What the Dickens? I’ve finished David Copperfield!
I’m thrilled to report that after months of procrastination, I have finally finished David Copperfield. I must admit to being chivvied along by Lucy having finished it a few weeks ago, but Shoshi’s post about the joys of reading Dickens at Christmas clinched it. Having dragged my way to just over the halfway point of the novel in sporadic bursts throughout the year, the switch to total immersion transformed my reading experience for the better.
What had been a chore became an utter joy, and I relished reading about David’s attempts to help equip his hopeless, spoilt ‘child-wife’ Dora to learn how to run a household, his aunt’s fabulous brusque bluntness, Mr Micawber’s well-meaning incompetence, and the slimy, ever so ‘umble Uriah Heep’s sly undertakings. I couldn’t put it down.
Lucy and I are working our way through all of Dickens’ novels, and I’d planned to poly-read, and have a Dickens on the go along with my other reading. However, I’ve realised that this won’t work for me. The effect of a richly painted Dickensian world peopled with finely detailed characters loses impact when read in brief fits and starts.
Now we’re only a few sleeps short of Christmas, its time for Lucy and I to pack our blogging quills and inkwells away until the new year, and settle down in front of a roaring fire with a stack of good books and some ginger wine. Looking back through the list of books I’ve read this year, it was lovely to be reminded of some of the great tomes (War and Peace, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, )and little gems ( Lila, Petronille, I Capture the Castle,…there are simply too many to mention) that enriched what has been an otherwise sad and bewildering year. Here’s hoping that goodwill, reason and calm is more in evidence in 2017. Until then, have a very merry, book-filled Christmas!
Lucy
Sarah
Congratulations! For a long time David C was my favourite Dickens. And then I read Bleak House. I’m not sure any will surpass that, for me though I really ought to get to Great Expectations one of these days…
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I love ‘Great Expectations’, but I think ‘Bleak House’ is a close second. I feel annoyed with myself for not giving the first half of the novel my undivided attention – I’m clearly not cut out for polyreading! The second half was wonderful, so at some point I’ll have to go back and read it over again, and properly this time! 🙂
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GE is one of my favourites – often Dickens can go off on one of his tandems and we end up with a lot of baggy text but he seems to have been restrained in GE
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I’ve always suspected that the way he wrote, in installments, accounted for that tendency. When I read his longer works I imagine them as the 19th century equivalent of the TV series like Lost, Mad Men, etc. Reading him today is like binge-watching—inconsistencies are more likely to be noticed!
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You’re absolutely right RG, writing in installments does make some Dickens read like Ye olde-worlde ‘Lost’ – hilarious!
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Little Dorrit was nearly the end of me, BookerT – all the long and winding blind alleys and no real shift for any of the characters – groan!
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I’ve always meant to get through David Copperfield, if only for Uriah Heep’s sake.
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Coming across famous (and infamous) characters is one of the joys of reading Dickens, I think. I did enjoy Uriah Heep, although I feel Dickens’ description of him probably went a long way to instigating the prejudice against those blessed with ginger hair. Let’s just say he’s not kind!
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His description of Uriah Heep backfired with me — I’ve always had a bit of a literary crush on him! Probably helped by Paul Brightwell’s performance! 😉
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I haven’t seen any adaptations of DC yet although now I’ve finally finished the book I’ll be ordering all the Dvds – all of them – so I’ll have to keep you posted on whether Paul Brightwell can charm me with his umble Uriah! 🙂
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Congratulations! And I agree about Dickens at Christmas (although not so much in the case of DC!) but Audible are giving away a free 3 hour Christmas Carol adaptation to subscribers this year, narrated by Derek Jacobi featuring Roger Allam and Miriam Margolyes among others, and it really got me in the mood.
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Funnily enough, I’ve been asked to do some more knitting pattern-writing, and this time it’s Dickens – Scrooge and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future. I was planning to read ‘A Christmas Carol’ again for inspiration, but i’d far rather Derek do it for me! 🙂
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Congratulations! I can’t poly-read at all, so I’m impressed by those who can but completely understand what you mean about focusing on one story. I’m thinking of reading War and Peace as my first book of 2017 so I may be challenged on this approach! Have a lovely Christmas and wonderful new year 🙂
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I can’t polyread but keep trying and failing! When will I learn? War and Peace is just wonderful – I’m jealous that you have it ahead of you as yet unread. In fact, I’m looking forward to forgetting it enough to enjoy it all over again! 🙂
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Well done! And have a lovely Christmas – look forward to reading about more Hard Books in the new year! 🙂
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Thank you, and the same to you! 🙂
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Congratulations! I find that once I get started on a Dickens novel I just can’t stop. I read Bleak House at the beginning of the year and breezed through it; it didn’t feel like a 1000 page novel.
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I just couldnt get to the end of BH – the beginning with the description of the fog is brilliant but then I got hopelessly confused about who was who
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My reading of ‘Bleak House’ was probably a bit unusual. I started it when my daughter was born and i was having endless broken nights. I’d read it every time she woke to feed, and told myself that by the time I’d got to the end, I’d be having proper sleep again. It really helped to get me through the tough patch and I found Dickens’ descriptions vivid enough to engage me even in my sleep-deprived flaky state!
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Thanks for the well wishes! My husband LOVES David Copperfield and wants me to read it, but I don’t think I can do it AND read for Grab the Lapels, which is women only. I did read Bleak House about 3 years ago for a class I sat in on and loved it.
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If you loved ‘Bleak House’ you’d definitely enjoy ‘David Copperfield’. Dickens based DC on his own childhood and it feels far more personal than the other books of his I’ve read. It’s really hard juggling books for blogging and other reading, isn’t it? especially when the other reading has fifty gazillion pages! Now I’ve finally accepted that I just can’t polyread, I’m planning on reading a run of shorter books and getting a few weeks worth of post ideas lined up so that I’ve got a chunk of time to immerse myself in more lengthy tomes. It sounds good in theory, but how it actually works remains to be seen! 🙂
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I’ve tried that method before, and it works fairly well. Good luck!
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Well done, I have Bleak House on my course book list to read next year so should be um… fun?… bleak? Hope you’re both enjoying the ginger wine, fire, reads etc. I’m reading a stack of books, eating chocolate, and making mostly unachievable grand plans. All the best for 2017 and many more book buys and blog posts to come 🙂
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Thanks Kim, and to you too! I’m sure you’ll enjoy ‘Bleak House’, especially appropriate for these early months of the year, which are so, well, bleak! 🙂
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Working through DIckens is challenging, mainly because his style is sometimes plain barmy! Still I may join you as my seven completed Dickens books don’t seem like enough now. Looking forward to comparing notes.
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Yay – welcome aboard! Dickens is much more fun in numbers – a Dickens shared is a ginormous novel halved and all that! 🙂
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