Self-Help, dodgy marriages and the siren call of Australia: David Copperfield Part 2

Audio

Description

In Part 2 of David Copperfield, we pick up David where we left him, sobbing at the door of Betsey Trotwood’s house in Dover. From this low, David’s life changes - he is no longer a victim, but embarks on a (very long) journey towards self-reliance, re-encountering old friends like Micawbers and Steerforth, but also new characters like Uriah Heep and the simpering Dora. To make sense of this long, rambling journey of redemption, Sophie and Jonty reveal the influence of the emerging self-help movement on Dickens’ world-view and how his side-hustle as the director of a Home for Homeless Women inspired him to send many of the characters in David Copperfield off to Australia at the end of the book - and the inevitable happy ending this suggests. BOOKS MENTIONED OR USED AS SOURCES: Charles Dickens: A Life (2011) by Claire Tomalin Self-Reliance (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson Self-Help (1859) by Samuel Smiles 1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals (1944) by Lewis Namier Demon Copperhead (2022) by Barbara KingsolverRivals (1988) by Jilly Cooper Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcription

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.

0 upvotes

🗳️ Sign in to Upvote

Popular episodes get transcribed faster

Secret Life of Books

This episode hasn't been transcribed yet

Other episodes from Secret Life of Books

The Women Who Made Jane Austen

Sign in to Audioscrape

Share this moment