David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Audio format. Narrator: The astounding, incomparable Richard Armitage.
After reading Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead” (560 pages/21 hours 3 minutes audio)(Another fabulous audiobook), I determined to finally conquer “David Copperfield” (36 hours and 31 minutes/1264 pages) With a writer whose books range from the quick read “A Christmas Carol (144 pages)” to, well, “David Copperfield,” I’ve just never taken this one on. I certainly agree with many readers who point out that David Copperfield wanders down multiple paths that are unnecessary to the story. However, I’m one of those people who enjoyed the various threads, the array of characters, the settings (mostly in England) and the story.

I am not going to say too much because I don’t want to write a 100 page review, but this is the book that brings us Uriah Heap. Even as a person who never read the book, I somehow knew a lot about this writhing “humble” villain. I also had always known about David Copperfield’s first wife, “Little Dora,” who dies young and never really grew up. I’m thinking I must have seen a movie of this as many were made but none could capture the many diversions in the novel and what a loss.

It was a lot of fun, spotting the characters Barbara Kingsolver recreated and she was quite faithful to the arc of Dickens’ tale. Dickens gave the many characters populating the story depth, humor, villainy and even if the wandering seems excessive to you, I think great characters, fully birthed hat makes the time spent reading this novel worthwhile. And because of their thorough development and Richard Armitage’s amazing gift for voicing each character perfectly I had no problem remembering each one. While this is something of a rags to riches story, David has connections and lands well young enough to both understand and navigate hardship while forging ahead to prosperity. Dickens wrote strong, unconventional women, meant to be admired. He creates this coming of age story showing a boy who is imperfect but holds to solid values that serve him well. The is a lot of social commentary that ranged from laugh out loud funny to heartbreaking. Every character we care about is brought to resolution of some sort, which I appreciate. Every thread is completed. Including, of course the central story of David himself. I am so glad Kingsolver wrote her totally engaging book that drove me to take the time for Dickens.