David Copperfield

I checked out the famous tome (Everyman's Library edition) from the Rose Garden

library on Monday Jan 8, 2024. Falling in love immediately with the narrative, I

didn't rush but planned to enjoy one or two chapters a day. At that pace, I

would finish around the end of Feburary, I thought.

 

Yet the story proceeded at a good clip and by and by grew on me. I laughed and

cried, just as the author intended about 200 years ago, at the scenes sketched by

his poetic pen. Soon I found I was consuming anywhere from 50 to 100+ pages a

day (in the afternoons), and reached the end on page 877 on Monday Jan 28.

 

The most memorable part for me was when David, a 10-year-old orphan, fleeing a

sweatshop, penniless, robbed, and abused, plodded over a week from London to

Dover to seek his great aunt and last hope. I cried.

 

Another fan, Tolstoy, was quoted in the introduction:

 

    If you sift the world's prose literature, Dickens will remain; sift Dickens,

    David Copperfield will remain; sift David Copperfield, the description of

    the storm at sea will remain.

 

I think this is what Mr. T had in mind:

 

    The tremendous sea itself, when I could find sufficient pause to look at it,

    in the agitation of the blinding wind, the flying stones and sand, and the

    awful noise, confounded me. As the high watery walls came rolling in, and,

    at their highest, tumbled into surf, they looked as if the least would

    engulf the town. As the receding wave swept back with a hoarse roar, it

    seemed to scoop out deep caves in the beach, as if its purpose were to

    undermine the earth. When some white-headed billows thundered on, and dashed

    themselves to pieces before they reached the land, every fragment of the

    late whole seemed possessed by the full might of its wrath, rushing to be

    gathered to the composition of another monster. Undulating hills were

    changed into valleys, undulating valleys (with a solitary stormbird

    sometimes skimming through them) were lifted up to hills; masses of water

    shivered and shook the beach with a booming sound; every shape tumultuously

    rolled on, as soon as made, to change its shape and place, and beat another

    shape and place away; the ideal shore on the horizon, with its towers and

    buildings, rose and fell; the clouds fell fast and thick; I seemed to see a

    rending and upheaving of all nature.

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, 暖冬, for dropping by and your rave comments.

Yes. I took them copyrighted stuff down. The novel really grew on me and it was a treat. Besides the quoted paragraph, many dialogues and narrations were little gems and his description of characters was superb. Highly recommended.

Would love to but don't know how to make a living on having pleasure :-)

[暖冬cool夏]

Have been busy and lazy for months, and finally sit down and read your posts. Did you hide your recent vocabulary notes?
Wow, you finished 877 pages within a month. This is the life I envy and imagine myself to live after the retirement:).
Googling online tells me that David Copperfield is an "autobiographic novel, a very complicated weaving of truth and invention" of Dickens's life. The paragraphs you quoted here are very descriptive, reminding me of recent San Diego flood, and the possible sea storms that ravaged the county.
You should have been an English professor, reading and writing and making a living out of it.:)) Have a great weekend, friend, and Happy Chinese New Year!