I hate to say it but this book needed an editor. For me parts of it were brilliant. Others not so much. ( )

This is my favourite Dickens so far in the challenge to read them all in published order. I liked the change to first person narration. It was fabulously read by Richard Armitage. It's a loong book - 40 hours at normal speed. But I never felt it was too long. Great characters. Aunt Trotwood was a star! ( )

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. ( )

I was pushed to finally read this when I heard it was the inspiration and blueprint for Demon Copperhead, which is winning awards left and right. I have enjoyed Dickens in the past, but I am afraid I've slept on him for years after each book I've read and thoroughly enjoyed.
This book, The Perks of Being a Wallflo....I mean, A Series of Unfortunate Even...I mean...David Copperfield, follows David from birth to middle age, where awful things keep happening to him and he seems unfazed and unaffected by all of it. He is horribly mistreated as a child, but he never has to wrestle with that mistreatment as his character is forged. This passiveness bothered me for a while, but now that I've finished it, I can appreciate it for what it is - retelling of events in his life, with no exposition. As plotless as this is, Dickens is such a fantastic writer that all characters become endeared to the reader and leaving them behind at the end is bittersweet. Here's my reminder to pick up another Dickens before a decade has gone by. ( )

David Copperfield is a fantastic and unique read, but definitely one that I want to read alongside a University Professor or University course. This book is incredibly long and written in a much older style, so it's a tough read. It was Dickens' favourite novel, and I can see why. It is semi-autobiographical and is very wordy. It felt like he was spilling his soul into the book, even if it went on forever and certain pieces of the story did not need to be there. It just keep going on and on and on and on...

This book does really just feel like Charles Dickens just continued to write and published whatever are to his head. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, but made the book feel very tiresome. It was very hard to read, but I will be looking into more in-depth explanations to learn about the book. It was very cool, but just hard to read and it took me quite a while.

Overall, Charles Dickens has a beautiful writing style that proves he is a mastermind, but this book needs a master of the literary arts to break it down for me to enjoy it.

Two out of five stars. ( )