{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/679c3267811ecd43a9f19b7a/67b93acbc665638d478414ac?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Self-Help, dodgy marriages and the siren call of Australia: David Copperfield Part 2","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/679c3267811ecd43a9f19b7a/1743775570673-647935fa-a724-44ae-92f9-b09acd3f2398.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>In Part 2 of David Copperfield, we pick up David where we left him, sobbing at the door of Betsey Trotwood’s house in Dover. From this low, David’s life changes - he is no longer a victim, but embarks on a (very long) journey towards self-reliance, re-encountering old friends like Micawbers and Steerforth, but also new characters like Uriah Heep and the simpering Dora.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>To make sense of this long, rambling journey of redemption, Sophie and Jonty reveal the influence of the emerging self-help movement on Dickens’ world-view and how his side-hustle as the director of a Home for Homeless Women inspired him to send many of the characters in David Copperfield off to Australia at the end of the book - and the inevitable happy ending this suggests.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>BOOKS MENTIONED OR USED AS SOURCES:&nbsp;</p><p>Charles Dickens: A Life (2011) by Claire Tomalin&nbsp;</p><p>Self-Reliance (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson&nbsp;</p><p>Self-Help (1859) by Samuel Smiles&nbsp;</p><p>1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals (1944) by Lewis Namier&nbsp;</p><p>Demon Copperhead (2022) by Barbara Kingsolver</p><p>Rivals (1988) by Jilly Cooper</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole"}