David Copperfield [2009] Charles Dickens [Tantor Media]

Category: Adults, Classic, Historical Fiction, Literature
Language: English
Keywords: 1890's. England
Written by Charles Dickens
Read by Simon Vance
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 33hrs 54min
Publisher: Tantor Media, 2009
Format: mp3, 64kbps, chapters

“I am born…” so begins the story of David Copperfield. Based in part on Dickens’s own life, it is the story of a young man’s journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among its gloriously vivid cast of characters, he encounters his tyrannical stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble yet treacherous Uriah Heep; the frivolous, enchanting Dora; and one of literature’s great comic creations, the magnificently impecunious Mr. Micawber—a character resembling Dickens’s own father.

In David Copperfield—the novel he described as his “favorite child”—Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of his most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure.

As for the narrator, AudioFile magazine said “At 34 hour’s length, this is quite a tome, but there’s no one better qualified than Simon Vance to lead us through this audio journey. He parses the author’s long sentences well, pausing sufficiently to make the details easy to follow while still maintaining a quick enough pace to keep the story going. Most enjoyable is his voicing of the myriad characters who appear in the narrative–and characters they certainly are. Vance times their occasionally hilarious exchanges especially well. All of this is delivered in a manner that suggests that Vance revels in Dickens’s prose and sly humor, and the listener cannot help but revel along with him. Three cheers for Vance–and not the least for his stamina!.

Winner for this reading and Great Expectations, of an AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine