This story is such a classic that anyone must know it without having ever read it, just like me. Peggotty has been an old friend of mine since junior high school but never had I opened the book, though I have the complete works of Charles Dickens in my library, and never had I seen any screen adaptation of it before tonight. So I just discovered this fine story in my old age, and in a way I regret it.
Of course there are orphans and in this case even, David Copperfield is orphaned before his birth. Of course there are step parents who are absolutely obnoxious and brutal. Of course there is a school for boys who are treated like dogs and beaten like trash. Of course there are strict and painful social situations that lead to prison, begging, being robbed and whatever you can imagine, especially when you are a nice young boy, too pure to be true and too naïve to be serious.
But even the factory in which David Copperfield is forced to work at the early age of ten or eleven looks like paradise when compared with the stepfather and his dear sister, two goal-keepers and nothing else. And that's the miracle of Dickens. He transforms an absolutely bleak situation into a rose garden, or if you prefer the crazy crushing life of a boy into a school for gentility and success.
That's the mystery and miracle Dickens cultivates in all his books. No matter how horrible life may be, and be sure he remained discreet about the worst details, he turns it into a happy ending and a success story. And that's how a forlorn and abandoned orphan will be able to cut a position for himself under the sun and in society.
People could say Dickens was a blind optimist, but he was not blind at all and knew about the sinister life we live in. We could say he is a hypocrite writing stories about the dregs of society to sell them to and make money from the rich and wealthy minority that could read and afford the serials or books, and what's more to cover up with happy endings the terrible fate of most working people and children in this Victorian society. And we would be wrong.
Dickens' books are a testimony of what Victorian society was and a great lesson given to those who had and still have the power and the money necessary to change things that change cannot be stopped because there will always be a few who will be strong enough or lucky enough to climb up to a position from which they may influence the world. In fact he thinks he is one of these and he is telling us book after book the same story of the enterprising young man who will change the world with his words and mind.
It is optimistic for sure but heart warming even more, and this BBC adaptation is just perfect as for that brittle equilibrium between social criticism and human advancement.
Dr Jacques COULAREDEAU
Of course there are orphans and in this case even, David Copperfield is orphaned before his birth. Of course there are step parents who are absolutely obnoxious and brutal. Of course there is a school for boys who are treated like dogs and beaten like trash. Of course there are strict and painful social situations that lead to prison, begging, being robbed and whatever you can imagine, especially when you are a nice young boy, too pure to be true and too naïve to be serious.
But even the factory in which David Copperfield is forced to work at the early age of ten or eleven looks like paradise when compared with the stepfather and his dear sister, two goal-keepers and nothing else. And that's the miracle of Dickens. He transforms an absolutely bleak situation into a rose garden, or if you prefer the crazy crushing life of a boy into a school for gentility and success.
That's the mystery and miracle Dickens cultivates in all his books. No matter how horrible life may be, and be sure he remained discreet about the worst details, he turns it into a happy ending and a success story. And that's how a forlorn and abandoned orphan will be able to cut a position for himself under the sun and in society.
People could say Dickens was a blind optimist, but he was not blind at all and knew about the sinister life we live in. We could say he is a hypocrite writing stories about the dregs of society to sell them to and make money from the rich and wealthy minority that could read and afford the serials or books, and what's more to cover up with happy endings the terrible fate of most working people and children in this Victorian society. And we would be wrong.
Dickens' books are a testimony of what Victorian society was and a great lesson given to those who had and still have the power and the money necessary to change things that change cannot be stopped because there will always be a few who will be strong enough or lucky enough to climb up to a position from which they may influence the world. In fact he thinks he is one of these and he is telling us book after book the same story of the enterprising young man who will change the world with his words and mind.
It is optimistic for sure but heart warming even more, and this BBC adaptation is just perfect as for that brittle equilibrium between social criticism and human advancement.
Dr Jacques COULAREDEAU