I heard about the new Audible version of David Copperfield read by Richard Armitage recently, and decided to give it a go - I have not read any Dickens (except for A Christmas Carol), and am a big fan of listening to well-read audiobooks during my longish commute to and from work.
I love Dickens’s characterizations and observations about human nature, and Armitage is an excellent reader - but wow, the story is so depressing…I’m at the point where David is first back from Salem House with his mother and Peggotty, and am so dreading the return of the Murdstones to the scene that I’ve been putting off continuing…
With 30+ hours of listening to go, should I stick with it, or just read the Wikipedia synopsis to find out what happens and move on to something else?
Copperfield, though Dickens favorite, is mid-level Dickens. Not bad, but not his best.*
Things do look up, and there are some very good character surprises as the story goes on. And the depression parts are there to make the character arc work better.
*I’d go with Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities.
I’ll second “Great Expectations”. It is my personal favorite of the Dickens novels.
“David Copperfield” is probably my favourite Dickens novel. I prefer it to “Tale of Two Cities” or “Great Expectations” (for example) because:
(a) I think it’s funnier (Barkis, Aunt Trotwood, Mr Dick, Mrs Gummidge and especially Mr Micawber are wonderful comic characters), and
(b) the autobiographical elements give it a taste of realism that some of his other books lack.
Don’t get me wrong – there’s plenty of Dickens’s typical mawkishness and ham-fisted plot developments in “David Copperfield”, but I very much enjoyed it.