David Copperfield
David Copperfield is a novel by Charles Dickens. Like his other novels, it first came out as a series in a magazine under the title The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery.[1]
The story is told in the first person. Some of the greatest Dickens characters appear in the novel, such as the evil clerk Uriah Heep. Other villains in David's life are his brutal stepfather, Edward Murdstone, and Mr. Creakle, the headmaster of the boarding school that Murdstone sends him to.
The evil characters are balanced by the good characters, such as Peggotty – the faithful servant of the Copperfield family and a lifelong companion to David. Others include David's aunt Betsy Trotwood and her friend Mr. Dick. Agnes Wickfield is a close friend of David since childhood, and later becomes David's second wife and mother of their children. Mr. Micawber is a gentle and friendly man who goes to debtors' prison, but in the end makes a success as a sheep farmer in Australia. He is based on Dickens's own father.[2]
David Copperfield Media
The England of David Copperfield.
Illustration of David falling in love with Dora Spenlow, by Frank Reynolds
David and Emily on the beach at Yarmouth, by Harold Copping.
Charles Dickens in 1850
Title page of the first edition by Bradbury & Evans, signed by Dickens
Sudden arrival at the Peggotty home; by Phiz
The Wanderer, Mr Peggotty talks to David as Martha overhears, by Phiz.
Mr Peggotty finds young Emily, by Phiz.
David reaches Canterbury, from David Copperfield, by Frank Reynolds
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References
- ↑ Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see "Titles, Titling, and Entitlement to", by Hazard Adams in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 7–21
- ↑ Barry Westburg 1977. The confessional fictions of Charles Dickens. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. See pages 33 to 114
