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    David Copperfield
    David Copperfield
    David Copperfield
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    David Copperfield

    Written by Charles Dickens

    Narrated by Martin Jarvis

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Throughout David Copperfield Dickens masterfully sustains the action through a series of dramatic contrasts. As the story unfolds, David’s happiest moments are often followed by those of extreme misery and the author weaves the more humorous elements of the story between the times of great tragedy and sorrow. These experiences of joy and pain contribute to young David’s growth to maturity until, at the end of the novel, he is able to find both success as a writer and true happiness with the woman he loves.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThe Copyright Group
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780000305
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth, where his father worked as a clerk. Living in London in 1824, Dickens was sent by his family to work in a blacking-warehouse, and his father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Fortunes improved and Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a parliamentary reporter. His first piece of fiction was published by a magazine in December 1832, and by 1836 he had begun his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He focused his career on writing, completing fourteen highly successful novels, as well as penning journalism, shorter fiction and travel books. He died in 1870.

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    Reviews for David Copperfield

    4/5

    3,668 ratings121 reviews

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    • 4/5
      At the completion of this novel, my only complaint is that I took so long to work my way through it. Not that I don't cherish the time I spent with it, but more that the time I spent was far too infrequent.How is it possible that I can find so much of myself in the depths of a 19th Century, fictional and notedly male character? It can only be the flowing associations of the heart, wither it's strength or is undisciplined aspects. Copperfield's fortitude through a life of fear, loss and some of the most downtrodden adventures ever known to literature is truly inspiring for anyone who has felt they can't possibly make it over the next big mountain in their lives.I can genuinely say that is the most profitable 99 cents I've ever spent at a secondhand store and that it's coffee stains, torn and battered covers are well deserved indeed.
    • 5/5
      What a terrific story! This book was part of our school curriculum when I was doing my seventh grade. I simply loved it. If you haven't read, you must read it.
    • 5/5
      Extremely enjoyable, with special mentions to Tommy Traddles, aunt Trotwood and, of course, Mr Micawber. Miss Dartle was a bit dark and twisted. I thought Dickens did a good job of foreshadowing Steerforth's superficiality and lack of morality and I also found the reality check of actually being married to the deeply annoying (to me) Dora both sad and true.
    • 3/5
      This was both exasperating and charming. At the same time, tedious and compelling. Some of the characters I lose patience with, but others are delightful. There were moments I laughed out loud and I don't think I will ever think of Uriah Heep without a shudder. I will certainly never forget him.
    • 5/5
      Captivating story beautifully read. I will listen to it again and maybe even again.
    • 4/5
      It took me a long time to read David Copperfield -- because I stalled in the middle for... well, about three months. It's hard for me to review it as a whole, in that light. I remember reading it when I was younger quite vividly, but I'm not sure I ever got past the first few chapters, back then. It's contrived to get tangled up in my mind with Great Expectations, somehow.

      It's interesting to know that this book is thought to be based largely on Dickens' own life. I don't know if he ever said that himself, or whether it was deduced by other people. If he did look on David as himself, it's a wonder he wrote about him so frankly. It certainly seems like a lifetime's worth of Dickens' experience went into creating it, anyway.

      I liked it a lot, despite the length and Dickens' tendency to go on a bit. I felt sorry for David a lot, and sometimes wanted to slap him -- which is the way I feel about some of my favourite characters, and shouldn't make you think I didn't like him.
    • 5/5
      This was a listen and WHAT a listen it was! Richard Armitage narrates, nay, he performs this book better than I ever could have read it for myself, better than any movie or TV series produced. He is astounding in his range, grace, understatement, mirth, and sadness. He acts every character with depth and understanding. Every character. Bravo. A thousand times, Bravo. As for the story, well, I bloody loved it. The last and only Dickens I ever read was Great Expectations in high school. And we all know how that goes. I was indifferent. Knowing David Copperfield makes me want to know them all. With the exception of the Murdstones, whose fate I will simply have to imagine as being of the foulest kind, all the story lines were tied up very satisfactorily. What a ride of emotion and archetype and subtlety! Superb!
    • 3/5
      I do find Dicken's books hard going and it takes me forever to read one of his books. This is one of my favourites.Back Cover Blurb:Through his hero Dickens draws openly on his own life, as David Copperfield recalls his experiences from childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Rosa Dartle, Dora, Steerforth and Uriah Heep are among the characters who focus the hero's sexual and emotional drives, and Mr Micawber, a portrait of Dicken's own father, evokes the mixture of love, nostalgia and guilt that, put together, make this Dicken's the most quoted and best-loved novel.
    • 4/5
      Read in one very long weekend, this book is still my favorite Dickens - and I like him without admiring him in all his aspects. Reminds me of Austin, Texas.
    • 5/5
      I first read this to Ted many years ago. I remember we were out, Monterey maybe, sitting on a bench, he had his head in my lap when I read "I am born." Good times!
    • 4/5
      Written in 1850, Dickens' 16th major work, and 8th novel, is a solid four-star work. Combining the picaresque bildungsroman from Dickens' early period with the more complex character studies he was becoming known for, it's perhaps his best book to this point. Perhaps because parts of the novel are autobiographical, David starts to feel a bit real in a sense that perhaps no other character in his canon had perhaps yet reached. There's a wonderful array of supporting characters and a real sense of forward movement and thematic unity. I'm ultimately more in tune with Dickens' last works, but David Copperfield is another rung on Dickens' ladder to immortality. He's not a Tolstoy or a Flaubert, and we shouldn't expect him to be. He treats character more as something to be chronicled than to be dissected. Nevertheless, there are many great, detailed little moments in David's life, and the world around him, that suggest the continuous development of this great author.
    • 5/5
      first recalled incident of a husband disappointed in his wife's kitchen abilities; she did not have an extra chop when he brought home his friend to dinner - without warning ha
    • 4/5
      Although there are probably several other criteria to decide whether a book is better or worse than other books, one could say that some books tend to stay with you. Some books are great while reading, but soon forgotten, while other books are a slow read by remain vivid in your memory. David Copperfield is clearly in the latter category.I first started reading David Copperfield when I was at high school, but abandoned it after about 130 pages. This time round, I must say the first 250 - 350 pages are the most memorable or exciting, with some 100+ fairly nice pages at the end, while about 300 pages in the second half of this bulky novel are less interesting.It could be said that this is a fair resemblance true to life. After all, David Copperfield as a novel is a biography of David Copperfield. The formative years are the most exciting, while one's middle years bring less excitement, and the closing bring moments of endearment. Young David's youth is a hard struggle and this translates into a fascinating story with grotesk figures.It has been a while since I read another major novel by Dickens (in 2001). One of the major attractions of the novels of Dickens are his unforgettable characters. However, it must be said that seemingly most of these great cameos are men, with the exception of Peggotty, who takes a very special place in David's upbringing, and who is perhaps more to him than a mother. However, the other women in the second part of the novel are all rather bland and inconspicuous.I did not really enjoy reading this. There are wonderful descriptions, and the first part deserves full attention, but the the novel does seem to be overmuch long, without about 300 pages of minor interest. Still, I am happy I read David Copperfield.
    • 4/5
      Another good long autobiographical novel from Dickens. I still liked Great Expectations better but this one is almost as good.
    • 2/5
      I can’t give much of a summary. It’s pretty much David Copperfield growing up, getting married, etc. I listened to the audio and most of it was not actually interesting enough to listen to. So, I missed most of it. I found many names caught my attention, though, for some reason. Uraiah Heap (sp? he’s the ‘umble one – I caught that!), Peggarty, Macawber, Agnes, and Dora. Funny, the other thing with names (at least for the main character) is that he seemed to have a few nicknames and I even think I caught them, or some, anyway! So, I seemed to notice when names were mentioned, but didn’t pay enough attention to what actually was happening. I did catch a bit more of what happened at the end. And I did read a wikipedia summary maybe 1/3 of the way through the book so I might have some kind of idea what was going on. Too bad the book itself didn’t engage me enough that I knew what was happening as I listened, though. It’s another of the classics in the “miss” category for me, though I keep trying them!
    • 5/5
      The life story of David Copperfield, hugely enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      It's been years since I've read any Dickens, and I'd never yet read David Copperfield, though I think it was my mum's favourite. The women drove me nuts, so much so that even the great characters of Micawber, Heap, Traddles and Aunt Betsy couldn't save it. Peggoty and family are desperately sentimental too, and Steerforth's character just stops. I'm bemused, frankly.
    • 5/5
      This is not the first time I had read David Copperfield, it probably won't be the last either. There is always something new to see and discover - as verbose as Dickens tends to be, he also knows how to use these words and he builds such memorable characters that revisiting them is always bound to make you notice something more about them. As in most of his novels, it is the secondary characters that shine - David and his love life can be dull at times but there is always someone else in the frame - his aunt and Mr. Dick, the Peggotty family and Ms. Mowcher; the Micawbers and Agnes; Emily and Martha. Even the villains are full blooded - cruel, awful and despicable but oh so human. There is only one exception in the whole book and it is Dora - and even that makes sense to some extent - it almost feels like a protection mechanism from an older David who is trying to reconcile the love of his youth with all he had learned about himself - so she needs to become a perfect ghost, a presence which does not contradict his own heart. One thing I never appreciated was how skillful Dickens is with the timing of the actions in the novel - modern editions rarely mark the serialization breaks. The edition I read had the original layout of the serialization (including the advertisements) and having to stop at the end of each installment (to either look at the ads or leaf through them to get to the next part) made me see the novel in a somewhat new light. It was always a novel of redemption for anyone even remotely good - even the incorrigible rascal Mr. Micawber manages to find his niche. It was always a novel of contrasts - Dora to Agnes, Mr. Murdstone to Mr. Peggotty, Uriah to Mrs. Micawber (in some things anyway - they both kept repeating what they are but only one of them meant it), Betsey Trotwood to Mrs. Steerforth - the more you look, the more pairs you will find. But reading the novel in its original installments added another layer to it - with contrasts (good/bad) between different installments and sometimes in the actions inside of the same one; with the choice of which characters to revisit in the same installment - some of those chapters which may sound almost as fill-in and removable in the novel, suddenly appear a lot more logical - they are fill-ins but they are necessary so that the installments work the way they were designed. It was also interesting to see all the advertisements from those days - from books to alpaca umbrellas (what's with that?), from snake oil medicines to clothes (one of these even had a poem written in almost every installment). The world had changed a lot since then but some of the ads could be written for something today and still work... most of them around the "fast cure" and "solve your problems" variety and I am not entirely sure what that says about humanity.
    • 4/5
      Probably Dickens's best-known full-scale novel, and certainly his most personal from the numerous ways it draws on his own early life. We all love it because of the striking, scary childhood scenes: I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had nightmares about Mr Creakle's appalling school, the rat-infested blacking factory, or David's walk from London to Dover. And because — as always with Dickens — it's packed with memorable minor characters, most of them entirely gratuitous. There's absolutely no necessity in the plot for Miss Mowcher to be a dwarf hairdresser, but it wouldn't have been the same book without that. Best of all, of course, are the endlessly lovable Micawbers, the slimy villain Uriah Heep, and the feisty Miss Betsey Trotwood. But they are only the tip of a very large iceberg.As usual, Dickens manages to get in some house-trained but still quite fierce social criticism, most of all in defence of his idea that childhood should be about fun and discovery, not being "firm" and "earnest" and prematurely taking on adult responsibilities. He also takes time off along the way to bash familiar targets like unregulated private schools, imprisonment for debt, and the continued existence of obsolete parasitic branches of the legal system (Doctors' Commons).It's harder to get involved with what should be the main channel of the novel, the marriage plot. We know that there's only one way David's story can end, and it's hard not to find his wrong turnings along the way contrived and artificial, and to feel sorry for poor Dora who is so obviously only there in the story on condition that she can be eliminated when no longer convenient. I find myself dreaming up silly alternative endings in which Dora goes off to join Miss Mills in India where she learns to play the sitar in an ashram (David would meet her, many years later, lecturing on Eastern religions). Or Agnes gently refuses to marry David until she's finished her legal studies and taken control of her father's old firm. And it goes without saying that Em'ly really ought to return in triumph to Yarmouth with her Neapolitan husband and horde of bambini, to set up East Anglia's first pizzeria ("La piccola Emilia")...
    • 5/5
      A long story about David Copperfield and all the people in his life.
    • 4/5
      David Copperfield is a classic: character driven and autobiographical in nature. Dickens illustrates the varying sides of human nature; how we all have faults. His portrayal of young David as a naïve child is brilliant. I could picture the boy being unreasonably afraid of a large bird because he acted just as I had when confronted with a gigantic angry fowl; or when Copperfield was bored at church and nearly falling asleep, slipping off his pew; or when he didn’t realize the adults were openly discussing him. His innocence is at the heart of his personality. As David matures and enters adulthood he learns relationships often fail and the motive of some people are not always pure at heart. Malicious people are everywhere. In the end (and I do mean the very end) Copperfield finds true happiness.
    • 4/5
      As with all of Dickens, it is the characters that make the book. Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep, Mr. Peggotty, Peggotty, Mis Trotwood, etc. I did lose patience with David from time to time, particularly in his romantic idiocy, bu, on the whole it is an enjoyable book.
    • 4/5
      This classic Dickens work follows the life of an orphaned David Copperfield and the people who shaped his life. He and his mother lived with a beloved servant Peggoty. After his mother's death, his stepfather removes him from school, sending him to work in a factory. Life is terrible, so David runs away to his aunt who agrees to give him a home. She calls him "Trotwood." He encounters the people from his past on many occasions and encounters more people who play a role in his life. The strength of the work lies in character development. The Penguin classics edition includes a large introduction as well as excerpts from a Dickens biography and early outlines of the novel.
    • 4/5
      Reading Dickens in publication order, this novel has the best first two hundred pages yet. Aided by Dickens' proficient use of first-person perspective, David is entirely sympathetic as a child. It's the best grasp of childhood I've read since Joyce's Portrait while David suffers awfully under the Murdstones' tyranny, and Aunt Betsey is my favourite Dickens character yet. Up to this point I was readying this novel's praises.But then ... the novel inexplicably turns away from David and he is merely witness to various drama. There's a good assortment of the usual wonderful characters here that Dickens can always muster: Pegotty and her brother are earthy and loving; Mr. Dick is a hoot; Uriah is plenty conniving, albeit not the nastiest villain Dickens has shown me (that's still Pecksniff); Emily and Agnes are only dull angels but Rosa Dartle is under a darker cast, tremendous in her vindictiveness but justified in her heart. Even so, it wasn't enough to make this portion of the story interesting, while David remained a non-player and the novel transmitted no sense of direction. But then ... David stands up to a villain, finds romance, and the novel blooms once more. Its momentum is again largely driven by his actions and choices, and from there to the end I enjoyed all the rest. It has a neat and tidy ending that's full of charm, if unlikely in some details, and it all concludes on a high note. If only it weren't for that middle portion.
    • 2/5
      I finished this book today with a sigh of relief. I love Dickens's novels usually, which kept me going, but I found this one a chore: hellishly long (837 pages of small print), a superfluity of characters and caricatures, all of whom are afflicted with verbal diarrhoea; and burdened with a plodding narrative and a colourless central character. Much of the dialogue was mawkish, even by this author's standards. For hardened Dickens fans only.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this wacky story of Dickens'. It follows David Copperfield as he goes off on an adventure, in a way, and meets all sorts of crazy characters. Again, Dickens is incredibly clever and his wit can be found on every page, along with rich details and an atmosphere that seeps through the pages.
    • 3/5
      I hate to say it but this book needed an editor. For me parts of it were brilliant. Others not so much.
    • 5/5
      This is the sort of novel that always makes me wish the protagonist was female. It is a story about growing up and becoming the master of one's own destiny, riding the unpredictable waves of fate and circumstance and building a good future for oneself. David Copperfield starts out with bad circumstances, and through luck and his own efforts, plus a few supportive friends, he ends up with a good life and a promising future.
    • 3/5
      At last away from the Murdstones, the plot started to pick up, then, thud, Wickfield, Old Soldier, and Micawbers balancedthankfully by Peggoty, Aunt Betsey, and Dick.3/4 of the way through DAVID COPPERFIELD and here's what needs to happen:1. Uriah and Steerforth, pistols at dawn = no survivors2. Dora falls in love with Malden, divorces fading Davey, & rides off on stallion3. Davey absently, yet quickly, recovers, and marries Agnes4. Agnes locates Martha and Emily who then move into a nice small picturesquecottage with Aunt Betsey - the Peggotys move nearby5. Hans sails to America to lead an Abolitionist Crusade6. Traddles finds Wickfield and Betsey's stolen $7. The Micawbers are written out of the plot where they never should have appeared8. The Mudstones, Mrs. Steerforth, and Ms. Dartle are admitted to any asylum wherethey make each other, and not us, insane&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Finished the book and, at last, Davey and Agnes Marry!Definitely wrong about Micawbers, at least the Mister, who comes to playa pivotal role, at last.
    • 4/5
      Very (very) long, but full of great and very funny scenes. There are nothing quite like the characters in Dickens. If you've seen the movie, you'll have a bit of a head start in appreciating this.