David Copperfield

David Copperfield lived happily with this young, pretty mother and their servant, Peggoty. But then his mother married again. His new father, Mr Murdstone, treated David very badly. He sent David to work in a factory in London when he was ten years old. Finally, he ran away to his strange, eccentric aunt who hated boys! What happened to David after that, as he grew into a young man, fell in love and met an old schoolfriend?

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth. Later, his parents moved to London and to Chatham in Kent. When he was a boy his life was difficult but as an adult Dickens had an international reputation as a great writer.

Dickens Called David Copperfield ‘my favourite child’. He considered it his favourite novel. It is easy to understand this. David’s story is similar to Charles Dickens’s life.
Like David, Dickens worked as a young boy in a factory, then earned money by reporting the debates in parliament. He later became a popular author. Like David’s friend, Mr Micawber, Dickens’s father went to prison because he owed money. David’s initials, D.C., are the reverse of C.D., Charles Dickens. David is a mirror reflection of the author.

David Copperfield is typical of all his work. Dickens understood children and created many famous child characters. Young David Copperfield is one of these.

Dickens knew and loved London and small towns like Canterbury and Yarmouth, the three places where the main action takes place. He criticizes the unjust things in society, such as cruel boarding schools and child labour. There are comic characters in David Copperfield like Mr Micawber who always owes money. Above all, Dickens hated hypocrites, people who pretended to be good but were not. One of the novel’s characters, Uriah Heep, is possibly the greatest hypocrite in all Dickens’s work.

Dickens lived at the time of Queen Victoria, when Britain was a very rich, powerful nation. However, there was a very big difference between the living conditions of the rich and the poor. Dickens in his novels is always on the side of the poor. He creates characters who are good to others like Aunt Betsey, Traddles and Agnes, in this story. He believed that it was possible to reform society if people were more compassionate.

Part 1 - My Mother, Peggoty and Me

Part 2 - Mr Murdstone

Part 3 - Aunt Betsey

Part 4 - Mr Wickfield, Agnes and Uriah

Part 5 - Doctors’ Commons

Part 6 - Little Emily

Part 7 - Dora

Part 8 - Uriah Heep

Part 9 - Doctor Strong and Annie

Part 10 - Mr Peggoty

Part 11 - Mr Micawber

Part 12 - Agnes