Thanks for being my Davy buddy, Lex!
The Personal History, Experience
and Observation of David Copperfield the younger
of Blunderstone Rookery (which
he never meant to be published on any account)
By Charles Dickens
From the preface to the
‘Charles Dickens’ edition:
“Of all my books, I like this
one the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child
of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love
them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite
child. And his name is David Copperfield.”
David Copperfield is the
story of a boy (not the magician), as described by himself, from his very
earliest days all the way to manhood, in England during the late Industrial
Revolution/early Victorian era. He encounters adversity through many harsh trials,
perseveres and forms lasting friendships, learns to stand up for himself, and
above all, to be true to himself. I don’t want to give too much away, because
if there is one Dickens novel you should read, it’s this one.
I won’t say it’s a quick read, with my edition
topping out at a little over 800 pages, but I enjoyed immensely the care
Dickens takes in crafting the characters, the masterful way he weaves their
stories together, the genuineness of Davy himself, and the laugh out loud
humor. I think it would be difficult to convey here the extent of the endearing
qualities of Davy, or how well the characters come together, so I’ll just share
a few of my favorite passages and leave it at that.
Davy’s great-aunt is one of
my favorites of the large cast of supporting characters. She is a determined
lady, and rather eccentric. One of her eccentricities is that she always takes
wine cut with water and toast as a bedtime snack. The toast has to be cut in
strips, so she can dip it into the wine. She also has a great aversion to
donkeys, which Davy discovers when he first comes to live with her at about ten
years old.
-
“Janet had gone
away to get the bath ready, when my aunt, to my great alarm, became in one
moment rigid with indignation, and hardly had voice to cry out, ‘Janet!
Donkeys!’ Upon which, Janet came running up the stairs as if the house were in
flames, darted out on a little piece of green in front, and warned off two
saddle-donkeys, lady-ridden, that had presumed to set hoof on it; while my
aunt, rushing out of the house, seized the bridle of a third animal laden with
a bestriding child, turned him, led him forth from those sacred precincts, and
boxed the ears of the unlucky urchin in attendance who had dared to profane
that hallowed ground.”
When Davy has just finished
grammar school, and setting off for London, he’s about 17, and like most boys
(and girls) at that age, eager to be considered “grown up.”
-
“I got away from
Agnes and her father, somehow, with an indifferent show of being very manly,
and took my seat upon the box of the London coach. […] The main object in my
mind, I remember, when we got fairly on the road, was to appear as old as
possible to the coachman, and to speak extremely gruff. The latter point I
achieved at great personal inconvenience; but I stuck to it, because I felt it
was a grown-up sort of thing.”
Later, he is studying to be a
proctor (which seems to be a kind of lawyer in the English House of Commons),
and is renting a set of rooms. His childhood housekeeper and friend, Peggotty,
comes to stay for a while, and his current housekeeper takes offense.
-
“… Mrs. Crupp had
resigned everything appertaining to her office (the salary excepted) until
Peggotty should cease to present herself. Mrs. Crupp, after holding diverse
conversations respecting Peggotty, in a very high-pitched voice, on the
staircase – with some invisible Familiar it would appear, for corporeally speaking
she was quite alone at those times – addressed a letter to me, developing her
views. […] that at all periods of her existence she had a constitutional
objection to spies, intruders, and informers. […] After this, Mrs. Crupp
confined herself to making pitfalls on the stairs, principally with pitchers,
and endeavouring to delude Peggotty into breaking her legs. I found it rather
harassing to live in this state of siege, but was too much afraid of Mrs. Crupp
to see any way out of it.”
As a child Davy becomes a
lodger of Mr. Micawber and his family, and retains their friendship through
adulthood. Mr. Micawber is an over-the-top drama queen, always lamenting of his
“pecuniary liabilities,” but he’s a good man, and loyal to his wife and
children. He does secure a paying job for some time, but his employer is one of
the villains of the book, and he takes pleasure in reminding Mr. Micawber how
much he owes him for taking him in. I greatly enjoyed Mr. Micawber’s flair in
sharing this information.
-
“ ‘The
subsistence of my family, ma’am,’ returned Mr. Micawber, ‘trembles in the balance.
My employer – […] once did me the favour to observe to me, that if I were not
in the receipt of the stipendiary emoluments appertaining to my engagement with
him, I should probably be a mountebank about the country, swallowing a
sword-blade, and eating the devouring element. For anything that I can perceive
to the contrary, it is still probable that my children may be reduced to seek a
livelihood by personal contortion, while Mrs. Micawber abets their unnatural
feats by playing the barrel-organ.’ ’’
(Translation: Be thankful I
gave you a job, because if I hadn’t, you and your family might have to leave
the city and become traveling circus performers!)
Of the several works by
Dickens that I have read, I must say that I loved this one best. I remember
picking it up when I was in high school, I think, or maybe a summer during
college, and putting it down again, finding it difficult to get into. But this
time, once I’d started, I couldn’t stop. Dickens drew me in with his
charismatic characters, his way of starting in on a tale, then stopping briefly
by the side of the story to fill in a little background, never going too far as
to lose your interest, and then dropping you back in to continue on. The book
is narrated by David himself, and I felt as he went along that I was there with
him, that I felt his hardships and tribulations sorely, and rejoiced with him
in his successes. I was happy to see it all come out right for him in the end,
but also sorry to have to put the book down, because it meant that I had to say
goodbye to Davy.
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