Chapter 1: What is the premise of Storytime for Grownups?
Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grownups. 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 Storytime!
Hello, welcome back. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who showed up for tea time last Thursday. It was such a great conversation. We had lots of people there. I was so thrilled to see so many people and we had some new people. So thank you to those of you who joined and signed up in the meantime and showed up for tea time. It was lovely to have you there.
And I really enjoyed also chatting with my old friends as usual. We had a really fun and kind of spirited debate about who was more to blame, Steerforth or Emily. We talked about Mrs. Steerforth and whether or not we have any sympathy for her. And we talked for basically nearly an hour about the whole Steerforth, Emily, Mrs. Steerforth, Mr. Pagody situation. And it was really, really fun.
It was a great conversation. So thank you so much for being there. I really, really appreciate it. And thank you for supporting the show by sharing. being a member of the drawing room community and choosing the landed gentry tier and joining me for tea time.
Tea time happens once a month over in our online community called the drawing room, where we withdraw after the show to keep on talking about these books and books in general. And I will schedule the one for May in the next couple of weeks or so. So I will let you know here when I do schedule it. But if you're interested in joining us next time and you're not yet a member of the drawing room,
feel free to scroll into the show notes. There's a link there. You can click on it. It'll give you some more information about what goes on in the drawing room and the different membership tiers that we have. And then you'll be ready to go next time we have tea time. So I will alert you as soon as I have that date on the calendar.
I do have one quick announcement today, and I'm really excited about this. And if you are already a member of The Drawing Noob, you might know about this because I posted there about it the other day. But we have new merch in the merch store. There are two new designs, and I'm really, really excited about them. One is a Barkis is Willin. design, and the other is Janet Donkeys. So check it out.
There's a link in the show notes to the merch store. Click that link. You'll see all the designs that we have, but the two new ones are there. You can get it on pretty much anything. T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, mugs, notebooks, I think there are. Stickers, I think we have now. So check it out. Check out all the various things that you can get. And Take a look at those designs.
I think they came out really well. And hopefully you will pick something up from the merch store and represent Storytime for Grownups out in the world. And maybe someone will stop you and say, Vargas and Willen, what is that? Or Janet, donkeys, what are you talking about? And you could tell them all about David Copperfield and maybe even Storytime for Grownups and get some new listeners.
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Chapter 2: How does David's love for Dora develop in Chapter 34?
Now, Phil commented that it's sort of ridiculous that this 20-year-old woman seems to have given up on love after one, like, bad encounter. But I think it's important to realize that Miss Mills is Dickens kind of at his most over-the-top. She is entirely there, as far as I'm concerned, for comic relief.
I mean, yes, and also for plot purposes, because it's Miss Mills that arranges for David and Dora to meet up in London and eventually confess their love to each other. But her character is not at all meant to be taken seriously. She is so funny, and Dickens intends this. He's got his tongue, like, very firmly in his cheek when he's writing her, and he's making fun of her whole situation.
I mean, listen to the way that he writes about her. He says, "'That sagacious Miss Mills, too. That amiable, though quite used-up recluse. That little patriarch of something less than twenty, who had done with the world and mustn't on any account have the slumbering echoes in the caverns of memory awakened.' What a kind thing she did. I mean, he's kidding around.
This is not at all meant to be serious. And we have his full permission to laugh. I mean, when David shows up at her house and she's writing a piece of music called Affection's Dirge, it's hilarious. But the upshot of all of this is that David and Dora do end up getting engaged. The scene is brilliant, don't you think?
With David deciding he's going to tell her he loves her and then that he's not going to tell her and then that he is and Jip barking and barking the whole time and then David finally getting it out and Dora saying, yes, it's wonderful. But I do think that there is still a kind of childishness to their engagement, almost like two children pretending to get engaged.
David says, I suppose we had some notion that this was to end in marriage. We must have had some because Dora stipulated that we were never to be married without her papa's consent. But in our youthful ecstasy, I don't think that we really looked before us or behind us or had any aspiration beyond the ignorant present.
We were to keep our secret from Mr. Spenlow, but I am sure the idea never entered my head then that there was anything dishonorable in that. So they're engaged, but they don't have any idea of when they'll get married, nor that they seem to care.
They aren't going to tell Dora's father about it, which means that it won't happen anytime soon because they'll need his permission to actually get married. So it's more like a fun game of being engaged and getting to send each other secret letters and sneaking over to visit her when only Miss Mills is around. It's more like a game than an actual serious decision between two people to get married.
But I do just want to quickly touch on what Wit brought up, which is that we get this really lovely but also sort of tantalizing glimpse of adult David in this chapter. Here's what he says.
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Chapter 3: What role does Mr. Murdstone play in this chapter?
Okay, so this tells us that adult David has at least one child, a daughter, and that seeing this daughter wearing a ring very much like the ring he gave to Dora for an engagement ring made his heart ache for some reason. So, Is this a daughter that he had with Dora? Do they actually get married and have children together? Why is it painful for him to see a ring like Dora's?
Is this a daughter he had with someone else? Does he not actually marry Dora? Does he wish he had married her? Is that why it's painful? We have no idea. That is what is so tantalizing. And the other thing.
that we get from adult David's perspective is this sense, sort of like Phil was saying in his letter, but this sense that the person he is now views all of this stuff with Dora as childish and silly, but also as sort of wonderful. Here's what he says. What an idle time. What an insubstantial, happy, foolish time.
Of all the times of mine that time has in his grip, there is none that in one retrospect I can smile at half so much and think of half so tenderly.
Chapter 4: How does Peggotty influence David's decisions?
Okay, so does that mean he's looking back fondly on the courtship that he had with his now wife, with whom he has grown up and had children and settled into a more adult relationship? Or does that mean he's looking back fondly on the courtship he had with a girl that he didn't marry, but remembers with fondness because of how young and foolish and in love they were? We just don't know.
And it's so fiendish, but also wonderful of Dickens to give us this tiny glimpse into adult David's perspective here, because it makes us wonder all of these things and want to read more. So let's do that. Let's read some more, okay? But of course, don't forget to write to me. It's faithkmore.com and click on contacts and all your questions, all your thoughts.
I would love to know your reactions to this chapter. And while you are in the show notes, please click on the merch store and pick up some Barkis merch and some Donkeys merch and whatever else you want there. And hopefully you'll find something you like. All right, let's get started with chapter 34 of David Copperfield. by Charles Dickens. It's story time! Chapter 34 My Aunt Astonishes Me
I wrote to Agnes as soon as Dora and I were engaged. I wrote her a long letter, in which I tried to make her comprehend how blessed I was, and what a darling Dora was. I entreated Agnes not to regard this as a thoughtless passion which could ever yield to any other, or had the least resemblance to the boyish fancies that we used to joke about.
I assured her that its profundity was quite unfathomable, and expressed my belief that nothing like it had ever been known.'
Somehow, as I wrote to Agnes on a fine evening by my open window, and the remembrance of her clear, calm eyes and gentle face came stealing over me, it shed such a peaceful influence upon the hurry and agitation in which I had been living lately, and of which my very happiness partook in some degree, that it soothed me into tears.
I remember that I sat resting my head upon my hand when the letter was half done,
cherishing a general fancy as if agnes were one of the elements of my natural home as if in the retirement of the house made almost sacred to me by her presence dora and i must be happier than anywhere as if in love joy sorrow hope or disappointment in all emotions my heart turned naturally there and found its refuge and best friend
of steerforth i said nothing i only told her there had been sad grief at yarmouth on account of emily's flight and that on me it made a double wound by reason of the circumstances attending it i knew how quick she always was to divine the truth and that she would never be the first to breathe his name
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Chapter 5: What are the dynamics of David and Dora's engagement?
said Trattles, considering about it. Do I strike you in that way, Copperfield? Really, I didn't know that I had. But she is such an extraordinarily dear girl herself that it's possible she may have imparted something of those virtues to me. Now you mention it, Copperfield, I shouldn't wonder at all. I assure you she is always forgetting herself and taking care of the other nine.
Is she the eldest? I inquired. oh dear no said traddles the eldest is a beauty he saw i suppose that i could not help smiling at the simplicity of this reply and added with a smile upon his own ingenious face not of course that my sophy pretty name copperfield i always think "'Very pretty,' said I.
"'Naw, of course, but that Sophie is beautiful, too, in my eyes, and would be one of the dearest girls that ever was in anybody's eyes, I should think. But when I say the eldest is a beauty, I mean she really is aā' He seemed to be describing clouds about himself with both hands. "'Splendid, you know,' said Traddles energetically. "'Indeed,' said I.
Oh, I assure you, said Trattles, something very uncommon indeed. Then you know, being formed for society and admiration and not being able to enjoy much of it in consequence of their limited means, she naturally gets a little irritable and exacting sometimes.
Chapter 6: What insights do the comments from the online community provide?
Sophie puts her in good humor. Is Sophie the youngest? I hazarded. Oh, dear, no, said Trattles, stroking his chin. The two youngest are only nine and ten. Sophie educates them. The second daughter, perhaps, I hazarded. No, said Trattles. Sarah's the second. Sarah has something the matter with her spine, poor girl.
The malady will wear out by and by, the doctors say, but in the meantime she has to lie down for a twelve-month. Sophie nurses her. Sophie's the fourth. Is the mother living? I inquired. Oh, yes, said Trattles. She's alive. She is a very superior woman, indeed, but the damp country is not adapted to her constitution, and
in fact she has lost the use of her limbs dear me said i very sad is it not returned traddles but in a merely domestic view it is not so bad as it might be because sophy takes her place she has quite as much a mother to her mother as she is to the other nine
I felt the greatest admiration for the virtues of this young lady, and honestly, with the view of doing my best to prevent the good nature of traddles from being imposed upon to the detriment of their joint prospects in life, inquired how Mr. McCarver was. He is quite well, Copperfield, thank you, said traddles. I am not living with him at present. No?
No. You see, the truth is, said traddles in a whisper, he has changed his name to Mortimer. consequence of his temporary embarrassments, and he don't come out till after dark, and then in spectacles. There was an execution put into our house for rent. Mrs. McCobber was in such a dreadful state that I really couldn't resist giving my name to that second bill we spoke of here.
You may imagine how delightful it was to my feelings, Copperfield, to see the matter settled with it, and Mrs. McCobber recover her spirits. "'Hm,' said I, "'Not that her happiness was of long duration,' pursued Traddles, "'for unfortunately within a week another execution came in. "'It broke up the establishment.
"'I have been living in a furnished apartment since then, "'and the Mortimers have been very private indeed. "'I hope you won't think it selfish, Copperfield, "'if I mention that the broker carried off my little round table "'with the marble top and Sophie's flower-pot and stand.' "'What a hard thing!' I exclaimed indignantly.'
It was a pull, said Trattles, with his usual wince at that expression. I don't mention it reproachfully, however, but with a motive. The fact is, Copperfield, I was unable to repurchase them at the time of their seizure. In the first place, because the broker, having an idea that I wanted them, ran the price up to an extravagant extent, and in the second place, because I hadn't any money.
Now, I have kept my eye since upon the broker's shop, said Trattles, with a great enjoyment of his mystery, which is up at the top of Tottenham Court Road, and, at last, today I find them put out for sale. I have only noticed them from over the way, because if the broker saw me, bless you, he'd ask any price for them.'
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