David Copperfield
It adds to the charm of this book to remember that it is virtually a picture of the author's own boyhood. It is an excellent picture of the life of a struggling English youth in the middle of the last century. The pictures of Canterbury and London are true pictures and through these pages walk one of Dickens' wonderful processions of characters, quaint and humorous, villainous and tragic. Nobody cares for Dickens heroines, least of all for Dora, but take it all in al, l this book is enjoyed by young people more than any other of the great novelist. After having read this you will wish to read Nicholas Nickleby for its mingling of pathos and humor, Martin Chuzzlewit for its pictures of American life as seen through English eyes, and Pickwick Papers for its crude but boisterous humor.
Stats for nerds
8recommend
46mentions
44people
2008–2026years
17% recommend74% neutral9% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I read close to 40 books this year which I assume is up from the previous year, and way more than I used to read prior to starting to do the Rochester Library reading challenge (which I've done for the past two years). I won't get into a lot of it, but after reading Middlemarch three years ago, Napoleon: A Life two years ago, and The Power Broker last year I decided to read two "big" books.
In the first half of the year War and Peace, which obviously was excellent, although I liked Middlemarch more.
In the second half of the year David Copperfield which was very excellent. Just beautifully written. I still think I probably like Middlemarch more... but it might now require a re-read to know for sure.
This year is going to be Tom's Crossing to start as I just got that for Christmas.
- Either David Copperfield by Charles Dickens or Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Both are very long novels that get better and better with every page.
- Kids read less and less. Assigning them works not likely to be absorbed properly and certainly not enjoyed is tantamount to souring them on reading permanently — something which has been done in many countries for way too long with teachers sticking to 'perennial' classics they (might have) loved, but which no longer enthuse. I stopped reading fiction for years after high school figuring literature just wasn't worth bothering with after get fed ponderous dribble and books not of interest to a young person. I only got back into reading after discovering Douglas Adams, and decades later read anything which grabs my interest, including Dickens and many other classic works.
A good teacher assigns works which lie just outside of the pupil's comfort zone, but not so far out there as to make reading a chore. Want to assign Dickens? Go ahead and read the Christmas Carol at this time of year; it's short and not too hard to grasp, and with enough hooks to go into Victorian society and other related topics. But assign David Copperfield? Great book, but for teenagers way too long for a work that old and removed. A teenager could read four novels that do connect with them in the same time. Sure, some teens might be ready for it, but it's not for everyone.
First, get them to read. Any book. Teach them that not all books will work for them. Skip that step, and you lose most of them as adult readers (the status quo by now).
- This is the experience of reading a serial as though it's a novel.
Some of us like that! I'll read Dickens and Dumas cover to cover, I even read Worm at a pretty steady pace.
But I read Unsong as it was being published and it was great. I would eagerly look forward to the next chapter, and each one left me wanting more.
I suggest that the next time you take on a serial, be it a modern web serial or one of the great serials of the Western canon (David Copperfield is excellent), slow your roll. Read a chapter a day, or a chapter a week.
They have an inherently different pacing and if it's frustrating you, slow down.
- Funny, when I was in middle school I found an old copy of David Copperfield at the bottom of my closet. Its a 700 page novel, but the prose at the time blew me away. The drawn out scenes and vivid characters captured my imagination. I dont think I can ever get that kind of experience now, I'm too cynical.
- Jared Diamond - "Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed" (non-fiction)
Iván Repila - "The Boy Who Stole Attila’s Horse": short intense novel about 2 boys who are trapped in a well
Margaret Atwood - "The handmaid's tale"
Khaled Hosseini - "The kite runner"
Agatha Christie - "The murder of Roger Ackroyd" (very surprising plot)
Andy Weir - "The Martian"
Charles Dickens - "David Copperfield"
Clare Mackintosh - "I let you go"
Carlos Ruiz Zafón - "The Shadow of the Wind"
M.R. Carey - "The girl with all the gifts"
