Different Drummer


"If a man does not keep pace with his companions,perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." ~Henry David Thoreau


Sunday, July 29, 2012

Trifles Make the Sum of Life ~ David Copperfield

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."
Mr Micawber ~Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 12



"You'll find us rough, sir, but you'll find us ready." Daniel Peggoty,  Ch 3

David Copperfield is a beloved classic and a book that everyone in book club loved reading.  Like many of Dicken's books, David Copperfield was first published in serial form in 1849, it was then published in 1850 as a novel.  Charles Dickens wrote that it was his favorite book and in the preface of the 1867 edition he wrote, " . . . like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield."  

"A loving heart was better and stronger than wisdom." Peggoty quoting Mr Copperfield , Ch 9

Dickens also wrote in the preface of the 1850 edition, " how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-year's imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself in the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever."  How often I feel like that as a reader when finishing a good book and the characters have seemed so real.

"I ate umble pie with an appetite." Uriah Heap,  Ch. 39

It is believed that David Copperfield has the most autobiographical elements  from Dicken's life.  One book club member mentioned that Dicken's had a near perfect photographic memory and perhaps that is why he is able to describe things in such amazing detail.  We also liked his character development.  His good characters are so likeable and believable, Copperfield, Peggoty, Daniel Peggoty, Aunt Betsy Trotter, just as the villains he creates like Mr and Miss Murdstone and Uriah Heap are notorious and black hearted. 

"Let sleeping dogs lie — who wants to rouse 'em?" Uriah Heap, Ch 39

It was mentioned how many common sayings and phrases that are so common to us are throughout the book - and we don't realize we are quoting Dickens when we use them.  I have interspersed a few favorites here.

"A man must take the fat with the lean." Mr Omer, Ch 51

"Trifles make the sum of life." David Copperfield, Ch 53


2 comments:

Pollyanna said...

It was such a great book, one of those that makes you feel like a better and stronger person for having read it.

Sunshine and Rain said...

I agree - reading Dickens is delightful - I so enjoy his faithful characterization - they seem like friends and neighbors. I think this is my favorite Dickens work.