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Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grown Ups. I'm Faith Moore and this season we're reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Each episode I'll read a few chapters from the book, pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built in notes. So brew a pot of tea, find a cozy chair and settle in. It's story time. Hello. Happy New Year. Welcome back. I'm so happy to be here with you again. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and that you're refreshed and ready to jump into a new place book together. I know I am. I have really been eagerly waiting to begin this book with you. It feels like such a treat. You know, usually I'm kind of sad when Christmas is over, but ever since I started this podcast, I have something to look forward to every January and it's such a joy. So thank you for being here and being a part of that. Welcome back to those of you who've been with us for a while now. And a very special welcome to those of you who are joining us for the very first time. I, Faith Moore this is season five of Storytime for Grown Ups, believe it or not. And we are celebrating our two year anniversary right now. This show began in January of 2024 with the book Jane Eyre. And here we are in January of 2026 about to start David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Along the way we've read Pride and Prejudice, the Woman in White and Frankenstein. And we've had two Christmas specials where we read A Christmas Carol and A Little Princess. And all of those books are still available to listen to. They' all still there in the same podcast feed where you found this episode and I encourage you, if you haven't already listened to those, to check them out. Lots of people like to listen to the old books on the days when new episodes aren't dropping. So I hope that you'll listen to our past books if you haven't done that already. But now this is our intro episode to David Copperfield. We do one of these before each book. It kind of helps us to orient ourselves to the new book. I usually talk a little bit about the author. I give some relevant historical information. Any details that I think it might be helpful to know going in. I never do spoilers. Those of you who know me know how I feel about spoilers and if you don't know, it's that I hate them. So I never give anything away about the plot or anything like that. But I do think that it's sometimes helpful to have a little bit of context before you start a classic book, because that can help break down some of the barriers that come between us and enjoying these books. So we'll do that today. But we'll also talk logistics just for a little bit, which we also usually do during these intro episodes, because I think it's helpful to know what to expect. So first of all, if you are new here or if you just need a little refresher, this is a podcast where we read classic books aloud in their entirety. We read them a few chapters at a time with a few notes along the way. I always say it's like an audiobook with built in notes. And the idea is that the notes are there to help you understand the book better, to follow along better, and to get into these books that might have felt daunting before, but they're not meant to interfere with the story. The notes shouldn't interfere with the story. So I never do any commentary during those notes. And I try to be as brief as I can be. Usually it's just a couple of words or a sentence at most. So that's how we read the books. And then I also take your questions. So after each episode, I invite you to write in to me with any questions you might have about what we read that day, any ideas or comments you had while you were listening, anything that maybe felt confusing that you'd like further clarification on. I read all your letters and I choose a few to read aloud on the show at the beginning of each episode. And I use those to talk a little about the chapters we read last time before we move into reading the next chapters of the book. It's become a bit like a book club. It's become a lot like a community. It's become pretty much my favorite thing to do except for being a wife and a mom. So I'm thrilled that you're here to share it with me. The way to get in touch with me with those comments and questions. And you're more than welcome, encouraged even to get into touch after this episode with comments and questions. The way to do that is to go to my website, it's faith k.moore.com and then you click on Contact. That'll take you to a contact form. You fill that out, it goes right to my email and I will get it right away. I do reply, but it takes me a little while because I get so many emails, which I love, so keep them coming. But Know that I probably won't get back to you immediately. Right now my turnaround time is about a week, but I do read them all and I pick the ones to read on the show as well. If going to my website and clicking Contact is too many steps, there's also a link in the Show Notes, which means the description of this episode, wherever you're listening to it, there's a link to that same Contact page right there. While we're talking about the Show Notes, there are a lot of links there that might be of interest. We actually have a merch store so you can buy storytime for grownups merchandise, like hats and mugs and shirts and things. We have a lot of cool designs, so you can check that out. We also have an online community. It's called the Drawing Room. Not because we do a lot of drawing there, but because every old Victorian house had a drawing room, which was short for withdrawing room because it was where you would withdraw after dinner and you would read, you'd play games, play music, talk about life, all the things that matter. And we have a drawing room, a virtual one. I like to think of this podcast as the main room of our Victorian house. And the online community is the Drawing room. So you can find a link to in the Show Notes to that, and it will give you more information about how you can sign up if you want to. I won't talk about all the links that are in the Show Notes, but scroll through, you might find something that interests you. And also my website, like I just said, is faithkaymore.com and lots of information is there as well. And there's a link to that too. So check out the Show Notes if you're interested in those things. The other logistical thing I want to mention is the length of this book and what that means for us. David Copperfield is by far the longest book that we have read on Storytime. For reference, my copy of Jane eyre is around 450 pages. So is my copy of the Woman in White. My copy of Pride and Prejudice is about 350 pages. Frankenstein was around 250 pages. But my copy of David Copperfield is 800 pages. So it's nearly twice the length of the longest book that we've read. And if you remember, if you were with us for those other books, Jane Eyre and the Woman in White took us about five or six months to read. So David Copperfield is going to take us all longer than that. And honestly, this is initially why I thought we weren't going to do this. Book at all. And I even told some of you in emails that I love this book, but we wouldn't be doing it because it was too long. I actually thought we would do a different, shorter Dickens book. Maybe Great Expectations, maybe something else. But the more that I thought about it, the more I felt that while Great Expectations is fine, it is not Dickens's best, in my opinion. And if I'm going to read you the classics, I might as well read you the best. And we might as well have the most fun that we possibly can. You know, I said in the trailer that David Copperfield was Dickens's favorite of the books that he'd written, and it's my favorite Dickens book as well. So if we're going to read Dickens, I just figured, let's read a really, really good one. Let's read the best. So that's why I changed my mind. But it means that we're going to be living in this world and hanging out with these characters for a long time, which I actually think is kind of cool. But it necessitates a bit of a change to the way that we do things, which is most notably that there won't be a summer session this year. Right. Normally we read a book from January to May or June, and then we have what I call summer session, which is where the episodes become once a week instead of twice a week. And we don't read a book, but we pick a topic. Last summer it was fairy tales and we discuss it. I have guests on to talk about it. It's a really fun time. And I do that because I'm a stay at home mom and my kids are at school during the school year, which gives me time to do this podcast twice a week. But during the summer they're home with me, so I take that time to be with them. And I still will take that time to be with them. Don't worry. But David Copperfield is actually going to take us probably until around mid August to finish. I tried to kind of bundle a few chapters together so that we could finish it sooner, but most of the chapters are pretty long. So we're just going to keep it simple. We're going to do one chapter per episode this time around, which means that we'll still be very much in the thick of it when summer rolls around. So I have known that for a while now. I've already recorded a bunch of the chapters. I've rearranged my normal other work schedule, the other things that I do. I will record more episodes during the winter and spring. So I have prepped in advance so that I can keep doing the twice a week episodes just for this book and still be home with my kids this summer. So that's what's going to happen. We're going to read this book starting on Thursday, January 8th. That will be the first chapter that we read and it will take us through the spring and the summer. I want you to know I thought a lot about this. There are pros and cons, but honestly I wanted to share this book with you. So I made that decision and then I worked around it to be able to make it happen. So I hope that that works for you guys. I think we're going to have a really fun time living in this world for such a long time. And somerse session will be back the following summer because I'll choose a shorter book for January 2027. If you have any questions about this, feel free to let me know. But I just wanted to give you a kind of overview of what's coming and why I made the choices that I made and how it's all going to work. Other than that, before I get into the actual meat of this episode and start talking about this book, please just make sure you're subscribed to this podcast. That way you won't miss an episode. If you know anyone you think might enjoy it or might have fun listening along to this book specifically, please do let them know about the podcast. Text them a link to the show and tell them you'd love it if they gave it a listen or something like that. However you want to tell them, tell them the more new listeners we get, the longer we'll be able to keep doing this show. And I have lots more books I want to share with you, so I want to be doing this for many years to come. So please spread the word about the show if you can. Okay, let's talk about David Copperfield and Charles Dickens. So obviously this is not our first Dickens book, right? Two Christmases ago we read A Christmas Carol, which is a novella by Charles Dickens. And so we talked a bit about Dickens, Dickens and his life and all of that in that intro episode. But that was a while ago, so I'll review a little bit here. But I want to begin by reading you a comment that I got over in our online community, the Drawing Room, which I was just talking about. This was a post by someone who goes by the handle havocjack, and he wrote it when the trailer dropped and we learned that David Copperfield was our next pick and I think it's a really great way to begin this discussion, so I'm just going to read it to you. Here it is. Havoc Jack. Three general tips about reading Dickens. One, don't keep waiting for something to happen. Enjoy the story as it goes by. He doesn't do action movie pacing. Two, Dickens is gently making fun of nearly everyone in his books. The characters are going to be silly, exaggerated and a little over the top. Laugh along with it. Three, keep an eye on the characters. He has a lot of them and he'll keep bringing them back. When things do pick up and they do, it's generally because some of these characters are starting to mix. If you've lost track of who's who and why, you won't enjoy that nearly as much. Okay, so I actually think this is a really fantastic description of Dickens novels and a really helpful place to start because David Copperfield is what is called a buildings Roman. Okay, we talked about this way back when we read Jane Eyre because Jane Eyre is also a buildingsroman. But let's talk about it again. So the dictionary definition of Bildungsroman is, and I'm literally reading from the dictionary now, this is Merriam Webster. It says a Bildungsroman is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character and in particular with the character's psychological development and moral education. Okay, so it's a German word obviously, which means education novel. Basically it's a coming of age story. The idea is like Havoc Jack said in his first rule for enjoying Dickens. The this isn't like a tightly plotted thriller that relies on propulsive action and has a distinct like five act structure or something like that. Instead, this is the story of a person's life, in this case a person named David Copperfield. And it'll take us through his childhood, young adulthood and adulthood and all the things that happen to him and the people he meets along the way. Now of course, since it is fiction, these things that happen and these people that he meets will be entertaining. And usually there's a way in which the arc of the story is about the person kind of coming into his own or moving past whatever flaws or issues might have held him back initially and finding his own place in the world. So if you wrote a whole book about my life, for example, it would probably be pretty boring as a novel because while I love my life, the day to day of my existence isn't really entertainment worthy. But when it's done well as a novel, the episodes and incidents that happen to the main character are exciting or funny or poignant or whatever. And the characters he comes into contact with are interesting or funny or evil or whatever it may be. And that is what drives the interest of the story. So like Havoc Jack says you have to kind of be aware of that and lean into it as opposed to waiting for some kind of major plot to happen and set off a chain of events that will lead to a climax or however you want to describe a more plot driven novel. So being aware of that and sort of just coming along for the ride, it is a great way to begin a book like this. And I promise you it's worth it. It's great. Speaking of the characters we meet in a book like this, or any Dickens book, really. Havoc Jack is right. They are usually a bit larger than life. Whatever their personality traits are, they're usually dialed up just a notch or two. So the funny characters, of which there are many, are probably going to be just a little more madcap than they might be in real life. The touching characters will be a bit, bit more maudlin. The mean characters will be pretty evil. And I think in the hands of a writer less skilled than Dickens, this might be kind of annoying. You might find characters like this to be unbelievable or hard to get to know or sort of weird, but Dickens is such a great writer that he knows how far to push and also when to stop. And the characters in this book are truly some of the most wonderful characters in all, all of literature. But you also have permission to laugh at them and to kind of make eye contact with Dickens over the top of your book and like nod, because you get that he's poking fun at people like this even as he's making you love them or hate them or laugh at them or whatever it may be. And Havoc Jack's third point is right as well. There are a ton of characters in a book like this and they keep going away and coming back again and interacting and mixing in various ways and. And it's these interactions between all these various characters that move the plot forward in a lot of instances. But don't worry about that, okay? I will be here to remind you who each person is if you've forgotten them. So you won't have to feel like you're trying to play catch up each time a character comes back into the narrative who has been away for a while. So it's a great observation that Dickens likes to do this. And it can be kind of confusing if you're reading a book like this on your own. But we are reading this together, and I will not let you get confused, okay? So don't worry about that. So one of the reasons that Charles Dickens liked this book so much, remember in the trailer I told you this was his favorite of his books? The reason is that the book is semi autobiographical, which means that he used a lot of elements from his own life to construct the plot. And he used a lot of elements of his own character to create the protagonist, David Copperfield. And you'll notice that David Copperfield and Charles Dickens share initials. They're just reversed, right? One is DC and the other is cd And I think that's intentional to signal to us that this character is, in some ways, at least actually the author more than any of the other characters that he has ever written. This is not to say that it's just a description of Dickens life and all the people he's met along the way. It is not at all. It's definitely fiction, but it is infused with Dickens life and character in a way that his other books aren't. And it's the first of his books that is written entirely in the first person, meaning David Copperfield will be our narrator throughout telling the story of his own life in the first person. Meaning he will say, I did this, and this happened to me, etc. So I'm actually not going to talk too much about Dickens's life in this episode because I don't want to spoil the book by giving you a sense of the sorts of things that might happen. And I think you can absolutely read this book while knowing nothing about Dickens's life at all. And you can get pretty much just as much enjoyment out of it, or maybe even more not knowing. But I'll tell you a little bit just to try to place this book in context historically a bit. So Dickens was born in 1812 and he died in 1870, which makes him a contemporary of Wilkie Collins, who wrote the Woman in White. And if you remember from when we did that book, they were actually good friends. David Copperfield was published serially, meaning it came out in monthly installments in a magazine between 1849 and 1850, which is really neat, I think, because we are also going to be reading it in installments, so we get to experience it kind of like people would have experienced it at the time. The book marks a kind of shift for Dickens from the writings of his youth, which include shorter novels like Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby and the Pickwick Papers. So it's a shift from that to the writings of his later years, which include more substantial books like Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, among others. David Copperfield was written without an outline, which adds to the sense of it being just the narrative of a person's life rather than like a tightly plotted story. But Dickens did have many of the key elements of the story already planned out before he wrote it. So it hangs together really well, even though it wasn't intricately outlined. He also used old notes that he'd written for an autobiography, which he never published, and he fictionalized them and changed them to become part of this narrative. Dickens ultimately called the book, here's a quote, a very complicated weaving of truth and, and invention. So it's a novel, it's a Bildungsroman, meaning it's a coming of age story, the story of somebody's life. It's told in the first person, so it's very intimate in that way. But it's also using elements of Charles Dickens's life, his character, the people that he met along the way to inform the plot and the characters. And it's great. I'm so excited to share it with you guys. It's brilliant. Historically, we're very much still in the Victorian era, which is the era that we've read most in so far on storytime for grown ups. Most recently we read A Little Princess, which took place at the very end of the Victorian era. But Jane Eyre and the Woman in White were also Victorian novels. David Copperfield spans several decades, but it's generally in the same time period as the other Victorian novels that we have read. Dickens generally deals with the poor and the working classes, sometimes the middle classes. And he was very concerned with social reform, particularly reform in the way that children were treated at the time, because kids were allowed to work in factories and other jobs and they were often mistreated or neglected. So Dickens cared deeply about children and about issues of mistreatment of people in the working classes. And you can see that interest coming out in his books and in the fact that he chooses to write about the poorer classes of people rather than the aristocracy or the landed gentry. Like I said, I don't want to tell you much about his life because I don't want you to have that in your head as we start the book, because I think it can be distracting because you keep wondering like, oh, is this supposed to be that part of his life? Is this true or did he make this up or whatever it might be. I think it's better to just read the whole thing. As fiction, which it is. But as we go along, I will try to tell you when we're discussing the chapters, what parts of his life might have been inspirations for the parts that we read, if it seems relevant or helpful. So I think I'm actually going to stop there. I think that's enough of an introduction. I don't want to say too much. I don't want to overload you with information. So I think that'll be it for the intro. But as always, feel free to write in with questions or thoughts that this intro episode brought up for you. Remember, it's faithkmore.com, then you click on Contact. Or you can scroll into the Show Notes and click the link that's there to contact me. While you're in the Show Notes, check out the other links. Join our online community if you're interested. I'll be scheduling our next tea time very soon for sometime at the end of this month. Teatimes, for those of you who don't know, are monthly voice chats. Kind of like a group phone call with me and other listeners where we talk about the book we're reading. You can ask me anything. It's a lovely time. So our next one will be sometime at the end of January and when I've scheduled that, I will let you know. And then we will be back here on Thursday of this week. It's January 8th and that's when we will begin this book together. I'm really excited. I cannot wait. So get ready, tell your friends and join me here on Thursday to begin. David Copperfield. I'll see you then. Thank you so much for listening. I'd love to know what you thought of the chapters. Is there anything you'd like me to clarify? Did something particularly interest you? Please go to my website, faithkmoore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts. Or you can click on the link in the Show Notes to contact me. I'll feature one or two of your entries at the start of the next episode. Speaking of links, don't forget to take a look at the other links in the Show Notes. You can learn more about me, check out our Merch Store, or become a member of the Storytime for Grown Ups online community. Before I go, I'd like to ask a quick favor. This is an independent podcast. It's produced, recorded and marketed by me, so I need your help. Spread the word about the show by posting about it on social media or texting a link to your friends. Subscribe. Tap those five stars and leave a positive review wherever you're listening. If you are able to support the show financially, there's a link in the show notes to make a donation. I would really, really appreciate it. Alright everyone, story time is over. To be continued.