David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I have always meant to read all of Dickens' books, but it takes a lot of activation energy to get started on one of them for me. I'd had a goal to read David Copperfield before we went to England, but didn't really think it was going to happen once I realized it was almost 900 pages long. But the library, again, saved me! There was an audiobook copy of it, which was 36 hours long, but which gave me the jump start on it that I needed. I was surprised how much I enjoyed listening to it--I remember trying to listen to some Dickens on audio back when I was driving to NC State, and giving up because I thought it was too boring to listen to. This time around, I loved it, and I think it helped me to be more present in the book and to not accidentally skim through sections that were long. I was expecting the story to take a much more depressing turn than it did. David's childhood was definitely depressing and heartbreaking to imagine a young kid being treated that way with his mother and his stepfather, but after he got taken in by his aunt, he actually had a pretty pleasant life and was pretty lucky afterwards, and didn't seem all that psychologically scarred by it all that much either. I thought all the different storylines--about Steerforth and little Emily and Mr. Peggoty, and Agnes and Uriah Heep, and about the Doctor and Mrs. Strong, and about Traddles, and the Micawbers--all were so well done and with so many fantastic characters that I loved and hated. Every character in here was so distinctive and it's easy to see why so many of them are caricatures of themselves in popular culture afterwards (like Uriah Heep as a fawning, humble person--it was so satisfying to see him get his deserved comeuppance). There are so many aspects of this book that were so well done--especially getting to see David's thoughts and how he developed throughout the book. I feel like the first person perspective in this book worked really well to show his coming of age and his growth and change over the course of the book. I am so glad to have finally read this and to have gotten so much out of it.