David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is said to have based this coming-of-age novel on his own life early in the 1800s. Beginning with what he has been told of his birth, young adult David Copperfield records events and reflects on his orphaned childhood, schooling, employment, friendships, and loves. I found parts of this novel heartbreaking and parts hilarious, but always thoughtfully described.

Even as a young boy, David Copperfield’s sensitive observations are extraordinary. At ten, he wonders how he could have been “so easily thrown away.” Also at ten, he has the presence of mind to understand the source of his despair. “No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I … felt my hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man crushed in my bosom.” [page 155 in my edition]

The situation eliciting these emotions is caused by the cruelty of his controlling stepfather, Mr. Murdstone. Another clear villain in the novel is Uriah Heep. David would not learn the extent of Heep’s vile schemes until he was in his twenties, but even as a boy, he intuits something untrustworthy in Heep. For example, after Heep says David’s aunt is a sweet lady, David observes, “He had a way of writhing when he wanted to express enthusiasm, which was very ugly; and which diverted my attention from the compliment he had paid my relation, to the snaky twistings of his throat and body.” [page 235]

As a young boy abandoned to harsh realities, David is naïve. I cringed every time a new person took advantage of him. So many did, I’m surprised he does not grow up to be bitter; rather, he grows up to be respectful. As an older teen, he learns to discern how and when to protect himself as he moves toward people who might exploit him.

I feel the trajectory of character James Steerforth represents David’s maturity in the area of trust. Eight-year-old David does not recognize the contempt in his schoolmate’s nickname for him: Daisy. Steerforth’s villainy is narcissism, at first admired by David and later loathed for the hurt it inflicts on people. “If any one had told me, then, that all this was a brilliant game, played for the excitement of the moment, for the employment of high spirits, in the thoughtless love of superiority, in a mere wasteful careless course of winning what was worthless to him and next minute thrown away: I say, if any one had told me such a lie that night, I wonder in what manner of receiving it my indignation would have found a vent!” [pages 310, 311]

My heroine in this novel is not any of David’s paramours. A more loyal, loving mother figure than his nurse Clara Peggotty cannot be found; I certainly was grateful for her. But to my mind, his Aunt Betsey Trotwood rules! Although she rejects David at birth for not being born a girl, she proves to be his champion for the rest of his life. She recognizes Mr. Murdstone’s torment of David, and when she in a fiery discourse dismisses him from her cottage, I jumped up and cheered. Her subsequent actions and those of her simple-minded boarder, Mr. Dick, were for me the delights of this novel.

In David Copperfield, Dickens gives us flawed characters, most richly portrayed, and vivid, sensory descriptions. I could easily picture scenes. Humor comes in the forms of observational irony (Mr. Dick’s kite, Dora's dog), dialogue (Mr. Micawber’s blustery attempts at eloquence), descriptions (Thomas Traddles’ “hearth-broomy” hair), and quaint characterizations (Dora’s aunts Miss Clarissa and Miss Lavinia). David Copperfield contains many other humorous examples, some laugh-out-loud funny. Life’s tragedies and sadness are plentiful, too. I found the novel emotionally engaging and David’s journey from childhood to manhood admirable.