David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – A book review

Regardless of it being acknowledged or not, one has a favourite child, if you have borne children of course. Charles Dickens mentions in the introduction that of all the books and characters he’s written about, David Copperfield was the closest to his heart. And one can only fully comprehend why after having read this mammoth of a book and smiling with pleasure while reading the last few pages offering a final account of the multitude of characters that form David Copperfield and his eventful journey.

Our education system often introduces ‘Morals and Ethics’ as a subject, separately, with a few case studies thrown our way every now and then, to render an elaboration or explanation. I personally believe, our human culture would benefit more from a book like this were it to be a part of the curriculum, if not entirely it.

Most of Dickens’ stories are the rags to riches kind, and David Copperfield is no exception.  It is in the sustenance of a humility, strongly clasped to, and the simplicity they hold on to with a giant’s unyielding embrace, no matter how puny their exteriors, that most characters in this story make believable the arduous journey and explorations of their lives, in turn stimulating the reader. The story is replete with patience, firmness, goodness, acceptance, afflictions, endurance and many more such attributes closely associated to life.

Oh, how I would have loved to have an eccentric aunt like Betsy Trotwood, a coconut in human form, benefitting equally from her austerity as much from her softness. And a friend like the less privileged Thomas Traddles, a paragon of simplicity, a connoisseur of the simple pleasures of life, a retainer and caretaker of mirth arising out of them. And what joy would it be to have an elderly companion like Mr. Pegotty, a rustic venerable creature who has a heart bigger than the ocean he rides on. And Agnes! To think of her as a goddess could be acknowledged as a rightful thought, but to treat her as one would only be imprecise; it would rob humanity of the embodiment of what is truly human. Many more, many more. These fine characters choose or desire to choose the right kind of privileges that life offers and they aren’t money, status, property or vanity; it’s more of finding permanence in the temporary. And the story isn’t lacking in unscrupulous figures and elements, in case you were wondering.

I say I would have loved to have the people in David Copperfield’s life, but then, do I deserve them? We all have had or come across our Betsy Trotwoods, Traddles, Agneses and Pegottys in one form or the other but did we recognize them, hang on to them, or let them vanish? That has defined our lives and will continue to do so. Though, I claim that this story has highly influenced me, what I do with it or am able to do with it is all that matters.

‘What you seek is seeking you’ said Rumi. David and Agnes’s story and relationship is a realization of this quote; things, feelings and people we yearn for lie right before our eyes and yet we travel far and further seeking them, inadvertently overlooking.

Every page of David Copperfield’s struggle to find himself and his destiny is worth it; I wouldn’t raise an alarm for it being superfluous if hundred more pages were added relevant to the sublimity of the story. Every word is a lyrical fit in the entertaining Dickenson language, if I may call it so, a defunct linguistic glory that twists and turns in its dialogue of words for the right meaning and effect. The era of respect and respectful language has diminished over the years and has changed form drastically and what we are left with now is a boorish platter of expressions in most current day literature. That’s why Charles Dickens and his contemporaries are important; the classics are essential; their task is to remind us of what we were and (being optimistic) of what we could be.

The only discontent I felt was in the neglect of Ham. Had David Copperfield or Charles Dickens been alive, I would have been tempted to ask a few questions about him. Marked by simplicity, loyalty and care, his character, even when wronged, receives nothing more than mere sympathy. Even in his death, Dickens through David’s account, writes little of him and more of the despicable flamboyant Steerforth, whose perished body lies beside Ham’s. I guess it is Dickens’ way of portraying an unfair life with even the virtuous of characters giving in to the formidable unfairness of it? We ultimately return to the chess box, but what we do before that defines us.

A must read for anyone who likes a good story, a tale well narrated. Highly engaging and influencing. Highly recommended.

My rating: 10/10

Image copyrights:

Book cover - © https://www.amazon.in/Copperfield-Vintage-Classics-Charles-Dickens/dp/0099511460

Charles Dickens - © https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Dickens-British-novelist

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore – A book review

Language Teachers often make their learners read a text and ask them to summarise it or provide a gist; the reading sub-skill is called ‘Reading for gist’. The Lighthouse does exactly the opposite, if you ask me. The epigraph more or less provides the gist and then Alison Moore expands it to create her story.

She became a tall lighthouse sending out kindly beams which some took for welcome instead of  warnings against the rocks.

- Muriel Spark, ‘The Curtain Blown by the Breeze’ - Epigraph

Alison Moore’s story, long-listed for the Man Booker, is an allegorical tale about Futh, a middle-aged man recently separated from his infidel wife Angela. Futh thinks a walking holiday will help and hence he travels to Germany from the U.K. He’s been on a walking trip once as a child, with his father.  The infidelity of his wife and her deserting him are not the only painful thoughts running on his mind. He hasn’t had the best of childhoods and has seen duplicity and adultery in abundance as a child. All the thoughts of his mother leaving his father and him, of the adulteries of his father, of Gloria – the lady neighbor, of Kenny – the only friend he talks about and of Angela of course – a girl he always looked up to and looked out for, only to be ignored, and is now his wife and soon will cease to be. Apart from the emptiness, he always carries with him the silver lighthouse, a perfume bottle, which wasn’t supposed to be his.

I remember what my father had once said when I was a child and a moth entered through our window and was desperately buzzing against the tube-light. I had wanted to drive it away, but my father said “Leave it alone; it’s come to die.” And I did find it lying dead on the floor the next day. I have encountered many moths and other insects since then, devoted and obsessed with the light, being wasted to the same fate, either eaten by the slimy tongue of a predator or restlessly tiring themselves to death. The moths, and other such nocturnal insects, it is said, seek to travel by the shining light of the moon, by a method called transverse orientation (just like humans keep the North Star in a certain position to know where they are). And the electric illumination confuses them. Stupid insects. Just like stupid humans – we only think we are intelligent until proven wrong by an upper hand. We seek lighthouses to save us; we travel to our end!

And Ester is the other character Alison Moore freely writes about. She’s the owner’s wife, of a hotel that Futh has booked as part of his travel holiday. Another moth that has chosen the light-bulb instead of the moon. Coincidences and misfortunes then ensue and you see Futh, and sometimes Ester, inadvertently being enticed by the shining light of the allegorical lighthouse, fluttering desperately against the light without being aware of any dangers lurking.

Alison Moore’s symbolic writing renders an uncanny feel to her story. Like the moths and lighthouse, Ester’s Venus Flytraps too allude to a mystery of alluring, capture and doom. I liked this simple novella; the language is simple but the meaning is full of allusions, hinting at, building implicitly layer upon layer of a suspense of misfortune that you earlier ignored or overlooked.  

So, does Futh ultimately receive a welcome or does he, not realizing, ignore the warnings against the rocks? It is ultimately Futh’s silver lighthouse that substantiates the epigraph – finally literally.

Next time I see a moth, I know what I'll call it.

My rating: 4/5

Image Copyrights:

Book cover - © https://canongate.co.uk/books/2041-the-lighthouse/

Alison Moore - © https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/books/review/alison-moore-the-lighthouse.html