In honor of the birthday of Charles Dickens, I’d like to share a passage from one of his novels. This passage is one of my most favorite in all of literature (that I’ve read so far).

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These observations, and indeed the greater part of the observations made that evening, were interrupted by Mrs. Micawber’s discovering that Master Micawber was sitting on his boots, or holding his head on with both arms as if he felt it loose, or accidentally kicking Traddles under the table, or shuffling his feet over one another, or producing them at distances from himself apparently outrageous to nature, or lying sideways with his hair among the wine-glasses, or developing his restlessness of limb in some other form incompatible with the general interests of society; and by Master Micawber’s receiving those discoveries in a resentful spirit.

-David Copperfield, page 527, by Charles Dickens

Title: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens
Published: 1861
My edition: Penguin Popular Classics 1994
Purchased From: BookDepository.com
Pages: 443

Synopsis (from BN.com): Young Phillip Pirrip’s life is shaped by an act of kindness which raises him from poverty to wealth. One of the greatest works of classic literature, this novel is a timeless tale of love, hope and humanity.

I read this because:
1. After reading & loving David Copperfield, I wanted to read more Dickens. 
2. Miss Haversham has been a character in several other books I’ve read (the Thursday Next series), and I figured it was about time to read her as she was originally written.
3. My book club picked this for our December book.

My thoughts: My Charles Dickens crush that begin with David Copperfield has been cemented into true love with Great Expectations. I apparently couldn’t appreciate his style in high school (when I read A Tale of Two Cities) but I now love his storytelling mastery, his way with descriptions, and his unforgettable and endearing characters.

To me, the message behind Great Expectations is one of coming to terms with the mistakes you’ve made in the past, and moving past them. That’s a theme that everyone can relate to, which is probably why this novel is so beloved.

I’ve been thinking about David Copperfield and Great Expectations a lot, and I’ve decided that while I recognize that Great Expectations is the superior and more complex novel, I love David Copperfield even more. David, Traddles, Agnes, and the rest won my heart over the tough competition found in Pip, Joe, Herbert, and Miss Haversham. But I do love both, and look forward to reading more Dickens.

Book club worthy? Definitely, my book club had a great discussion of this novel, although it turned out to be a more somber discussion than we had expected.

Follow up required: I’m trying to decide which Dickens novel to read next. I think I’ve narrowed it down to Nicholas Nickleby or Oliver Twist, although I’m tempted to re-read A Tale of Two Cities next to see if I like it better than I did in high school, now that I’m a Dickens fan.

You might like this book if you liked: It’s hard to compare Dickens to any other author, but if you’ve never read Great Expectations you definitely should.

Links to purchase: IndieBound, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository (The Book Depository is the only US site that sells the cute, affordable Penguin UK edition I read, so the other links provided are to the gorgeous new Penguin Classics Hardcover series.)

My favorite lines & passages:

…a large hard-breathing middle-aged slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull staring eyes, and sandy hair standing upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had just been all but choked, and had that moment come to… (chapter 4)

So, throughout life, our worst weaknesses and meannesses are usually committed for the sake of the people whom we most despise. (chapter 27)

For there was something very comfortable in having plenty of stationery. (chapter 34)

David Copperfield (Nonesuch Dickens)

Charles Dickens

Before last year, I had only read one book by Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities for AP English in high school. I am not someone who hated books just because I read them for school. In AP English we read, and I enjoyed, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Canterbury Tales, and many others. However, I hated A Tale of Two Cities. I found it dull, slow, and confusing. I would probably appreciate it more now that I’m older and a more seasoned reader, but at the time I hated it and swore off Dickens altogether.

Over the last few years, I slowly realized I needed to give Dickens another shot. The following things contributed largely to my change of heart:
-Nick Hornby’s enthusiasm for David Copperfield (his May 2004 Polysyllabic Spree)
-References to Great Expectations in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, especially Miss Havisham
-Reading Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
-My Mom’s love of Dickens, especially David Copperfield and Great Expectations

So I made it a reading goal in 2008 to read David Copperfield. It almost didn’t happen, I made it to October without even taking it off the shelf. But mid-October I got it down and read the first few chapters. I liked it a lot, but for some reason didn’t read much more. I got serious about it again in November, and read about half in November and half in December. (I read it sporadically, especially because my edition was the huge hardcover Nonesuch Dickens that was too big to bring to and from work every day.)  I finished the last 20 pages on the morning of January 1, 2009. It was a little bit heartbreaking to not finish the last 20 pages in the year 2008, but I’m proud that I accomplished the goal of reading it. I even brought it with me to my friend’s apartment for her New Year’s Eve party, but obviously didn’t get much reading time. I could have stayed home and finished it instead of celebrating 2009, but that would have been ridiculous. And sad.

Anyway, to the point: I loved David Copperfield! It’s a wonderful story, and I learned to appreciate Dickens’s writing style. He’s wordy, but it’s ok because he’s so good with them. There were many lines that I loved, but this one is by far my favorite, and had me laughing for several minutes:

“These observations, and indeed the greater part of the observations made that evening, were interrupted by Mrs. Micawber’s discovering that Master Micawber was sitting on his boots, or holding his head on with both arms as if he felt it loose, or accidentally kicking Traddles under the table, or shuffling his feet over one another, or producing them at distances from himself apparently outrageous to nature, or lying sideways with his hair among the wine-glasses, or developing his restlessness of limb in some other form incompatible with the general interests of society; and by Master Micawber’s receiving those discoveries in a resentful spirit.”

What I love best about David Copperfield is the characters. Whenever I’ve truly disliked a novel in the past, it’s usually because of the characters – I didn’t care about them, they weren’t relatable, they were annoying or unrealistic, or some combination of these problems. David Copperfield was the opposite, I did really enjoy the plot/story, but it was the fantastic characters and Dickens’s gift at making them come to life that made this book one of the best classics I’ve ever read. Some of his characters may not be the most realistic people ever imagined – a few are extremely eccentric, but certainly some of the most entertaining characters I’ve encountered. And despite some of them being improbable, Dickens makes them seem as real as anyone you might meet today. As Nick Hornby said in his comments about the novel, I too was genuinely sad to end the book and to say goodbye to the characters.

Also – their names! Dickens has the best names in literature, hands down. Whenever I finally get to adopt a puppy, I hope to name it Traddles.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

Since the year is winding down, I decided to check in on how my reading goals for 2008 are going.

In this post from January, I came up with five goals for the year. Here’s the list and which ones have been completed:

• Read at least 71 books (one more than last year seems like a reasonable goal) COMPLETE
• Read David Copperfield
• Read 3 Vonnegut books COMPLETE
• Visit 10 bookstores in the city that I haven’t been to yet COMPLETE
• Attend at least 20 book events

The two that are incomplete were the most challenging ones. It’s not looking likely that I’ll attend 20 book events this year. I’ve only been to 9, and there aren’t a ton more scheduled that I’m interested in. I fell short by not being able to go to some of the ones I was very interested in, and being too lazy sometimes for the ones I was somewhat interested in.

However – things are looking very good for David Copperfield. If you had asked me a few months ago if I thought I’d end up reading it this year I would have said No Way. But I got inspired last month, and read 2 chapters. Then I put it down and didn’t touch it for a month. When I picked it up again last week, I had to re-read chapter 2 – I had no memory of reading it. But I kept going and got very into it. I’m absolutely loving it now!

I’m on page 310 out of 871. I’ve still got quite a bit to go, but it looks like I might actually finish it this year!

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)