Discussing David Copperfield in Hope

The monthly book club meeting this month was at a member's home in Hope.  I only joined this group a year ago, so a relaxing weekend in Hope meant lots of time to talk and get to know more about the members I don't really know very well.  It also turned out that our host's wife in in the book club that my wife has been in for several years. 

The weather cooperated and we spent a lot of time on the deck, surrounded by bushes, trees, and a vegetable plot.  J and his wife began their Hope life (they mainly live in Anchorage) in the 70s and have added plots over the years and there are now a number of buildings - house, outhouse, storage sheds, wood shop, and even shared ownership of a sawmill.  While the original house was built for them, they have built most of the other buildings themselves.  They've recently acquired electricity, but the water comes from a well and there's no bathroom. 


 They've been watching a merlin family that nested nearby this summer.  We also saw a merlin last weekend in Bootlegger's Cover while on the garden tour.  These are small falcons eat small rodents and J said the swallow population is gone since the merlin's moved in.  


The mosquitoes weren't a problem at the house, but when we walked to the main street in the evening there were lots of mosquitoes flying over this puddle in the road. 

Discussing David Copperfield in the setting was rather interesting, because we also heard about the closeness of the community in Hope over the years, but also the feuds that are here too.  It was very similar to many of the stories in Copperfield. 

We had some attorneys so I read aloud a portion from the book, where David is writing with his new boss at the court system where he is apprenticing.  David asks his boss

. . . what he considered the best sort of professional business.  He replied, that a good case of a disputed will, where there was a neat little estate of thirty or forty thousand pounds, was perhaps, the best of all.  In such a case, he said, not only were there very pretty pickings, in the way of arguments at every stage of the proceedings, and mountains upon mountains of evidence on interrogatory and counter-interrogatory (to say nothing of an appeal lying, first to the Delegates, and then to the Lords); but, the costs being pretty sure to come out of the estate at last, both sides went at it in a lively and spirited manner, and expense was no consideration. 

One of the attorneys said he'd just turned down a will case the previous day and he knew of a case where, when it was all over, the only people with money were the attorneys.

Another thing we all noticed was the indirect way people speak.  It takes a while to figure out exactly what someone is saying.   It did occur to me that some of the masked speech is made by people of the lower classes, and in part, they speak like this because they are not really allowed to say what they think directly.  They have to hide it so that it seems that they are completely agreeing rather than challenging.  Here's Uriah Heep, talking to Copperfield about how he has moved up in station because his boss has not been taking care of his accounts.  Copperfield believes that Heep himself has been creating these problems himself.

"Oh! Yes, truly,"  said Uriah.  "Ah! great imprudence, Master Copperfield.  It's a topic that I wouldn't touch upon to any soul but you.  Even to you I can ony touch upon it, and no more.  If any one else had been in my place during the last few years, by this time he would have had Mr. Wickfield (oh, what a worthy man he is, Master Copperfield, too!) under his thumb.  Un-der-his thumb," said Uriah, very slowly, as he stretched out his cruel-looking hand above my table, and pressed his thumb down under it, until it shook, and shook the room.  .  .

"Oh dear, yes, Master Copperfield,"  he proceeded, in a soft voice, most remarkably contrasting with the action of his thumb, which did not diminish its hard pressure in the least degree;  "there's no doubt of it.  There would have been loss, disgrace.  I don't know what all.  Mr Wickfield knows it.  I am the umble instrument of umbly serving him:  and he puts me on an eminence I hardly could have hoped to reach  How thankful I should be!" 

It's really hard to pick out examples like this, because there is sooo much verbiage like this to wade through.  So much repetition.  Another person who puts her self down constantly as she pushes over the line of what might then have been considered further than she should go is a woman living with David's school friend Steerforth. 

"You have been a long time,"  she said, "without coming here.  Is your profession really so engaging and interesting as to absorb your whole attention?  I ask, because I always want to be informed when I am ignorant  Is it really, though?"

I replied that I like it well enough, but that I certainly could not claim so much for it.

"Oh! I am glad to know that, because I always like to be put right when I am wrong,"  said Rosa Dartle.  "You mean it is a little dry, perhaps?"

This sort of language makes Copperfield a bit of a challenge to plod through.  In his day, people were probably more used to it, plus, they read it in the newspaper in serial form.




I had never seen Hope so crowded.  There were people at the Seaview, music coming out from someone singing on the deck, and the parking lot at the end was totally full of campers.  Our host said that the pinks were running and so people were here.  We were told that Melissa Mitchell was singing that night.  A van did pull up and musicians got out.  I'm not sure if this is her or not.  I've looked online for pictures, but it's too hard to tell for sure, but after listening to her singing on the computer, I realize we should have stayed.  But we had a book to discuss. 




All in all, it was a very nice weekend.