A Dickens Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving may be too early for Scrooge but is certainly a good time for Charles Dickens, especially if you have the chance to see The Personal History of David Copperfield. Director Armando Iannucci,who shares with Simon Blackwell the credit for screenplay, has said that he made David Copperfield's expression of thanksgiving for the characters in his life to be also the director's expression of thanksgiving for Dickens himself.

[Pictured, L to R: Hugh Laurie, kindly demented Mr. Dick, saved by words; Ben Whishaw, despicable Uriah Heep; Dev Patel, title role; Peter Capaldi, chipper con artist Mr. Micawber; Tilda Swinton, high-strung Betsy Trotwood, and, not pictured, Rosalind Eleazar as luminous Agnes.]

Dickens expressed special affection for the story of his eponymous alter-ego, with whom he shares initials, some elements of biography, and a love of words. Though I've not yet read Copperfield, I recognized favorite plot elements and themes from other novels by Dickens that I do know well (Twist, Two Cities, Expectations, Christmas Carol): naive boy, tyrant guardian, a struggle against poverty, time in a brutal work house, memorably despicable villains, and eccentrics galore.

Iannucci makes light work of the numerous twists in the plot, skipping ahead whenever the situation gets too dire. Whatever happens, we see Copperfield writing favorite phrases and descriptions of characters on scraps of paper that he treasures throughout his life, and these words ultimately save him, save a demented friend, and, through the books that he writes, bring him a fortune that he can share in gratitude for the characters who supported and inspired him.

This morning of Thanksgiving Day, I find the whole movie summed up in "The General Thanksgiving" (Episcopal Book of Common Prayer p. 836), which begins "Accept, O Lord, our thanks...":

...for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank your for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

I'll add only one very personal note of thanksgiving for Charles Dickens. When I was somewhere around age 8, for no reason I can think of, Mom told me of a paper she'd had to write in high school about humor in Dickens. Repelled by the poverty and casual cruelty in his stories, she complained to her steady boyfriend that the assignment made no sense. The young man, later my father, helped her to see in Dickens the deliciously snarky descriptions and the playfully apt names. The insight that you can find and enjoy humor even in dark places has leavened my life and my love of literature ever since.

Photo: I'm including this photo just because I'm thankful for this very happy dog Brandy. I took the selfie at the top of the stairs when I returned home from a two-day sojourn in Mississippi for my annual Thanksgiving bicycle ride with friend Jason.