I have not read David Copperfield. This put me at a disadvantage yesterday afternoon, when I sat down to watch the second-ever film adaptation of Dickens’ novel, directed by Thomas Bentley. It is to Bentley’s discredit that I can say this; after all, a work of art should be able to stand on its own two feet. While this 1913 version of the story is coherent, at 67 minutes, it offers only brief snips of an involved tale, and little development of the men, women, and circumstances within.
