What the Dickens? David Copperfield - an update upon rereading

In which I talk about Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, and my experience rereading it...
David Copperfield was Dickens’s eighth novel, published in 1849-50; it is now my fifth favourite Dickens novel.
David Copperfield: / 58696.david_copperfield
What the Dickens original series? • What the Dickens? An I...
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[@alltheshelves9142]

Just finished reading David Copperfield and came straight to your channel for your insights! You never disappoint.

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks Whitney :) How are you? I have missed your videos!

[@timmathis8789]

Wonderful presentation. Very thorough. Thank you for sharing your fabulous interpretation skills with us.

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks :)

[@christyostrander734]

Just finished David Copperfield as a pleasure read. I loved it and am now going on to A Tale of Two Cities.

[@katiejlumsden]

I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope you like A Tale of Two Cities :)

[@markcharney3556]

I LOVE your reviews

[@OonaghFae]

I've been enjoying your delight and unabashed enthusiasm for Charles Dickens. It has inspired me to read his works, and I have been slowly amassing his novels. I have a degree in art history and have been planning my current reading around 18th and 19th century literature which mentions/features art. I have Dickens' Pictures from Italy, and plan on getting back to that one soon, but want to read Little Dorrit first. Also on the way, thanks to the speediness of Amazon Prime, are David Copperfield, American Notes, and The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens. Keep your excellent videos coming!

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks :) I do love Dickens's novels and I hope you enjoy them. I need to read Pictures from Italy too (I've read all his novels and really need to read more of his non-fiction.)

[@BlatantlyBookish]

So clearly I must read David Copperfield sometime soon! There is so much Dickens that I have yet to explore. First, I should catch up on Our Mutual Friend though. I like waiting until your videos come out so the chapters are fresh in my head as I watch. As always, your eloquence is inspiring and your enthusiasm is contagious :)

[@katiejlumsden]

You should! It's a great one :)

[@AmandaQuotidianBooks]

I'm so pleased DC has raised in your eyes! I'm very eager to listen to that audiobook in the relatively near future :D

[@katiejlumsden]

Oh you must. It's beautifully narrated.

[@CarolynsReadingRamblings]

Amanda Center it is one of the most beautiful audio narrations I have ever heard 😃

[@AmandaQuotidianBooks]

HUZZAH!

[@VitorRyuzaki]

I have just finished reading David Copperfield and i'm sooo glad you reread it to comment the book in more depth. It is now fighting Great Expectations for the place of my favorite Dickens, but i still have much to read. Hopefully i will finish Bleak House soon and follow your serialised reading videos. Thank you for making me love Dickens even more. Also, as you commented on these angel males, David and Traddles relationship reminded me so much of Pip and Herbert. Both friends (Traddles and Herbert) are so much more than the protagonists give them credit for. Not to mention the many other parallels between them, but this one really stuck with me when following Traddles.

[@katiejlumsden]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it - such a great book :) David and Traddles do remind me of Pip and Herbert - and Herbert and Traddles are definitely my preferred characters of those pairs of friends. I hope you enjoy Bleak House too.

[@richardranke3158]

During the Salem House days, David's best friends were James Steerforth and Tom Traddles. David idolized Steerforth, who turned out to be a rat. Traddles was always a friend and never let David down.

[@CarolynsReadingRamblings]

As always your eloquence discussing Dickens and how you feel about his work is amazing :D i love that we sort of overlapped reading this (though I am still only on page 172, quite a long ways to go). I may try to rework some of my current reading and just focus on this and my daily reading for the next several days because I listened to maybe 2 hours of it today and didn't want to stop at all. It is getting really interesting and Richard Armitage's narration makes me SO HAPPY! I have known since I first saw North and South that I love his acting and his voice but for some reason (and this also happened when I listened to Jim Broadbent narrate the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) how good he is at narration and giving everyone distinct voices surprised me. The best thing about it though is that he doesn't give the women super high fake voices, he just make them sound like women :) Since i am only 172 pages in, I have not been introduced to Agnes or Dora yet but now i am worried about how I will feel about them lol. i do look forward to their introductions though and now I am super excited to get to see Tommy again because i didn't know he turned up again after school :D

[@katiejlumsden]

I am so glad you're enjoying it. Yes, Richard Armitage's narration is brilliant. I am curious to see how you get on with the book and with the glorious Tommy Traddles again.

[@CarolynsReadingRamblings]

Books and Things at about 60% of the way through (hopefully to be finished within the next few days) I think it is safe to say this ties with Nicholas Nickleby as my favorite Dickens so far (though next time I re-read NN, DC may surpass it, we shall see). Also, I think my 2 favorite characters are Agnes and Betsey Trotwood, followed secondly by Peggoty (sp?) and David and probably Tommy but he hasn't been back in David's life for very long so I am not sure yet.

[@Mashee8868]

Thanks! Very helpful

[@katiejlumsden]

Thanks :)

[@rachy5384]

I found this video just now (I know, massively late) and I watched your first video of DC then immediately afterwards clicked on this remake one. I'm glad I did. I actually have not read any Dickens at all yet... I've always wanted too but never got round to it. Now, after watching your two videos on David Copperfield, I think I will start my Dickens journey with this one... I'm not sure if you'll see this comment anymore coz it's such an old vid but I just wanted to say it. I mean to read DC as a way into Dickens. Your video says it's a good one to begin with so I think I'll take your advice :) PS. I love your videos - I'm a massive JA fan me, but I enjoy reading classics generally and It'll be nice to branch out as it were into Dickens aswell

[@katiejlumsden]

It's a great place to start with Dickens - I highly recommend it.

[@maiaushuaia]

Thank you for reviewing it. I read it like 4 months ago, now I gotta write an essay and needed a push. I found first your other video. And found it a little too short, it’s great you revisited it. And by the way, I hated Dora. Honestly I wanted to slap her, and I only cried when she died because of the description, but I felt relief.. it was like divine survival of the fittest intervention. LOL. Best wishes from Argentina. Tierra del Fuego. Ushuaia 😊

[@katiejlumsden]

I'm glad this helped! I love David Copperfield so much. I think I like Dora more than you though - I feel bad for her!

[@ghostinthegaslight]

Just finished reading this amazing novel! I agree with your sentiment about the two younger heroines although the other women are terrific. I especially love the dreadful unspooling of Rosa and her disturbing and sad crescendo. Though I dont understand the scene where David and Martha come upon Rosa flat out abusing poor Emily. He says something that it wasn’t his moment to find Emily- it was Mr.Peggoty’s and so he’s there waiting and waiting whilst Rosa continues to verbally abuse and physically threaten Emily. That was the only moment that I just hated the ‘noble’ character of Copperfield. Lol I don’t believe I’ve ever been so angry at a Dickens character! But on the whole I adore the book!

[@katiejlumsden]

It really is such a great book overall.

[@aezekielthewriter]

I've personally only read A Tale of Two Cities (which I adored), and A Christmas Carol, and I think David Copperfield is going to be my next Dickens! After that though we'll see.

[@katiejlumsden]

Enjoy :) David Copperfield is a great one.

[@stressedoutofexistence663]

Started this today. Reading DC and BH for the read-along, two of Dickens's most esteemed novels, simultaneously, one could say my expectations are *great*! I need my Dickens dopamine after saying goodbye to the Dombeys! - IAmBroke

[@katiejlumsden]

I really hope you like it!

[@stressedoutofexistence663]

Thanks! I do disagree about David sounding like a child. No 8 year old would enquire about one's relations, their deaths, and their current dispositions! Ok, it may be the narration from DC's adult PoV, but still, Dickens did it best with Great Expectations.

[@cheryll3448]

I knew this was going to happen, by the way. :-) I knew that as you revisited Dickens' books, you'd remember what a charmer David Copperfield is. DC started my love affair with Dickens (tho I'd read Nicholas Nickleby first, and liked it, but didn't love it). DC is an almost-perfect book, as Bildungsromans go. Dora's character irked me a lot; but I love what you say about DC being a literal turning point in how Dickens represented women in his stories ... especially when you consider the fate of Dora and then the fate of Agnes. I've read earlier and later books, and I can see the differences in his female leads. OMF holds the top spot for me too! DC is a close second. And incidentally, I'm currently reading Barnaby Rudge, and I had no idea it was going to be this good! As Dickens' "other" historical novel, it blows away TOTC so far!

[@katiejlumsden]

David Copperfield is a wonderful, wonderful book. It was such a joy to reread. I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Barnaby Rudge.

[@daniloalmeidadotcom]

I always wondered if Rowling based Neville Longbottom on Traddles

[@katiejlumsden]

Ha, I like that idea!

[@maiaushuaia]

OMG!! Honestly I pictured him just like Neville!!!

[@essessessesq]

On my 2d read of Copperfield {decades after my 1st read at age 14], I realized that David chose Dora because she was the same as his child-bride mother!....He was looking to replace his mother......But, with Agnes, David moved beyond that need, to find the stronger and more capable and adult female companionship that he truly desired.....Finally , as you pointed out, Aunt Betsy was the far extreme of the "strong woman".......David ended up appreciating most the young lady who was in between the extremes of Dora and Aunt Betsy.....Agnes !

[@katiejlumsden]

In the recent film, they had the same actress play Dora and David's mother - weird but sort of interesting!

[@KierTheScrivener]

I really appreciation your conversation on Dora and Agnes. I also feel very conflicted. Dora especially. Even if it is kinda critiquing but it is also misogynistic.

[@johncrwarner]

Well that has sorted out one of my mother's Christmas presents LOL - she likes Richard Armitage and audiobooks and so the recommended audiobook of David Copperfield it is. I have to be careful watching your videos as I end up buying even more books LOL

[@katiejlumsden]

It's such a great audiobook, that I'm sure she'll love!

[@johncrwarner]

I think as my mother likes physical disks finding a CD version which is a regular CD might be hard but I have found an MP3-CD version so we will see how that goes.

[@archnasahai4767]

This is my most favorite Charles Dickens

[@sandyhausler5290]

Talking about Dora, I’m surprised you didn’t raise the parallel between David and Murdstone (you didn’t even mention of Murdstone at all. David tried to change Dora to his proper vision of a wife, just had Murdstone. But to David ‘s credit, he recognizes what he is doing and recoils from it.

[@Hakausu]

I first read David Copperfield when I was about 10 and the characters of Dora and Agnes were the two main things that stayed with me. As a young woman I think they were powerful in helping shape my idea of the roles of women... or at least the kind of woman I best identified with and the one I most wanted to emulate. The "love life" of David Copperfield is not satisfying at all but I don't think Dickens' own relationships were ideal. In fact, although I love reading "happily ever after" relationships at the center of books, I have to say that those like this one in David Copperfield are vastly more important and valuable to society in general. I learned so much as I went through despising Dora and waiting for her to be made to shape up somehow then realizing, as David did, that it was not the worst thing in the world to be locked into such childishness and natural (it seems that way) complete dependence and impotence. Dora DID have good points and David realized a very important thing: marrying people before your heart is settled and disciplined is not a good idea. He also learned, fortunately, that love sometimes has to be enough and he had to give up living a fully productive, successful life as he coddled his "child wife". Agnes was a much stronger and more capable woman but fortunately not masculinized, as I don't think the best thing that any woman can be is a man...lol. This is a complicated novel but not hard to read. Uriah Heep is a character I would like to totally ignore, as you did, but he is actually another one I remembered vaguely from childhood. He made me distrust "humble" people and greatly increased my discernment for people who are just "too" submissive (watch out!). It is a fun book and while the character of Betsey Trotwood mostly created uneasiness in me as a child of 10, I now LOVE that character too, as an older single adult woman. There are so many good characters and good plotlines...and more problematic ones. But it makes it clear that the reasons for Dickens' writing was not just to entertain. It was also not just to make social comment or effect change. It is somehow a way to combine those and many more aspects to edify other human beings by sharing fictitious lives. One last point is the irony of the shipwreck near the end (won't give details so as not to spoil it). I don't think I can remember a stronger use of irony...or at least not one that hit me has hard. Dickens does enter the realm of melodrama off and on in this book, I think, but that moment (which I did NOT remember) made me weak in the knees and gave me a visceral gut wrench. As soon as I recovered I was wanting to yell at Dickens for blindsiding me that way. I appreciate your reviews and the opportunity to discuss a few things with others here.

[@katiejlumsden]

Yeah, not sure why I ignored Uriah Heep here - he's actually a very interesting character. Betsy Trotwood is one of my favourites! Agnes and Dora are quite interesting - I always think of it as a transition moment from Dickens's early heroines to his later ones - Dora is very much like his early main female characters, Agnes much more like the later ones.

[@drewgarth1530]

I finished DC about a month ago and I really enjoyed it. It’s only the second Dickens I’ve read after Great Expectations (which I didn’t care for). I agree with another commenter about the connection between Dora and David’s mother. It is difficult to ignore Dicken’s relationship with his wife when reading Dora. Her character flaws seem very specific. And there is such a glaring dichotomy between her and Agnes that it nearly took me out of the story. A little subtlety would’ve made Dora and the novel more engaging. But I really liked it nonetheless.

[@charlottejones4166]

In Voctober Can you do review on the new film of D.C.im Currently currently listening to D.C. and it my first Dickens book I was a little scared that I Wouldn’t enjoy wouldn’t wouldn’tEnjoy Enjoy but so fear I Am

[@katiejlumsden]

I've already reviewed it on my channel kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3KnY6adhaZ3oNE :)

[@charlottejones4166]

Ohhh ok that’s great 😀

[@rachelport3723]

I love Mr. Dick. It's hard to talk about Betsey Trotwood without including Mr. Dick.

[@katiejlumsden]

He is a wonderful character!

[@richardranke3158]

It was because of one of Mr. Dick's traits that I always remembered that King Charles the 1st was executed in 1649.

[@marcevan1141]

I, too, adore this novel but I disagree with you about one thing. I think the portrait of Dora was wonderful-and extremely believable. I think you can find child-women (and child-men) like that today. I think, in fact, that it is a timeless character type. What I particularly loved about her was her (surprising) self-awareness. She knew what she was. She was far from unconscious and, I think, far from stupid. Agnes was, for me, the one weak character in this otherwise glorious book. She was idealized right past the point of believability.

[@markcharney3556]

If you could, please, try to speak slowly and calmly. I appreciate your excitement about the book, but it is so hard to listen to...and i do want to listen to it...more than once...and not to be stressed out by it.

[@katiejlumsden]

I literally cannot speak slower. All of my videos are already digitally slowed down already - I naturally speak even faster. The majority of people who watch my channel enjoy the way I talk and don't mind the excitement. If you're finding my videos too fast, youtube has a setting in the corner of each video where you can slow down or speed up the video. If you don't like the fact I'm excited about books, then my channel is probably just not for you.

[@omfug7148]

It has been years since I read any Dickens, although I do consider him a genius, I just wish I could get over the distaste I feel for him because of the way he treated his wife (and children really--with exception of one son, the numerous Dickens' children were pretty much ne'er do wells.) I mean come on--he basically kept his wife pregnant for 12 consecutive years and when she got older and her looks faded he dumped her for a teenager! (/rant.) I do understand that many a flawed human being made great art.

[@Aureelia63N3]

I agree on that subject. I just read about the separation, affair and scandal around it and Dickens relationship to his children, and I feel really disgusted with the way he acted. Maybe it would`ve been better if I never knew anything about it, because until now I quite enjoyed reading "Little Dorrit", which is the first Dickens novel I ever have read. :( Uhh, me and my curiosity!!! Unfortunately now it bothers me and I can`t help thinking that maybe Dickens has put some of those traits of real people and events into the characters and stories of the novel (for example the 20 year age gap of the two main characters - was he trying to justify his own relationship as a middle aged man to a 17 year old girl or what??? And I definitely see a little bit of Maria Beadnell - Dickens´ girlfrend from his youth in Flora too.) Anyways I`ll try to get over it and finish the novel even though I found out what a total jerk the author was at that particular time of his life.

[@SunriseFireberry]

R u going to change all your views of CD novels, so you'll have a new ranking of them? Wonder how far down Gt Ex will go? Will OMF remain #1? What will happen to Dombey? L'il Dorrit? Nickleby? Will Bleak House rise? Or Tale? Then there's Oliver, MC & OCS. Can't see Hard Times rising.

[@katiejlumsden]

I reckon David Copperfield has changed mostly just because I hadn't read it for so long. The rest I am much much more familiar with, so the old ranking will remain!

[@DanielFletcherFlute]

Just finished this- my first completed Dickens novel! And I loved it so much. I agree about David’s love life- it made me a bit uncomfortable. I actually put the book down for a couple of weeks during his whole courtship with Dora because I was slightly uncomfortable with her presentation, and similarities with his mother (who I also had problems with the depiction of). But oh boy, I will miss Betsey Trotwood greatly. She may be my favorite character I have read about in ANY book.

[@katiejlumsden]

Yeah, I love the book so much, but the love-life element isn't my favourite. Betsy Trotwood is amazing though!

[@KevTheImpaler]

I have nearly finished David Copperfield. I am upset about Dora :'(

[@katiejlumsden]

I too am upset about Dora!

[@KevTheImpaler]

I thought the Dora plot line was the best. I thought she had started to grow up by the end. She was funny and she spoke in her own voice. It upset me that she had such low self-esteem and that she had been worrying, off the page, about what David had said to her. She was rather like David's mother. Do you think that was deliberate?

[@imanazam1510]

Kevin Varney I know this comment is months old and you'll never reply but I feel compelled to agree the mirroring was probably deliberate which for me made Dora's death heartbreaking, as to why he did it perhaps a point about how David's life with childish delicacy could never last forever or to bring him closer with something from his distant past people might make him try and forget ?Idk mate I'm not a literary analyst but either way it was a clever move on Dickens part

[@Michelle-pn9xt]

@@KevTheImpaler he was not like his mother to me. What do you mean by that?

[@KevTheImpaler]

@@Michelle-pn9xt She was pretty, girlish, too nice and easily dominated.

[@exlibris-fromthebooks]

Tommy Traddles

[@katiejlumsden]

Oh it's brilliant.

[@markcharney3556]

I LOVE your review. BUT can you, please, slow down, if possible. As much as i would have liked to absorb all that you are saying, i simply cannot. My brain cannot... although i do so want to.

[@rachelport3723]

I agree with you about the women, but I don't think Dickens is critiquing the infantilization of women (Dora) or putting them on a pedestal (Agnes). The picture of Agnes at the top of the stairs pointing upward makes me cringe every time. But the interesting women like Peggoty and Betsy Trotwood are also seen through an idealized lens as mother figures. Dickens has no real feeling for women as human beings, but sorts them by function - mother figures, romantic figures, victims of seducers, grotesques (who can be either male or female). That's why Lizzie Hexam is such an amazing woman for him to create - we can only wonder whether he would have been able to develop further if he had lived longer. I compare Dora to Flora in Little Dorrit. Not quite as interchangeable as the earlier heroines.

[@katiejlumsden]

Yeah, maybe that's just me thinking hopefully on Dickens' critiquing it... I certainly think Lizzie Hexham is one of his most interesting character. Have you read The Mystery of Edwin Drood? There are some really interesting female characters in there, which makes me even sadder Dickens died when he did.

[@rachelport3723]

No, I haven't read Edwin Drood, though I've seen one or two adaptations, which of course complete it in ways Dickens certainly might not have. I don't know that Dickens had the distance to be able to evaluate David's relationships with Dora and Agnes. It's his own way of looking at women that is the problem with his female characters, I quite believe.

[@kandywestmoreland5164]

Please. Could you slow down a little bit? I like your content so much but I am always stressed by the end. I don’t mean to be rude as I really like you.

[@katiejlumsden]

Hi! Most of my more recent videos are slower now; this is quite an old one. I digitally slow down all my videos now.

[@jeffaltier5582]

I know I'm in the minority, but David Copperfield may be my least favorite Dickens novel. Just not a fan of how unreliable and blinded David is as a narrator

[@richardranke3158]

I've read and heard that the least interesting character in David Copperfield is the title character. I'm not sure I agree, but I do understand.