David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (Read by Simon Vance), 1850
What a spectacular treat this has been throughout the 27 CD’s and 34 hours of narrating. Listened to entirely in the car over a period of 3 renewals and several breaks, Vance is a most entertaining reader of what has to be one of the most fun novels ever written. Copperfield narrates his life story from his birth in Blunderstone to ten years into his marriage with Agnes. Along the way we meet some of the most colorful characters in English literature: Uriah Heep, James Steerforth, Peggoty and Mr. Peggoty, Ham, and Little Emily, Agnes and Mr. Wickfield, Betsey Trottwood and Mr. Dick, Tom Trattles and Sophie, Mr. and Miss Murdstone, Martha, and on and on. This is simply a wonderful tale, told with great ardor, vigor, and humor (laughed out loud on many occasions, sitting alone in the car!) as well as pathos (I cried in the car when it ended!). Dickens ties it all together in a tidy package in the final chapter, but what a panoramic view of life and its joys and sorrows. Perhaps I still recall reading it in Junior High in River Forest, but it deeply touched me. Vance is a spectacular reader.