For some weeks now I’ve been following Robert McCrum’s weekly series listing the 100 best novels in English (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/22/100-best-novels-robert-mccrum). It’s a fascinating series, and checking out the next book on the list has become a Monday ritual at morning coffee with Ray and Libby and Phil. The list is historical; that is, he begins with his earliest choice (Pilgrim’s Progress) and moves forward in time. He’s currently at number 61 (Murphy, by Samuel Beckett—1938). There have been some revelations on the list: two books that I had not read nor heard of I picked up at the library and read and liked (Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, an early feminist novel, 1926; and The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells, definitely not science fiction, 1910). Some choices I don’t think should be on the list (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, 1838; and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet, 1929—as good as these books are). Some I knew the author but not the work (Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, 1938). And some I’ve never heard of the author nor title (Hadrian the Seventh by Frederick Rolfe, 1904; and New Grub Street by George Gissing, 1891). But some authors I knew would make the list; one of those is Charles Dickens. The question was which book would McCrum choose?
Dickens came in at #15. I fully expected the chosen novel to be Great Expectations, a book I have read and taught many times and consider the best of Dickens’s work (although I admit I haven’t read every single Dickens’s novel). Somewhat to my surprise, McCrum chose David Copperfield. In his essay (he has one for each selection: (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/30/david-copperfield-dickens-100-best-novels), he anticipates “howls of rage” that one of Dickens’s other books wasn’t selected. I didn’t howl—it is, after all, one man’s selection—but I was perplexed. To decide for myself, as honestly as possible, I just reread David Copperfield.
In terms of plot, Great Expectations is clearly superior; David Copperfield has virtually no plot: it’s simply the story of one man and the problems he encounters growing up; there are conflicts, of course, but David moves forward through his life eventually facing and solving them all. But this is a catalog of events, not a plot. Great Expectations has a complex and ultimately satisfying plot.
Those plot coincidences Dickens has been much criticized for are found in both novels. I suppose that the fact that Dickens considered David Copperfield his favorite novel should count for something, but, frankly, not that much; it’s we, the readers in the 21st century who must make that decision. In David Copperfield Dickens develops his major character in greater depth, helped, no doubt, by the novel’s autobiographical nature; but Pip in Great Expectations is a fully rounded character, too. Both books are filled with memorable characters, David Copperfield perhaps more so: the delightful Mr. Micawber, the dastardly Uriah Heep, and the pesky but ultimately lovable Aunt Betsy. But Great Expectations gave us Miss Havisham, surely one of the most memorable characters ever to grace the pages of English literature.
So it comes down to personal preference. And I’m sticking with my choice for best Dickens novel: Great Expectations. Feel free to argue with me!
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