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David Copperfield took me the longest time to get through—three days of on-and-off reading—largely because of how heartbreaking the story is. It is brilliantly painful. I feel that Dickens uses his stories as a "Trojan horse," a canvas to paint a brutally honest picture of what life was like for young boys in the 1800s, marked by poverty and pain. I read it twice because it took time for me to truly connect with the character. To fully understand the story, you need to imagine yourself as David, seeing the world through his eyes—watching your mother suffer at the hands of your stepfather, and enduring the beatings yourself. His act of defiance, biting Mr. Murdstone’s hand, was the best he could do as a child. This act led to his being sent off to boarding school, which was difficult to adjust to but ultimately paved the way for his higher education and the people he met along the way. I think this mirrors real life: you do the best you can with the knowledge you have until you reach a better place. Although the "better place" may not be as perfect as you imagined, it’s infinitely better than the past you’ve left behind. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to experience the journey from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, and feel the grief, sorrow, love, and comfort within its pages.