David Copperfield (version 3)

Charles Dickens

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(3.5 stars; 10 reviews)

David Copperfield, like all of Dickens' novels, is filled with many memorable characters (because they are hyperbolic representations of character types) from all members of society. Here we have, for example, the virtuous, but relatively poor, Mr. Peggotty beside the grasping and greedy and vengeful and more middle-class Heep, but also beside Julia Mills whose only desire is also for money, which she possesses to excess (alluding to the capitalistic aggrandizement of European exploitation of foreign nations). And David Copperfield, like other of Dickens' works, emphasizes thematically that love and sacrifice are better than greed and arrogance. But this novel is more autobiographical than his others (obviously the title is an indication, Charles Dickens (C D) becomes David Copperfield (D C), and, of course, David becomes a famous writer, in fact, known worldwide, like Charles Dickens. Finally, it should be mentioned that David Copperfield probably more than in any of his other novels emphasizes the power and joy of family, and part of that is his exposure as evil all that and those that would subvert it.- Summary by Jim Locke (33 hr 13 min)