David Copperfield

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 891 pages

Presented as the life story of David Copperfield, this sizeable tome follows our protagonist through his life's many experiences (not sure I'd go so far as to call them adventures), and his interactions with many vibrant characters. These characters — especially his great aunt Betsy Trotwood, his wife Dora, the amoral Steerforth, and the villainous Uriah Heep — are excellently drawn, and make the book worth reading. David and the much-adored angelic Agnes are some of the blandest characters I've ever read, and the plot doesn't really move too much. But when Dickens' secondary characters appear, that's when the reading is good. I don't know that I would have read this if it wasn't our Big Book for this summer, but I'm glad I did read it.