David Copperfield

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Paul Scofield

"I am born" famously begins David Copperfield. However, this is a birth that is blighted by its timing: 12 o'clock on a Friday night at precisely the time the clock began to strike. Such untimeliness means that David was destined to be unlucky in life and would be privileged to see ghosts and spirits, a dubious privilege.

In David Copperfield, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are invoked in relation to a range of male characters and situations. David is haunted by the memories of people and places he's been before. It is in the character of Uriah Heep, however, and in David's perception of and relationship with him, when the story is at its most supernatural.

Public Domain (P)2005 Phoenix Books, Inc.

Sloppy editing

this recording by Paul Scofield is already an abbreviation of the entire novel, but this sloppy editing cuts pieces out willy nilly without any finesse whatsoever. what saves it is the incredible performance by Paul Scofield and of course the story itself.