Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... David Copperfield (Penguin Classics) (original 1850; edition 2004)by Charles Dickens, Jeremy Tambling (Editor), Jeremy Tambling (Introduction)
Work InformationDavid Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)
Favourite Books (59) » 97 more Folio Society (22) Books Read in 2020 (21) BBC Big Read (86) Books Read in 2017 (56) Top Five Books of 2013 (166) Five star books (74) Books Read in 2016 (191) Childhood Favorites (61) Books Read in 2019 (185) Out of Copyright (23) BBC Big Read (43) Top Five Books of 2018 (139) CCE 1000 Good Books List (130) Best First Lines (24) Books Read in 2022 (626) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (195) 19th Century (73) 100 World Classics (59) Art of Reading (35) Books Read in 2010 (69) Unread books (325) Books About Boys (15) A Reading List (54) Ambleside Books (336) Books Read in 2018 (3,695) AP Lit (188) Movie Adaptations (95) My favourite books (63) A's favorite novels (59) United Kingdom (75) readingList (3) Books on my Kindle (84) 5 Best 5 Years (14) Victorian Period (46) BBC Top Books (64) Plan to Read Books (28) Fake Top 100 Fiction (68) Tagged 19th Century (27) Read (20) Books Read in 2014 (2,189) I Can't Finish This Book (135) Best of World Literature (330) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.
Not only is this Dickens' most autobiographical, but I feel this is the most well-rounded work in his canon and the peak of his career. Falling roughly in the middle of his bibliography, David Copperfield functions, in my opinion, as the transition from the young feel-good, satirical writer of comedic scenes and characters to the more mature, darker settings and is eager to become the potentially scathing critical writer of social commentary. David Copperfield exhibits Dickens' most intensive qualities at a large-scale here for perhaps the first time, but unlike Bleak House, Great Expectations or Our Mutual Friend to come, he retains the same light-hearted tone was known for. In essence, this is the most "Dickensian" of his novels, the quintessential Dickens, if you will. At least, that's the way I think of it. ( ) I reread this in preparation for my book club's next selection, "Demon Copperhead". I excited to be able to compare the two novels. Of this book Dickens said... " of all my books I like this best. " What more is there to say? I'm excited to see how Kingsolver brings this tale into the present day. Can she create memorable characters to match those such as Betsey Trotwood, Mr. Dick and the Micawbers? I do not think this is the strongest of Dickens' novels. While David Copperfield, the main character and only POV, does have a difficult and interesting life, to a point, it is also far too convenient. After his struggles as pre-teen, most things seem to work out very well for him, including his married life. As is usual with a Dickens story, often there are far too many unnecessary words. Several characters seem to exist only to pad the word count. This isn't terrible, but not Dickens' best either. Such a brilliant bloomin' profusion of memorable and entertaining characters, it's both gratifying and a shame that everyone's fate wraps up in the end like a didactic grade school lesson. Sure, I'm happy that Mr. and Mrs. Micawber found wealth and honor at last in Australia, but the worthy gentleman was such a joy as the loquacious sad sack as likely to find himself in debtor's prison as anywhere, and his wife as the determinedly deluded champion of her husband's industrious talents. And it's no less deserved that Uriah Heep is last seen in prison, but his writhing false 'umbleness is much more fun when provoking the earnest and sincere Master Copperfield to acts of physical violence. The outdated notions of women's "lost virtue" are hard to take at this remove, though the transformation of Mr. Peggotty from genial fisherman and drinker to driven and heartbreaking father trying every desperate measure to rescue his lost Emily is touching. The less said about the character of Dora, David's utterly simplistic and self-appellated "child-wife" who conveniently wastes away of some unnamed disorder and dies so that he can realize the error of his young undisciplined heart and end up with the angelic Agnes, the better, although learning that Dickens modeled Dora after his own apparently much-regretted wife does introduce some juicy and evil gossip into the lamentable storyline (if Mrs. Dickens did not heartily dislike her husband at the time of 'David Copperfield' publication, she certainly had cause after it!) So the novel has some problems, sure, but damn, Dickens could write, and he could create such characters as to make any author jealous. --- "David Copperfield is the absolutely typical Dickens novel; maybe Dickens, the hammiest of all great writers, loved it best because it was just so him. But its very centrality makes it easy to overlook or take for granted. Compared to the early work, its miscalculations seem less understandable, its moralizing less tolerable; shouldn't he have known better by this time? Compared to the late work, it seems too merrily "Dickensian." I don't know, am I making heavy weather of this? Shouldn't it be enough to remind folks that this novel, and no other, is the one with Uriah Heep and Mr. Micawber and Mr. and Miss Murdstone and Aunt Betsey and Peggoty and Steerforth and Mr. Dick and Rosa Dartle? No writer since Shakespeare could have put together such a cast of scene-stealers - as well as such supposedly minor characters as the respectable Littimer, the willin' Barkis, the lone and lorn Mrs. Gummidge, the Punch-like Mr. Spenlow and the volatile Miss Mowcher." - from David Gates's introduction in the Modern Library edition
"David Copperfield" es una novela clásica de Charles Dickens, publicada por primera vez en forma de folletín entre 1849 y 1850. La novela está ampliamente considerada como la obra más autobiográfica de Dickens y refleja muchos elementos de su propia vida. Sigue la vida y las aventuras del personaje titular, David Copperfield, desde su infancia hasta la edad adulta. La historia comienza con el nacimiento de David en Rookery, una zona degradada de Londres. Su padre muere antes de que él nazca, y su madre Clara se casa con el opresivo y cruel Sr. Murdstone. De pequeño, David es enviado a trabajar a una fábrica tras la muerte de su madre, experimentando las penurias del trabajo infantil. A medida que David crece, la novela explora sus relaciones con diversos personajes, como el excéntrico señor Micawber, la bondadosa familia Peggotty y el embustero Uriah Heep. La narración abarca las experiencias de David en el internado, su carrera como vigilante y sus enredos amorosos. A lo largo de la novela, los temas de la injusticia social, la disparidad de clases y la resistencia del espíritu humano se entretejen en la trama de la vida de David. Los personajes con los que se cruza, tanto amigos como enemigos, contribuyen a su crecimiento y desarrollo mientras intenta encontrar su lugar en el mundo. "David Copperfield" es conocida por la riqueza de sus personajes, la vívida descripción de la sociedad victoriana y el humor y el comentario social característicos de Dickens. La novela sigue siendo una exploración atemporal de la condición humana, que capta los triunfos y las tribulaciones del viaje de un individuo desde la infancia hasta la madurez. David Copperfield relates the story of his life - transmuting many of the early experience of his creator - right from his birth to his attainment of settled maturity and successful authorship. On his journey, David encounters a gallery of memorable characters, kind, cruel or grotesque: Mr Micawber, Uriah Heep and Steerforth are among the many who shape his development. By turns absorbingly comic, dramatic, ironic and tender, the novel brings into energetic life the society and preoccupations of the mid-Victorian world Belongs to Publisher SeriesAlba Minus (22) — 40 more Collins Classics (1) Everyman's Library (242) Las grandes novelas de aventuras (77,78) insel taschenbuch (0468) Modern Library (110.3) La nostra biblioteca Edipem (90-91) Gli Oscar [Mondadori] (23 bis) Oxford India Paper Dickens (VIII) Penguin Clothbound Classics (2014) Penguin English Library, 2012 series (2012-05) The Pocket Library (PL-751) A tot vent (104) Zephyr Books (122,123) Is contained inOliver Twist / A Christmas Carol / David Copperfield / A Tale of Two Cities / Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Gesammelte Werke. Die Pickwickier, Nikals Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Oliver Twist, Weihnachtsgeschichten, Bleakhaus, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens ContainsIs retold inHas the adaptationIs abridged inInspiredHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideAwardsNotable Lists
Classic Literature.
Fiction.
HTML: David Copperfield is considered to be Charles Dickens's most autobiographical novel. He said of it: "Like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield." It is a Bildungsroman, a tale which follows the development into maturity of its narrator, David Copperfield. The Russian greats Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky both greatly admired the novel, as did Kafka, Joyce and James. Freud called it his favourite novel. .No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.8Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Victorian period 1837-1900LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |