David Copperfield

David Copperfield is Charles Dickens's eighth novel, serialised in monthly instalments from May 1849 to November 1850 and published as a book in 1850. Narrated by David himself, it traces his life from his birth in Suffolk, six months after his father's death, to his maturity as a successful writer.

David's happy early years with his gentle mother and the devoted servant Peggotty end when his mother marries the stern Mr Murdstone. Sent away to a harsh school and then put to work in a London warehouse, David finds refuge with his eccentric great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood.

Over the years that follow he is schooled in Canterbury, trained as a lawyer, and meets a long cast of memorable figures: the charming and careless Steerforth, the perpetually hopeful and indebted Mr Micawber, the scheming clerk Uriah Heep, the loyal Tommy Traddles and the Peggotty family of Yarmouth.

A bildungsroman, the book follows David's moral and emotional growth, and it is widely regarded as the most autobiographical of Dickens's novels, drawing on his own childhood labour and his father's debts. Along the way it criticises child labour, harsh schooling, class rigidity and the treatment of women, with Dickens's usual mix of comedy and pathos. A long, richly populated Victorian novel, it suits readers who enjoy classic character-driven fiction and Dickens's social observation.