【Dickens David Copperfield. A Titan !!】 If you have ever considered reading "David" you will already be aware that it is of formidable length. More than eight hundred tight packed pages in the edition that I have just got through. No small endeavor and you will really have little chance to indulge in reading anything else while you are at it, as it is quite absorbing enough to hold your attention and occupy your free time once you get going with it. Set in early Victorian England this is the entire life story from birth to adulthood of one man. Whilst it is essentially impossible to distill the telling of a man's entire life into a few sentences, I will attempt to give you the briefest synopsis of the significant twists and turns of this life... …..ah, see how fickle I am, I see that I am not going to do that after all. I sat here for ages trying in my early drafts of this review to give you all those details that make the story individual.. In the style of writing, almost the entire novel is in the first person, a telling back narrative of the events as they unfolded. For the briefest of moments here and there, Dickens breaks out of this style and suddenly we are hearing the reflections of David Copperfield in his present moment, reflecting on how the event he is about to relate has so deeply colored his entire life, how the memory of it feels to him as he brings its recollection into focus before relating it to us. These moments, and this writing style have enormous power. I can only wonder how long it took to write before the invention of the typewriter.***** The last word be reserved for the opening sentence of the novel:"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by someone else, these pages must show". The "hero" of David's life could be David himself, or maybe Betsy Trotwood or Agnes or even Steerforth. George Orwell was an avid reader of Dickens. Maybe I'll read "Oliver Twist" next.