Loved it before. Love it more the second time around.

My overwhelming impression of this book is that it is Dickens at his most Dickensian. I don't mean that it is the best thing he ever wrote, the most literary or influential. (I have yet to read "Great Expectations" and have expectations it will be truly great.) However, I think in "David Copperfield," those qualities which distinguish every Dickens work are exemplified to an inordinate degree: funny names, sentimental domestic scenes, attention to detail, improbable coincidences, lots of action, wry bits of humor and wordplay, characters from all strata of society, truly bleak scenes of cruelty and injustice, foreshadowing, critical comments on politics, law, and institutions of all kinds.

I happened to read "David Copperfield" in a very old volume of P. F. Collier's "Works of Charles Dickens," apparently published before the date of publication was infallibly recorded somewhere in the book itself, and with twenty illustrations by...somebody apparently not worth mentioning. But what an experience to read Dickens in a cloth-bound folio made when pages were still sewn together and decorated on the front by illustrations of Pickwick and Fagin and Sidney Carton in gold leaf! In this edition, the text appears on each page in two columns, side by side--like most Bibles--and I think this, along with the sensation of time-traveling, did much to speed my reading. Or maybe Dickens simply knew how to write a gripping yarn.

"I could pass a reasonably good examination already, as a pilot in these waters, I think." James Steerforth in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

I decided to read this concurrently with Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” which is based upon the Dickens. The Kingsolver was read for my library’s discussion group, and I wished to read the Dickens for context and comparison. I found the world and characters of Copperfield to be very interesting and compelling, and quite a bit more entertaining and uplifting than those in Copperhead (though Kingsolver was going for something very different). There is a lot of detail in Copperfield that I think would be trimmed away by a modern editor, but I suppose that all added to the book’s charm. I’m glad I read David Copperfield, because it’s always good to acquaint myself with the classics, though this is so massive a book that I imagine this will be my one and only time reading it.

Charles Dickens is highly enjoyable, and hilarious. Let's just leave it at that. Oh, and my ADD-ish self really appreciated that there was constant movement of things happening. We never spent pages upon pages stuck on the same dry conversation. Do I remember every single thing that happened as a result? No. That was likely exacerbated by the fact that I was reading this in spurts for a while.

I have read several Dickens books prior to this, but this was honestly a real drudge to get through.

The only reason I give it a three is because, like all Dickens books, the writing is good. Unfortunately, what he's writing about never seems to go anywhere.

it is more clear in this book, than in others I have read, that he was getting paid by the word.

I didn't realize how short this is, especially given how long Demon Copperhead is. But it's classic Dickens - clever, wry, hilariously named characters.

What a roller-coaster of an emotional ride! This was my first Dickens novel and I can so that I really enjoyed it. I will probably never read it again, but I did love it. I found it long in places where it need not be, but I saw how Dickens was using those characters and their stories as lessons for the reader.

Spoiler....

#ICriedWhenDoraDied... I was NOT fond of Dora, I could see a mile away that she was not well suited for David, but oh did I cry when she died.

I hated the Murdstones from their introduction and I hated them until the last sentence...well done Dickens

I grew to love and adore Aunt Betsey, as I am sure all readers of the book did as well

I never cared for Steerforth and always saw him for what he was, but the enduring and lasting friendship with Traddles filled me with joy.

I can see why it is a classic and I adore the characters in this novel, if not cherish them forever.

Kinda boring and way too long. Would recommend Demon Copperhead instead