New Century Reading

David Copperfield

It seems to me this was another transitional section, firmly pulling Davy--young though he still is--out of school and preparing to face the real world. Yet it felt a bit more sinister, even though it starts cheerily enough with Aunt Betsey giving him leave (and money!) to visit Peggotty and her family. But then we see the young Mrs. Strong clearly pining away for her cousin in India, and we see Mr. Wickfield notice this and move to separate her from his daughter, Agnes, and we see Davy seeing all of this.

Then Steerforth makes another appearance, and Davy (the grown-up narrator version) finally admits that, perhaps, Steerforth is about to reveal himself to not be all young Davy has thought.

Ham and Little Em'ly? Why does that seem destined to fail? Because Davy told us early on that she's got some bad times ahead of her, or because of Steerforth's attention?

There are other little clues too, such as when Davy takes the coach and has his "first fall in life"--really, Davy? I would have thought that was back when your mother married Mr. Murdstone, leading to all kinds of dreary events. But, then, youth is likely to not look back that way, and he's now determined to be taken seriously as an adult, and this little maneuver on the part of the driver is a setback of sorts.

Then there's the highly respectable Mr. Littiman at the Steerforth home. Surely this will not be his last appearance, since so much is made of his respectability. In my edition, there's a note that points out that the repetition of "respectable" in this case anticipates Mr. Vholes, that oh-so-respectable lawyer in Bleak House. It's worth noting that Mr. Littiman does not seem troubled at all by the east wind of January.

If you follow me on Twitter (@amycrea) you may have seem some discussion over the past couple of weeks, where readers are getting impatient. I'm torn. It took me a while to "get" Bleak House, but once I did, I ended up loving it. Still, I'm anxious for something more to happen. A lot of setting up is going on, a lot of--well, not foreshadowing, since Davy doesn't bother with subtlety but just tells us flat-out that bad things are coming.

What do you think? Next week, chapters 22-24, and then our two-week break.

David Copperfield

Well, I've said it before, I'll say it again: what on earth was the bookstore Micawbers thinking when they picked that name? Things are going to have to take a mighty turn for that financially imprudent family, or I'm going to be scratching my head a very long time about that choice of name.

What an odd little section this was. Or maybe it's just because we had a break. Now we have the family of Dr. Strong and that poor Mrs. Strong, so clearly in love with someone else, so clearly having been pushed into marriage by her overbearing mother. Then the Heeps--what to think of them? They spend so much time announcing their "umbleness" that I start to think they protest too much. Davy certainly doesn't like the idea of Mr. Micawber hanging out with them, although given that both families are in umble circumstances, I'm not sure what harm he thinks could occur.

It seems like this is all setting up for something in the future, because in the brief final chapter of this section, Dickens jumps ahead several years, during which time little of note seemed to have happened--Davy fights the butcher boy and loses; Davy falls in love with Miss Larkin, who returns the favor by marrying the hop man; Davy fights the butcher boy and wins.

What do you think of this section? Is it mostly transitional to something bigger? Is this the last bit of calm for our little Davy?

Next week, chapters 19-21.

 

David Copperfield

Oh, Mr. Dickens, you are a sly one, sir. Last week you left off with Davy terrifyingly alone and penniless. This week, you leave off with Davy apparently in a much better place--or is he? There's something not quite right about Uriah Heep. I have (so far) been able to prevent myself from googling Uriah Heep, so I don't know if he's a Good Witch or a Bad Witch. (And I really don't care to find any sites about the band.)

There was much to enjoy in this section. Davy's arduous journey, not helped by the clothes buyers who took no pity on him. I loved this description of one of the buyers: "I fancied that he looked like a man of a revengeful disposition, who had hung all his enemies, and was enjoying himself." And the shop of another: "His bedstead, covered with a tumbled and ragged piece of patchwork, was in the den he had come from, where another little window showed a prospect of more stinging nettles, and a lame donkey." As if the guy wasn't pathetic enough without the lame donkey. "Oh, my lungs and liver!"

Then he finally meets the dreaded Aunt Betsey, who, as it turns out, is not nearly as awful as he'd feared. In fact, was she not pretty much the epitome of awesome when the Murdstones turned up to take Davy away? Yup, she ruled.

She does seem to care deeply for him and to act in his best interests, including finding a good school for him and insisting on only the best accommodations. But I don't know...that Uriah Heep. He troubles me.

Your thoughts?

Remember, we're taking a break next week, and will be back on 12/2 with chapters 16-18. Happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers!

It's back

And I'm in. This has always been a good way for me to finally get some of those TBRs off the shelf and into the read pile. The only exceptions I'll make will be for book club and the Tournament of Books. And hopefully book club will be announced soon, so those may be on my shelf anyway.

David Copperfield

You know what my big take-away is from this sad section? Mentally picturing what might have happened if the owners of the local bookstore Micawbers had gone to the bank to get financing, and their loan officer had only read this far in David Copperfield. I have to believe that things improve eventually for the Micawber family, otherwise I'll be left scratching my head as to why the bookstore has that name.

For the record, I'm very happy that whoever financed the opening of that store didn't reflect on this set of chapters, because Micawbers is pretty much my favorite local bookstore.

Well, things seemed bad for Davy at the end of the last section, what with his mother dying, but oh my, they do get worse. With just a brief respite of kindness in the Peggotty home (and oh, that wedding!), Davy is sent off to labor, decides to escape, is robbed and at the end of the section, in classic Dickens style, is left in dire straits.

This section is pretty much about money. From the Murdstones and their decision to send Davy away--which, yes, is based on emotions too--to Mr. Barkis' tight-fistedness that seems to signal not all will be well in that marriage, to the extreme situation of the Micawbers, to Davy scraping by on his little amount of money--everyone is driven by money, whether they have it or not. And most do not.

My understanding is that much of this is based on Dickens' own life. That might explain the depth of emotion when he reflects back on the way the Murdstones treated him and the misery of his work life. I also sense (and this might just be me) an even greater sense of foreboding in passages like this one:

"I was chiefly edified, I am afraid, but the pictures, which were numerous, and represented all kinds of dismal horrors; but the Martyrs and Peggotty's house have been inseparable in my mind ever since, and are now." Given Davy's fondness for the Peggottys, this is a grim association, even if it seems tied to a book.

Well. Lots to worry about here. Next week: chapters 13-15. Don't forget that we're taking the following week (Thanksgiving week) off.

David Copperfield

Sorry for the delay. My dad was in the hospital this weekend, which is never a good thing when your dad is 91. However, he is home again now, glad to be out of the hospital, although he found the hospital's food to be better than the food at his assisted living. Yeah. Chew on *that* for a while.

So, Davy. Last week, I complained that the section felt anticlimactic. Mr. Dickens must have anticipated me, for this section was anything but. Especially coming after having my dad in the hospital, reading about the demise of Davy's mom was a heartbreaker.

And that wasn't even all that happened. That unnerving schoolroom showdown between Steerforth and Mr. Mell--I worry for Davy that he admires Steerforth so, when it certainly seems like Steerforth is possessed of some strong bullying tendencies and not a little heartlessness.

The middle of this section gave us a brief moment of respite, with the not-exactly-loquacious Mr. Barkis once again getting Davy involved in his romantic wishes, of which, it turns out, Mrs. Peggotty is not unaware. What a wonderful homecoming for Davy, and a wonderful afternoon with his mother and Mrs. Peggotty and new brother!

And then it all goes to hell.

Oh, that death, and that funeral, and those awful Murdstones. Although at least Mr. Murdstone seems bereft, but is it because of the loss of his wife and son, or because he's now stuck again with only his sister and no one to bully?

And did anyone besides me get a childish case of the giggles upon realizing that Mr. Murdstone, he of the insistence on "firmness", had sired a child?

No?

Sigh. I've been surrounded by teenage boys for a while now. My mind just naturally goes there.

I should have known better than to think Davy's situation would improve, when his return home is announced: "soon I was at our house, where the bare old elm trees wrung their many hands in the bleak wintry air, and shreds of the old rooks' nests drifted away upon the wind." Dickens is a master of foreboding.

I'm reading a Penguin Classics paperback edition, and the notes in the back frequently provide text that was in Dickens' earlier drafts, but was edited out of the final edition. For example: When Davy returns home for his mother's funeral, Miss Murdstone asks him if he's brought his clothes home, and he says yes. No longer appearing in the text is this, after he replies:

"'Mind you are very careful of them,' she returned, holding up her finger at me. 'Let what has happened be a warning to you in every way. If such an occurrence will not make a boy turn over a new leaf, nothing will.'"

I wonder why Dickens left that out? It seems perfectly in character for Miss Murdstone, an awful thing she would absolutely say to the newly orphaned boy she hates so. Maybe he thought it was over the top? It's interesting to have a little peek into his creative decisions.

So. Next week, chapters 10-12. I have a strong sense that things are not going to be all roses and sunshine for our young Davy.

David Copperfield

Well, this section upended my Dickens' serialization expectations. It started with the utterly grim stepfather and his heinous cruelty, then ended without the usual cliffhanger. In fact, it seemed to end rather softly. Not that I wanted Davy's classmates to be brutal--far from it--but did anyone else feel like they expected something rather different?

Oh, but Chapter 4 is a grim thing indeed. Mr. Murdstone and his dreadful sister, and the way they browbeat Davy's mother and zero in on him as a target--it makes my maternal heart ache. Then not only do the Murdstones send him away, they send him to boarding school during a holiday period, so there's no one there for him to get to know. The Murdstones seem to have Ph.D.s in brutality and psychological warfare.

But after that awful chapter, things slowed down. Maybe we needed a break? The trip was entertaining, especially the oh-so-charming waiter, but somehow I expected more of Chapter 6 than a cranky man in charge and what appear to be agreeable schoolmates. I know this is supposed to be heavily based on Dickens' own life--perhaps he hadn't the heart to muster up the grand cliffhangers when recounting his sad past?

My favorite passage demonstrates Dickens' singular skill in describing things as Davy recounts seeing the schoolroom:

"Two miserable little white mice, left behind by their owner, are running up and down in a fusty castle made of pasteboard and wire, looking in all the corners with their red eyes for anything to eat. A bird, in a cage a very little bigger than himself, makes a mournful rattle now and then in hopping on his perch, two inches high, or dropping from it; but neither sings nor chirps. There is a strange unwholesome smell upon the room, like mildewed corduroys, sweet apples wanting air, and rotten books. There could not not well be more ink splashed about it, if it had been roofless from its first construction, and the skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year."

What do you think?

David Copperfield Read-Along!

It's time! Time for Dickens and David Copperfield!

And the timing seems very good. I cracked open my copy on Sunday afternoon, when the weather in my locale was Dickensian, gray and windy and damp and cold. With my mug of rhubarb oolong tea from TeaSource, I was all set.

And Mr. Dickens did not disappoint. But it struck me--and maybe I'm reading into it too much, so soon in the text--that the first three chapters felt more melancholy than I remember his previous books being. Certainly the story of little Davy's early life, with his father dead before Davy was born, is not a happy one. Overall, there seemed to be less humor in this than even in Bleak House, which had some hilarious moments, in spite of the title. Mr. Jarndyce's east wind seems to be blowing strongly in little Davy's life.

There were certainly some moments of gentle humor, especially in the third chapter. Speaking of Bleak House, am I the only one to see some similarity between Mr. Jarndyce and Mr. Peggotty? Sure, one's a gentleman and the other a fisherman, but they both seem happy to provide support to family members in need, and both threaten to run away if anyone makes a fuss about their generosity.

Davy's mother--oh, goodness. I have no idea if her behavior was standard, sending him away and getting married without telling him. Or was that the sinister Mr. Murdstone's doing? We know Peggotty doesn't think much of him from the conversation Davy overhears between her and his mother. This is most foreboding.

Speaking of foreboding, how about this, from chapter 3: "There has been a time since--I do not say it lasted long, but it has been--when I have asked myself the question, would it have been better for little Em'ly to have had the waters close above her head that morning in my sight; and when I have answered Yes, it would have been."

Good lord.

The names of things are, as usual, very entertaining. Blunderstone--what a name for an estate. Mrs. Gummidge is particularly well-named.

And being Dickens, there are also lovely passages: "I never hear the name, or read the name, of Yarmouth, but I am reminded of a certain Sunday morning on the beach, the bells ringing for church, little Em'ly leaning on my shoulder, Ham lazily dropping stones into the water, and the sun, away at sea, just breaking through the heavy mist, and showing us the ships, like their own shadows."

I'm hooked. How about you? Chapters 4-6 for next week.

David Copperfield

Don't forget--the David Copperfield read-along starts one week from today, October 21! And by start, I mean, read the first assigned section (chapters 1-3) for discussion by the 21st. The full reading schedule is here.

Here's to another winter of Dickens! 

Dickens Death Chart

Gotta love people who have time to tally these things up: the Dickens Death Chart. Interestingly, Dickens apparently considered David Copperfield to be his best book, followed by Bleak House--the two books with the highest death rates. Scroll down the page on that link to see those two novels in their originally published serial form.

And don't forget--the David Copperfield read-along (reading as it was originally published) begins Oct. 21!