charles dickens david copperfield first edition

Her brother, fisherman Mr Peggotty, lives in a beached barge, with his adopted niece and nephew Emily and Ham, and an elderly widow, Mrs Gummidge. To get him out of the way, David is sent to visit with Peggotty's family in Yarmouth.

When he is seven years old his mother marries Edward Murdstone without having told him they plan to marry. David spends his early years in relative happiness with his loving, childish mother and their kindly housekeeper, Clara Peggotty. David was born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, England, six months after the death of his father. The story follows the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity. These include the plight of prostitutes, the status of women in marriage, class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools, and the employment of children in factories. The novel has a primary theme of growth and change, but Dickens also satirises many aspects of Victorian life. Some aspects of the story were fixed in his mind from the start, but others were undecided until the serial publications were underway. ĭickens wrote without an outline, unlike his previous novel, Dombey and Son. It begins, like other novels by Dickens, with a bleak picture of childhood in Victorian England, followed by young Copperfield's slow social ascent, as he painfully provides for his aunt, while continuing his studies. Īt first glance, the work is modelled on 18th-century 'personal histories' that were very popular, like Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews or Tom Jones, but David Copperfield is a more carefully structured work. Called 'the triumph of the art of Dickens', it marks a turning point in his work, separating the novels of youth and those of maturity. Of the books he wrote, it was his favourite. It was first published as a serial in 18 and as a book in 1850.ĭavid Copperfield is also an autobiographical novel: 'a very complicated weaving of truth and invention', with events following Dickens's own life. Serialised May 1849 – November 1850 book format 1850ĭavid Copperfield is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to maturity.

Charles dickens david copperfield first edition