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Great Expectations Review

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Great Expectations Memorable Quotes

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David Copperfield Review

It's not often I've read a book of such scope and magnitude as Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. My only motivation in reading it is that it was the biggest, cheapest book I could find at Media Play before I left for Korea that was also a classic, an area I've wanted to concentrate on recently. I knew nothing about the book and I never anticipated it would take me over three months to read and become one of the most difficult books I would ever undertake. At over 800 pages and full of the language commonly used when it was published in 1850, be prepared for a challenge.

In the end, the undertaking was more than worth it. The story purports to be the autobiography of the fictional character David Copperfield. It was originally published in serial form in England and then later released in book form.

I have little worthwhile to report on the book other than how it affected me. I can't recall reading a secular book that had such a profound impact as to make me want to be a better person. Copperfield recounts the people and events of his life from birth through, I believe, his early thirties. Without preaching, he weaves a credible and vast cross-section of experiences that show the triumph of honesty and hard work, the consequences of deception, and the importance of character. The book contains, by my count, 44 significant characters, most of whom wind up reaping the consequences of their actions, good and bad. Just as Dickens expressed his fondness for Copperfield, I was sorry when the book came to an end.

In perhaps the same way I am enamored by Shakespeare, David Copperfield won me over through Dickens' insights into human nature. His observations are keen, succinct, and timeless. This book was a chore but I am a better person for reading it. I am conscious that may sound silly but it remains a statement of the truth.