"My aunt, with every sort of expression but wonder discharged from her countenance, sat on the gravel, staring at me."

This is David Copperfield, introducing himself to his aunt, explaining his hard-luck life and how she's all he has left.

Did it ever occur to anyone that young Trot here might be a con artist? Or is that just me?

I love that line, though, and the Bowie knife Aunt Betsey has. He gives her any grief and she'll run him through.

If he saw the movie, my grandfather would have imagined Betsey as Edna May Oliver who fit the tart-spinster imagery perfectly. She died in 1942, three years before this text came out.

In 2000 the man and boy hating character was played by Sally Field, who was born in 1946, the year after this book was published. Different interpretations, I'm sure. And I'd bet my grandfather would have had a difficult time picturing Gidget in the role.

Next | More Books | Home