Dickens wrote of David Copperfield: ’Of all my books I like this the best" Millions of readers in almost every language on earth have subsequently come to share the author’s own enthusiasm for this greatly loved classic, possibly because of its autobiographical form. Following the life of David through many sufferings and great adversity, the reader will also find many light-hearted moments in the company of a host of English fiction’s greatest stars including Mr Micawber, Traddles, Uriah Heep, Creakle, Betsy Trotwood, and the Peggotty family.
Few readers, arriving at the end of David Copperfield, will not wish to echo Thackeray’s famous praise, having read the first monthly part - ’Bravo Dickens’.
Reading or hearing the words ’David Copperfield’ today conjures up three different images of what those words denote. They might refer to the title of Charles Dickens’s novel, they might signify the eponymous protagonist of that novel, or they might designate our own contemporary, the magician David Copperfield. Dickens enjoyed popular entertainments such as conjuring and the circus and later in his own career gave public readings which held audiences spellbound by his own word-based form of stage ’magic,’ but these three possible referents - novel, character and magician - have added parallels. All are involved in acts of transformation and with making those who watch or read suspend disbelief and enter into the illusions they create...
INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
I Am Born
I Observe
I Have a Change
I Fall into Disgrace
I Am Sent Away from Home
I Enlarge My Circle of Acquaintance
My ’First Half at Salem House
My Holidays: Especially One Happy Afternoon
I Have a Memorable Birthday
I Become Neglected, and Am Provided For
I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don’t Like It
Liking Life on My Own Account No Better, I Form a Great Resolution
The Sequd of My Resolution
My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me
I Make Another Beginning
I Am a New Boy in More Senses than One
Somebody Turns Up
A Retrospect
I Look About Me, and Make a Discovery
Steerforth’s Home
Little Em’ly
Some Old Scenes, and Some New People
I Corroborate Mr Dick, and Choose a Profession
My First Dissipation
Good and Bad Angels
I Fall into Captivity
Tommy Traddles
Mr Micawber’s Gauntlet
I Visit Steerfortb at His Home Again
A Loss
A Greater Loss
The Beginning of a Long Journey
Blissful
My Aunt Astonisbes Me
Depression
Enthusiasm
A Little Cold Water
A Dissolution of Partnership
Wickfield and Heep
The wanderer
Dora’s Aunts
Mischief
Another Retrospect
Our Housekeeping
Mr Dick Fulfils my Aunt’s Predictions
Intelligence
Martba
Domestic
I Am Involved in Mystery
Mr Peggotty’s Dream Comes True
The Beginning of a Longer Journey
I Assist at an Explosion
Another Retrospect
Mr Micawber’ s Transactions
Tempest
The New Wound, and the Old
The Emigrants
Absence
Return
Agnes
I Am Shown Two Interesting Penitents
A Light’Shines on My Way
A Visitor
A Last Retrospect
NOTES
