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David Copperfield or The
Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David
Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which he never
meant to publish on any account) is a
novel by Charles
Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his
works, it originally appeared in serial form a year earlier. Many
elements within the novel follow events in Dickens' own life, and
it is probably the most autobiographical of all of his novels. In the
preface to the 1867 Charles Dickens edition, he wrote, "… like many
fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And
his name is David Copperfield." 
The story deals with the life of David Copperfield from
childhood to maturity. David is born in England in about 1820.
David's father had died six months before he was born, and seven
years later, his mother marries Mr Edward Murdstone. David is given good
reason to dislike his stepfather and has similar feelings for Mr
Murdstone's sister Jane, who moves into the house soon afterwards.
Mr Murdstone thrashes David for falling behind with his studies.
Following one of these thrashings, David bites him and is sent away
to a boarding school, Salem House, with a ruthless headmaster, Mr.
Creakle. Here he befriends James Steerforth and Tommy Traddles,
both of whom he meets again later on.
David returns home for the holidays to find out that his mother
has had a baby boy. Soon after David goes back to Salem House, his
mother and her baby die and David has to return home immediately.
Mr Murdstone sends him to work in a factory in London, of which
Murdstone is a joint owner. The grim reality of hand-to-mouth
factory existence echoes Dickens' own travails in a blacking
factory. His landlord, Mr Wilkins Micawber, is sent to a
debtor's prison (the King's Bench Prison) after going bankrupt, and
is there for several months before being released and moving to
Plymouth. David now has nobody left to care for him in London, and
decides to run away.
He walks all the way from London to Dover, to find his only relative, his aunt Miss
Betsey. His eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood agrees to bring him up,
despite Mr Murdstone visiting in a bid to regain custody of David.
David's aunt renames him 'Trotwood Copperfield', soon shortened to
"Trot", and for the rest of the novel he is called by either name,
depending on whether he is communicating with someone he has known
for a long time, or someone he has only recently met.
The story follows David as he grows to adulthood, and is
enlivened by the many well-known characters who enter, leave and
re-enter his life. These include Peggotty, his faithful former housekeeper for
his mother, her family, and their orphaned niece Little Em'ly who
lives with them and charms the young David. David's romantic but
self-serving schoolfriend, Steerforth, seduces and dishonors Little
Emily, triggering the novel's greatest tragedy; and his landlord's
daughter and ideal "angel in the house," Agnes Wickfield, becomes
his confidante. The two most familiar characters are David's
sometime mentor, the constantly debt-ridden Mr Wilkins Micawber,
and the devious and fraudulent clerk, Uriah Heep, whose misdeeds are eventually
discovered with Micawber's assistance. Micawber is painted as a
sympathetic character, even as the author deplores his financial
ineptitude; and Micawber, like Dickens's own father, is briefly
imprisoned for insolvency.
In typical Dickens fashion, the major characters get some
measure of what they deserve, and few narrative threads are left
hanging. Dan Peggotty safely transports Little Em'ly to a new life
accompanying these two central characters are Mrs. Gummidge and the
Micawbers. Everybody involved finally finds security and happiness
in their new lives in Australia. David first marries the beautiful
but naïve Dora
Spenlow, but she dies after failing to recover from a
miscarriage early in their marriage. David then does some
soul-searching and eventually marries and finds true happiness with
the sensible Agnes, who had secretly always loved him. They have
several children, including a daughter named in honor of Betsey
The story is told almost entirely from the point of view of the
first person narrator, David Copperfield himself, and was the first
Dickens novel to do so.
Critically, it is considered a Bildungsroman, i.e., a
novel of self-cultivation, and would be influential in the genre
which included Dickens's own Great Expectations (1861), Charlotte
Eyre, published only two years prior, Thomas Hardy's Jude the
Obscure, Samuel Butler's The Way
of All Flesh, H. G. Wells's Tono-Bungay, D. H. Lawrence's Sons and
Lovers, and James Joyce's A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man.
Dickens as the best of all English novelists, and considered
Copperfield to be his finest work, ranking the "Tempest"
chapter (chapter 55, LV - the story of Ham and the storm and the
shipwreck) the standard by which the world's great fiction should
be judged. Henry
James remembered hiding under a small table as a boy to hear
instalments read by his mother. Dostoyevsky read it enthralled in a
Siberian prison camp. Franz Kafka called his
first book Amerika a
"sheer imitation". James Joyce paid it reverence through parody in
Ulysses. Virginia Woolf,
who normally had little regard for Dickens, confessed the
durability of this one novel, belonging to "the memories and myths
of life". It was Freud's favourite novel.
Characters in David
Copperfield – An optimistic, diligent, and persevering
character, he is the protagonist. He is later called "Trotwood
Copperfield" by some ("David Copperfield" is also the name of the
hero's father, who dies before David is born). He has many
nicknames: James Steerforth nicknames him "Daisy", Dora calls him
"Doady", and his aunt refers to him, as a reference to his would-be
sister (if he had been born a girl), in and on "Trot" - as in
Betsey Trotwood Copperfield.
- Clara Copperfield – David's kind mother,
described as being innocently childish, who dies while David is at
Salem House. She dies just after the birth of her second child, who
dies along with her.
- Peggotty – The faithful servant of
the Copperfield family and a lifelong companion to David (referred
to at times as Mrs. Barkis after her marriage to Mr. Barkis).
Inherits £3,000—a large sum in the mid-19th century—when Mr. Barkis
dies. After his death, she becomes Betsey Trotwood's servant.
- Betsey Trotwood – David's
eccentric and temperamental yet kindhearted great-aunt; she becomes
his guardian after he runs away from Grinby and Murdstone's
warehouse in Blackfriars (London). She is
present on the night of David's birth but leaves after hearing that
Clara Copperfield's child is a boy instead of a girl.
- Mr. Chillip – A shy doctor who assists at
David's birth and faces the wrath of Betsey Trotwood after he
informs her that Clara's baby is a boy instead of a girl.
- Mr. Barkis – An aloof carter who declares his
intention to marry Peggotty. He says to David: "Tell her, 'Barkis
is willin'!' Just so." He is a bit of a miser, and hides his
surprisingly vast liquid wealth in a plain box labeled "Old
Clothes". He bequeaths to his wife the then astronomical sum of
£3,000 when he dies about ten years later.
- Edward Murdstone – Young
David's cruel stepfather, who canes him for falling behind in his
studies. David reacts by biting Mr Murdstone, who then sends him to
Salem House, the private school owned by his friend Mr. Creakle.
After David's mother dies, Mr Murdstone sends him to work in a
factory, where he has to clean wine bottles. He appears at Betsey
Trotwood's house after David runs away. Mr Murdstone appears to
show signs of repentance when confronted with Copperfield's aunt,
but later in the book we hear he has married another young woman
and applied his old principles of "firmness."
- Jane Murdstone – Mr. Murdstone's equally cruel
sister, who moves into the Copperfield house after Mr. Murdstone
marries Clara Copperfield. She is the "Confidential Friend" of
David's first wife, Dora Spenlow, and encourages many of the
problems that occur between David Copperfield and Dora's father,
Mr. Spenlow. Later, she rejoins her brother and his new wife in a
relationship very much like the one they had with David's
- Daniel Peggotty – Peggotty's brother; a humble
but generous Yarmouth fisherman who takes his nephew Ham and niece
Emily into his custody after each of them has been orphaned. After
Emily's departure, he travels around the world in search of her. He
eventually finds her in London, and after that they emigrate to
- Emily (Little Em'ly) – A niece of Mr.
Peggotty. She is a childhood friend of David Copperfield, who loves
her in his childhood days. She leaves her cousin and fiancé, Ham,
for Steerforth, but returns after Steerforth deserts her. She
emigrates to Australia with Mr. Peggotty after being rescued from a
- Ham Peggotty – A good-natured nephew of Mr.
Peggotty and the fiancé of Emily before she leaves him for
Steerforth. He later loses his life while attempting to rescue a
sailor, who happens to be Steerforth, from a shipwreck. His death
is hidden from his family due to the fact that David does not want
them to worry on the brink of their journey.
- Mrs. Gummidge – The widow of Daniel Peggotty's
partner in a boat. She is a self-described "lone, lorn creetur" who
spends much of her time pining for "the old 'un" (her late
husband). After Emily runs away from home with Steerforth, she
changes her attitude to better comfort everyone around her and
tries to be very caring and motherly. She too emigrates to
Australia with Dan and the rest of the surviving family.
- Martha Endell – A young woman of a bad
reputation who helps Daniel Peggotty find his niece after she
returns to London. She has worked as a prostitute, and been
victim to the idea of suicide.
- Mr. Creakle – The harsh headmaster of young
David's boarding school, who is assisted by Tungay. Mr. Creakle is
a friend of Mr. Murdstone. He singles out David for extra torment.
Later he becomes a Middlesex magistrate, and is considered
enlightened for his day.
"I am married". Etching by Phiz
- James Steerforth – A close
friend of David, he is of a romantic and charming disposition and
has known David ever since his first days at Salem House. Although
well-liked by most, he proves himself to be lacking in character by
seducing and later abandoning Little Em'ly. He eventually drowns at
Yarmouth with Ham Peggotty, who had been trying to rescue him.
- Tommy Traddles – David's friend from Salem
House. They meet again later and become eventual lifelong friends.
Traddles works hard but faces great obstacles because of his lack
of money and connections. He eventually succeeds in making a name
and a career for himself.
- Wilkins Micawber – A gentle
man who befriends David as a young boy. He suffers from much
financial difficulty and even has to spend time in a debtor's
prison. Eventually he emigrates to Australia where he enjoys a
successful career as a magistrate. He is based on Dickens' father,
- Mr. Dick (Richard Babley) – A slightly
deranged, rather childish but amiable man who lives with Betsey
Trotwood. His madness is amply described in as much as that he
claims to have the "trouble" of King Charles I in his head.
- Dr. Strong – The headmaster of David's
Canterbury school, whom he visits on various occasions.
- Anne Strong – The young wife of Dr. Strong.
Although she remains loyal to him, she fears that he suspects that
she is involved in an affair with Jack Maldon.
- Jack Maldon – A cousin and childhood
sweetheart of Anne Strong. He continues to bear affection for her
and tries to seduce her into leaving Dr. Strong.
- Mr. Wickfield – The father of Agnes Wickfield
and lawyer to Betsey Trotwood. He is prone to alcoholism.
- Agnes Wickfield – Mr. Wickfield's mature and
lovely daughter and close friend of David since childhood. She
later becomes David's second wife and mother of their
Heep – A wicked young man who serves as partner to Mr.
Wickfield. He is finally discovered to have stolen money and is
imprisoned as a punishment. He always talks of being "'umble"
(humble) and nurtures a deep hatred of David Copperfield and many
- Mrs. Steerforth – The wealthy widowed mother
of James Steerforth. She herself is incredibly like her son.
- Miss Dartle – A strange, vitriolic woman who
lives with Mrs. Steerforth. She has a secret love for Steerforth
and blames others such as Emily and even Steerforth's own mother
for corrupting him. She is described as being extremely skinny and
displays a visible scar on her lip caused by Steerforth. She is
also Steerforth's cousin.
- Mr. Spenlow – An employer of David's during
his days as a proctor and
the father of Dora Spenlow. He dies suddenly of a heart attack
while driving his phaeton home.
Spenlow – The adorable but foolish daughter of Mr.
Spenlow who becomes David's first wife. She is described as being
impractical and with many similarities to David's mother. She dies
of illness on the same day as her dog, Jip.
- Mr.Sharp – He was the chief teacher of Salem
House and had more authority than Mr.Mell.He looked weak,both in
health and character;his head seemed to be very heavy for him:he
walked on one side.He had a big nose.
- Mr.Mell – A tall, thin young man with hollow
cheeks.His hair was dusty and dry too,with rather short sleeves and
Film, TV, and
David Copperfield has been filmed on several
- 1911, directed by Theodore Marston
- 1922, directed by A.W. Sandberg
- 1935, directed by George Cukor
- 1974, directed by Joan Craft
- 1986, directed by Barry Letts, shown on BBC 1986/87
- 1999, shown on BBC -
25/26 December 1999
- 2000, directed by Peter Medak
- David Copperfield (2006), play adaptation. Shown in
- 2010, currently under production
The numerous television adaptations of the novel include a 1966
version with Ian
McKellen as David and a 1999 version with Daniel
Radcliffe (of the Harry Potter film
series) playing the younger David and Ciaran McMenamin as the older David. In
this latter version, McKellen returns, this time playing the
horrendous schoolmaster Creakle. There was a musical animated
version in 1993, where the cast was animorphic animals (not unlike
Disney's Robin Hood) and starred Julian Lennon as the voice of David (a
cat). A 2000 American TV film version featured Sally Field, Anthony
Bettany, Edward Hardwicke, Michael
Richards and Nigel Davenport with Hugh Dancy and Max Dolbey
as the adult and boy Copperfield, respectively.
A play adaptation by Andrew Halliday was warmly approved by
Dickens himself, and enjoyed a long run at Drury Lane. The novel was adapted for the
unsuccessful musical Copperfield in 1981.
Like most of Charles Dickens's novels, David
Copperfield was published in 19 monthly one-shilling
instalments, containing 32 pages of text and two illustrations by
Knight Browne ("Phiz"), with the last being a
- I - May 1849 (chapters 1-3);
- II - June 1849 (chapters 4-6);
- III - July 1849 (chapters 7-9);
- IV - August 1849 (chapters 10-12);
- V - September 1849 (chapters 13-15);
- VI - October 1849 (chapters 16-18);
- VII - November 1849 (chapters 19-21);
- VIII - December 1849 (chapters 22-24);
- IX - January 1850 (chapters 25-27);
- X - February 1850 (chapters 28-31);
- XI - March 1850 (chapters 32-34);
- XII - April 1850 (chapters 35-37);
- XIII - May 1850 (chapters 38-40);
- XIV - June 1850 (chapters 41-43);
- XV - July 1850 (chapters 44-46);
- XVI - August 1850 (chapters 47-50);
- XVII - September 1850 (chapters 51-53);
- XVIII - October 1850 (chapters 54-57);
- XIX-XX - November 1850 (chapters 58-64).
- 1850, UK, Bradbury & Evans ?, Pub date 1 May 1849 and
1 November 1850, Serial (first publication as serial)
- 1850, UK, Bradbury & Evans ?, Pub date ? ?
1850, Hardback (first book edition)
- 1981 (Reprinted 2003) UK, Oxford University Press ISBN
0-19-812492-9 Hardback, Edited by Nina Burgis, The Clarendon
Dickens (considered the definitive editions of Dickens's works) 781
- 1990, USA, W W Norton & Co Ltd ISBN 0-393-95828-0, Pub date
31 January 1990, Hardback (Jerome H. Buckley (Editor), Norton
Critical Edition - contains annotations, introduction, critical
essays, bibliography and other material.)
- 1994, UK, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0-14-062026-5, Pub date 24
February 1994, Paperback
- 1999, UK, Oxford Paperbacks ISBN 0-19-283578-5, Pub date 11
February 1999, Paperback
- and many many others
- Jeffers, Thomas L. (2005).
Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to
Santayana. New York: Palgrave.
- David Copperfield (Major Literary Characters series). Edited
and with an Introduction by Harold Bloom. 255 pages. 1992 New York:
Chelsea House Publishers
- Graham Storey: David Copperfield - Interweaving Truth and
Fiction (Twayne's Masterworks Studies). 111 pages. 1991 Boston:
- Approaches to Teaching Dickens' David Copperfield. Edited by
Richard J. Dunn. 162 pages. 1984 New York: The Modern Language
Association of America
- Barry Westburg: The Confessional Fictions of Charles Dickens.
See pages 33 to 114. 1977 DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press
- Catcher in The Rye, J.D. Salinger; Penguin 1951
- Black Books -TV Series/DVD - Assembly Film and
Television/Channel 4, 2002; Episode 2, Series 1 - 'Manny's First
|Works by Charles
|Sunday Under Three Heads
(1836) · The Lamplighter
(1838) · A Child's Dream of a Star
(1850) · Captain
Murderer · The Long Voyage
(1853) · The Lazy Tour of Two Idle
Apprentices (1857) (with Wilkie
Collins) · Hunted Down
(1859) · The Signal-Man
(1866) · George Silverman's Explanation
(1868) · Holiday Romance
|Christmas short stories
A Christmas Tree
(1850) · What Christmas is, as We Grow
Older (1851) · The Poor Relation's Story
(1852) · The Child's Story
(1852) · The Schoolboy's Story
(1853) · Nobody's Story
(1853) · Going into Society
(1858) · Somebody's Luggage
(1862) · Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings
(1863) · Mrs Lirriper's Legacy
(1864) · Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions
|Short story collections
|Poetry & plays
Household Words: The Seven Poor
(1854) (with Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Proctor,
George Sala and Eliza Linton) · The Holly-tree Inn
(1855) · (with Wilkie Collins, William Howitt,
Harriet Parr, and Adelaide Procter) ·
The Wreck of the Golden
Mary (1856) (with Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Proctor, Harriet
Parr, Percy Fitzgerald and Rev. James
White) · The Perils of Certain English
Prisoners (1857) (with Wilkie
Collins) · A House to Let (1858) (with Wilkie
Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Procter)
All the Year Round: The Haunted House (1859)
(with Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Adelaide Procter, George
Sala, and Hesba Stretton) · A Message from the Sea
(1860) (with Wilkie Collins, Robert Buchanan, Charles Allston
Collins, Amelia Edwards, and Harriet
Parr) · Tom Tiddler's Ground (1861)
(with Wilkie Collins, John Harwood, Charles Allston Collins, and
Amelia Edwards) · The Trial for Murder (1865)
(with Charles Allston Collins) · Mugby Junction (1866) (with Andrew
Halliday, Charles Allston Collins, Hesba Stretton and Amelia
Edwards) · No Thoroughfare (1867) (with
|Articles & essays
|A Visit to Newgate
(1836) · Epitaph of Charles Irving
Thornton (1842) · In Memoriam W. M. Thackeray
(1850) · A Coal Miner's Evidence
(1850) · Frauds on the Fairies
(1853) · The Lost Arctic Voyagers