David Copperfield
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First published in monthly instalments between 1849 and 1850, Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield traces the life of its eponymous hero from a difficult childhood to the uncertainties of adulthood. After the death of his mother and the cruelty of his stepfather, David escapes into a wider world populated by unforgettable figures, from the irrepressible Mr Micawber and formidable Betsey Trotwood to the calculating Uriah Heep and the charming, unreliable Steerforth. Drawing on Dickens’s own early experiences, the novel moves through schools, workplaces, boarding houses and the streets of Victorian England, charting the making of a writer and the gradual discovery of his place in the world.
Dickens considered David Copperfield his favourite among his novels, and its first-person narrative gives it an intimacy that distinguishes it from much of his other work. Beneath its humour and exuberant cast of characters lie serious reflections on childhood, class, memory, ambition and the lasting effects of neglect. Both a richly observed portrait of Victorian society and a landmark of the coming-of-age novel, it remains one of Dickens’s most personal and enduring works.
From the book
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”
— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
On David Copperfield
“Of all my books, I like this the best.”
— Charles Dickens, Preface to David Copperfield