life with the clarity yet lack of adult comprehension that we are supposed to believe is happening. Not sure I explained that very well...!

Ma I don't know for sure, but I assumed that Brookes was a cutlery maker and it was something to do with being as sharp as a knife - following on from "Somebody’s sharp.”

Ha - a bit of googling later, here we go.

Thanks @bibliomania. Interesting that CD said the cutlery firm connection was a fluke! And that Sheffield didn't mean anything...

Just that Sheffield would have been associated with cutlery-making in general, I suppose.

Late to finish my chapters (as per normal) I am really enjoying this. Think I prefer it all being from one perspective as opposed to the Esther/Narrator one used in Bleak House.

Oh goodness Mr Mell, that scene made me feel very sad. I hope we meet him again. He was crap at the flute wasn’t he? So many characters already. I like that Dickens made him crap at the flute, being good at the flute would’ve been naff.

Richard Armitage doing a sterling job. Am I the only listener? He is most skilled at accents, as well as his general Davey voice being HOT and silky which is giving me conflicting emotions as he is a child currently.

I don't have the concentration for audiobooks. I need the words on the page!