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| Crazy David Copperfield Notes |
"Never...be mean in anything, never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you." Aunt Betsey to David Copperfield
Because I'm nothing if not scattered these days, I've picked up and put down more books than I've read this year. SO annoying! In addition to being book fickle, I've also been blog paralyzed on trying to write about David Copperfield. I'm over-thinking, over-planning, over-analyzing, and just plain talking myself down about what I could possibly have to say about such a classic. My reaction to the book felt a bit under-whelming, probably because I had expected to adore it, and I didn't. I liked it, but I've enjoyed other Dickens works more. The scope of the novel was sometimes so overwhelming that I feel sure I missed a lot. Even with all the note-taking, I don't know that I followed all of the character and plot developments.
I can't even process it all, much less blog about it, so all I'm gonna say is this: the characters, places, and time of the story felt so very real to me that I began to feel like the events and people were actual memories rather than just something I had read. Maybe that's what makes a novel a Classic. That we, the children of the 20th century living in a seemingly disposable world of such rapid change, can pick up a novel set in a distant place and time and suddenly become part of that time and place and have it become so much a part of us that sometimes even a single sentence can alter the course of our lives. How lucky we are to have access to such an accumulated wealth of wisdom. Maybe instead of requiring make-overs and sound bites from our politicians, we should just require that they read...broadly and often.
6 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more. Reading broadens everyones horizon.
Wow. You seemed to say it perfectly. If Copperfield made you feel all that than it seems quite a great Dickens after all. I think his novels (the two I have read) Oliver Twist and Great Expectations took me away as well. I find he is a master storyteller: how he exported me to those places .. was wonderful. Required reading for sure.
Very well said!! I feel much the same about my Trollope experience this year.
I like Dickens. I find his books include many more things to like that go beyond the things that would be easy to criticize.
I love Dickens. Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities are my favorites of his so far. And I'm looking forwarding to my first Trollope soon!
"That we, the children of the 20th century living in a seemingly disposable world of such rapid change, can pick up a novel set in a distant place and time and suddenly become part of that time and place and have it become so much a part of us that sometimes even a single sentence can alter the course of our lives."
What a beautiful way to say that! I loved David Copperfield, but I also have to be in a very specific mood for Dickens.
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