David Copperfield has been on my ‘must read list’ for longer than I can remember. I don’t know what took me so long to pick it up, but I’m so pleased that I finally did as it was truly a very enjoyable read.
I was expecting a tale of destitution and cruelty with life only coming good towards the end. But it was not like that at all. It was a linear tale of David’s life, told in remembrance by David himself, commencing from the date of his birth when his Aunt Betsy Trotwood appears out of the blue to meet the new baby girl only to disappear just as quickly upon being told ‘it’s a boy!’ Betsy later redeems herself by taking care of the orphaned David and paying for his schooling and articling him to a proctor.
David’s early life is happy enough until one day he is asked if he would like to go on a little holiday with his beloved nurse-maid Peggoty. When he returns he finds that his widowed mother has re-married, and life will never the same again. Mr Murdstone and his steely sister cast a gloom over the once happy home with physical and mental abuse, and David is sent away to a questionable school where he becomes friends with two boys who will play very different roles in his later life. There is plenty of drama and tragedy and not all of it relates to David, but to some of the many people he comes to know from all walks and class of life – with the class divide being a major theme throughout.
This novel was Charles Di ckens’ favourite, being semi-autobiographical, and it contains some very memorable characters such as Mr Wilkins Micawber and Uriah Heep, and I think it could well become my favourite too.
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