Fred’s Reviews > David Copperfield > Status Update

Annie Strong and Martha provide foreshadowing for what happens to Emily. Beneath the surface-level frivolity, societal mistreatment of 'fallen women' provides a dark undercurrent.

There is something irresistible about Dickens’s writing and his cast of characters - even though it’s way too long and a bit annoying.

I quite like this book (this is a reread). There is some brilliant writing. But I don’t think it will ever be a top favourite. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong!

I had been finding this quite boring, but the description of the storm was exquisite. Yin and Yang.

Uriah Heep’s up to no good. (We don’t know exactly how yet.)

He and Dora have been trying to learn traditional husband-wife duties to prepare themselves for their supposed life of poverty…(he bought her a cookbook…bit old-fashioned).

And now his boss - aka, Dora’s father - has found out their secret engagement. Whoops.

One of the most charming things about this book is David’s lovable failures to integrate into “respectable” - and completely pompous - social traditions.

That last section not this book’s finest hour…Miss Mowcher, ugh. Endlessly dull. (But it was supposed to be in a way, so Dickens can probably be forgiven.)

We also have Martha, a friend of Emily’s who is leaving for London due to an unspecified backstory we never hear about.

We’ve just met Uriah Heep and his mother, who appear a little bit sinister…and Doctor Young and his wife, the latter of whom has some shady secret with her cousin.

(Lots of characters in this book! This is a very busy novel.)