This is the book that I keep coming back to. It is such a beautiful book to read, as are most of Charles Dickens novels. However David Copperfield is full of memorable characters. An unforgettable experience through David's life.

If I had to pick a book to bring to a desert island, it would be this. My first Dickens novel. I had no expectations going into it, in fact, my impression of Dickens was that he was a bit childish, dull, slow and dense - and all this turned out wrong. I was immediately engaged and couldn’t wait to come home from work to read it, something I have not experienced in a long time. I’d say the first half is better than the second, with the first half easily being one of the greatest things I’ve ever read. Dickens is a masterful writer, and his prose in some places is some of the most beautiful I’ve come across. Prose is very much so a beautiful, aesthetic thing that very few writers manage to scrape the surface of. But Dickens writes beautifully, it is rich and heartfelt and this kind of writing is so often missing in modern fiction. There are some scenes that are so vivid and powerful that stay with you for so long after, I can still feel and see some of them in my head. Dickens has so much humanity and a real love for people and integrity. The novel is not dandy all the way through, this is a sorrowful novel, and definitely one of Dickens more darker works. But his strength is balancing the melancholy moments, of which the novel has many, with more comedic, heartwarming moments which really make you root for the characters and feel a sort of love towards humanity - and laugh out loud, which I did! Dickens really has exhausted the reader of every emotion, and that made it a very unique reading experience, and a worthy one too. What more is there to say? Dickens is a master, and one of the very best. I love him after this, as if he is my friend, that he is comforting and that all the while, I could feel him in the pages, behind David’s voice, thinking of his characters and writing them into existence. It is a slow read, but not one you resent, and its slowness and passage of time only makes you feel closer to it.

There's nothing nicer than a thick Penguin classic to curl up with at the weekend and this one comes with an appendix to help you compare Dickens' own life with that of David Copperfield. If you want to escape into another world (and yet one that continually casts light on your own life), then Dickens will deliver.