Title: David Copperfield
Author: Charles Dickens
First published 1849
Summary from Goodreads: David Copperfield is the story of a young man’s adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora; and the magnificently impecunious Micawber, one of literature’s great comic creations.
In David Copperfield—the novel he described as his “favorite child”—Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.
So, I finally finished David Copperfield.
I want to focus this first post on the girls and women of David Copperfield: Clara Copperfield,, Agnes Wickfield, Dora Spendlow, and Aunt Betsy Trotwood.
Let me start by just admitting that I absolutely despised both Clara Copperfield and Dora Spendlow. They are very similar characters – both extremely childlike and, to my mind, incredibly annoying. Their childishness exceeded all possible bounds of reality, and, certainly, Clara Copperfield’s inability to stand up to Mr. Murdstone and his horrible sister caused great pain to David.
After having such an utterly useless mother, one would have expected that David would avoid marrying someone with the same deficiencies, and yet, nonetheless, he marries a girl who is so utterly incompetent that all she really seems to do is play with her dog. Dora is the most extreme result of a culture in which women are valued only for their appearance. She is pure decoration, without use. I kept wanting someone to hand her a broom and tell her to make herself useful. I am well aware that it is uncharitable, but I was rooting for her to kick the bucket so that David could find a wife who was a woman and not a child.
Spoiler alert: she did.
As much as I disliked Clara and Dora, though, I loved Aunt Betsey and Agnes Wickfield. Aunt Betsey is eccentric and good-hearted, and she becomes David’s guardian after he flees from Mr. Murdstone’s warehouse where he has essentially been enslaved. Aunt Betsey is no fan of men, having been ill-used and abandoned by a worthless husband as a young wife. In fact, the reader first meets Aunt Betsey in the very first chapter, when she arrives at the birth of David and leaves in disgust when he is born a boy and not a girl. Nonetheless, when David arrives on her doorstep, abused and unloved, she takes him in, educates him, and becomes a true friend and advocate to him. Her character is complex and interesting.
Agnes Wickfield is a bit too good to be true, but is likeable nonetheless. She is the daughter of one of David’s schoolmasters, and is a friend of his youth. She is everything that Dora is not: competent, capable and housewifely. She is also a good friend to Dora, though, and is such a kind person that she is careful never to make Dora feel inferior.
Spoiler alert: she marries David after Dora’s death, they have children, and live happily ever after.
David Copperfield is my number 1 favorite book. Thank you for this review, looking forward to the review on the men of David Copperfield.
I’m not a fan of Dora either……but then I don’t much care for David either
I love this book,great review!
I enjoyed this book, though it wasn’t one of my favorite of Dickens. I, too, disliked Dora and David’s mother. I find that Dickens often has annoying female characters though. He tended to write caricatures rather than characters, of course…so that must be taken into account before I cry “sexist!” 🙂
Like you, I rather liked Aunt Betsey and Agnes, though. 🙂 I’m glad this book turned out the way it did. 🙂
I was just re-watching the latter part of “David Copperfield” on TCM (the version with Edna Mae Oliver as Betsy) and was struck once again with what a little idiot Dora was. One of the characters of Dickens I truly like the least. Of course, after I found out the rather shabby way the man himself treated his own faithful and loving wife later in life, my estimation of Dickens isn’t what it used to be, either. I still enjoy his books and their film adaptations, but–*sigh*