David Copperfield (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Introduction and notes by Andrew Sanders facilitated a proper understanding of period details and plot structure. I will continue to use this edition in future classes on Dickens's novels. (Helge Nowak, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universtitaet ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

With an exclusive introduction by Peter Ackroyd, these out of print editions are brought back to life with a fresh and timeless new look. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

'I really think I have done it ingeniously and with a very complicated interweaving of truth and fiction.' So wrote Dickens of David Copperfield (1850), the novel he called his 'favourite child'. Through his hero Dickens draws openly on his own life, as David Copperfield recalls his experiences from childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Rosa Dartle, Dora, Steerforth and Uriah Heep are among the characters who focus the hero's sexual and emotional drives, and Mr Micawber, a portrait of Dickens's own father, evokes the mixture of love, nostalgia and guilt that, put together, make this Dickens's most quoted and best-loved novel.

Cast out by his cruel stepfather to the brutal boarding school Salem House, young David Copperfield quickly learns that he must fight for a better life. After discovering his mother has died while he has been away, David is left all alone in the world and is sent to work in his stepfather’s factory. He decides his only option is to run away. He escapes London and finds his way to Dover. Once there he hopes to be taken in by his only known relative, his eccentric Aunt Betsy Trotwood. But will he ever be able to find the love and security he needs? This special edition features an exclusive introduction by the highly-acclaimed writer and novelist Peter Ackroyd, one of Britain’s leading literary biographers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has published many books and articles on Dickens. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.