Took day off. Went to coffee shop to try to get some reading done. Two more chapters in before I got too cold from the air conditioning and wandered home. David recalls early childhood memories of Peggotty and his mother. He was happy. Then his mother began to spend time with a man, Mr. Murdstone. David goes away with Peggotty to visit her brother in Yarmouth for a fortnight. He lives in an old, land-locked boat, with two children, Ham and Emily (adopted after his two brothers died at sea and the children were left orphaned) and a Mrs. Gummidge, widowed by the sea. David falls in love with Emily. He is happy there. Longs for his mother and home only when he and Peggotty get in the cart to return. Everything is strange. No one comes out to meet them when they arrive. Peggotty takes him into the kitchen and tells him that he has a new father: the slick jackwagon, Mr. Murdstone. Everything has changed in an instant, the joy of childhood with his mother, shattered.
Watched a DVD of "The Famous Authors Series: Charles Dickens." Gives a brief overview of his biography, he began writing at age 20 and died at 58, wrote continually, and fairly prolifically during those 38 years. Also has a little about his novels, producers seem to be quite taken with "the Pickwick Papers." Maybe I will read it next. Oh, that reminds me, I'm due for my first renewal, and I'm only on page 45.
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