Soap

[kev67]

I have several times heard that if Charles Dickens were alive today he would be writing for the soaps. David Copperfield is the soapiest of his books I have read so far. There are so many strands and characters that keep disappearing and reappearing. One chapter would have some comedy, then the next would have some melodrama or tragedy. The other Dickens books I've read had interleaving themes, but they mostly had one or two overarching themes or backdrops. In this book, the only link is David Copperfield himself. To me this is a weakness.

[Magnocrat]

It was his own favourite probably because it was partly autobiographical.
I think Dickens is loved for his character's rather than his story line's. We must not forget he was a great reformer; just look at Oliver Twist , it made people aware of the poverty and suffering in Victorian London.

[kev67]

It was his own favourite probably because it was partly autobiographical.
I think Dickens is loved for his character's rather than his story line's. We must not forget he was a great reformer; just look at Oliver Twist , it made people aware of the poverty and suffering in Victorian London.

Welcome to the forum. Yes, David Copperfield is pretty autobiographical. His early career is pretty much identical. I think Dickens was an articled clerk rather than a trainee proctor, but they are fairly similar professions. Dickens reported on Parliament sessions before becoming an author. He spent a time as a boy working in a blacking factory, while David works in a factory putting labels on bottles I think. The books that David lists he read as a boy must have been the same as Dickens read as a boy. It is like Dickens inserted himself as a character in one of his books. I wondered whether Dickens was good with his fists himself after David beat the butcher's boy.

Dickens writes in the preface that David Copperfield is his favourite child, but he had not written all his books. I wonder if it was still his favourite by the time of his death.

[Danik 2016]

"I have several times heard that if Charles Dickens were alive today he would be writing for the soaps.David Copperfield is the soapiest of his books I have read so far. There are so many strands and characters that keep disappearing and reappearing. One chapter would have some comedy, then the next would have some melodrama or tragedy."
I don´t know if he invented this pattern, but most Brazilian soapys follow it.

[Magnocrat]

His characters are realer than real, over the top, which makes them intriguing.
Take the famous Uriah Heap;what a fantastic name.
' He had a way of writhing when he wanted to express enthusiasm, which was very ugly; and which diverted my attention from the compliment he had paid my relation,
to the snaky twistings of his throat and body.'