David Copperfield - Not The Magician

If you like long books that follow a character through their entire lives, make you ache with sadness for someone in a difficult plight, make you laugh out loud at humorous situations, and, in the end, leave you smiling, then my 6th favorite novel of all time is for you.

It's David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens, and it's a doozy (interesting word history lesson for the day - “The word doozy comes from Duesenberg, an eminently desirable motor car of the 1920’s and 30’s. The Duesenberg featured a chromed radiator shell, gold-plated emblem, hinged louvered hood, stainless-steel running boards, beveled crystal lenses on the instrument panel, Wilton wool carpet, and twin bugle horns. Magazine ads for the luxury car carried the slogan: ‘It’s a Duesie.’” (The Secret Lives of Words, by Paul West).

Anyway, back to David Copperfield (the book, not the magician). Young David finds himself in a difficult situation - his father dies, and his mother's new husband is a violent man with a cruel sister. They treat him terribly and eventually arrange to send him off to boarding school. Thus begins the long tale of David Copperfield and his journey through life. Don't let the 600+ pages intimidate you - it's a super easy read. Most of Dicken's books were originally written as installments in the periodicals of his day, so the chapters are episodic and usually lead into one another in a suspenseful way.

And if you're in Lancaster and still snowed in, why not start a new book?