David Copperfield (Unabridged‪)‬

Best book I’ve ever read or listened too. Unparalleled story and narration. It’s a masterpiece in my opinion made that much better by unbelievable narration with a multitude of consistent, spot-on character voices which, with astonishing realism - accounting for each character’s age, immediate surroundings, mood, class and past. It’s a story that has surely helped and will ever-more be a guide to help define what is meant by “a life well-lived” and how one is achieved. Through the first hand perspective of one person - from childhood to adult - it’s a recollection of the outward and inward experiences of this character (person) over a lifetime. Mr. Dickens weaves a masterfully intricate tale in which character development, from introductions and reintroductions to exits, is masterful. Mr. Dickens intertwines all the character’s lives - personal characteristics, physical environments, histories, hopes and dreams, private thoughts and conversations with such elegant writing at times that it feels like he’s painting watercolors with words. Unparralled. In this “watercolor of words for the mind”, Mr. Dickens gives incredible depth and meaning to this artwork by summoning so many of the qualities of human life - courage, fear, determination, luck, defeats, impatience, wrong turns, marital life, tragedies, happenstance, sacrifice, ambition, greed, friendship, beauty, betrayal, devotion, patience, tranquility, history, philosophy, blackmail, dignity, class & interclass-class friendships, competition and the inhumanity and harm of class systems (for everyone), misguided passions, love and peace and others - to develop multiple characters in 4D. All themes flow naturally in and out of the pages, are so perfectly mixed, balanced, introduced and ring true, that it almost seems to be an actual autobiography. What I found to be maybe be most surprising and warming, is Mr. Dickens’ use of timeless humorous circumstances sprinkled throughout the book.
I could go on and on but I sincerely believe “David Copperfield” to be at the apex of the humanity’s ability to communicate what it is to be human regardless of time, culture and worldview.
Too love and be loved, in all of it’s forms, is the greatest joy on Earth. “David Copperfield” is a guiding light towards that light for us all.
I recommend this book btw..

If Lon Chaney is "the man of a thousand faces" then Richard Armitage is "the man of a thousand voices". He gives each character variety in tone and rhythm, even the females, with his baritone voice. And his "Uriah Heep"...oh you just want to slap him! This is a great way to hear the story if you can't fathom reading the book. I may just read the book after all!