About the Author
The most popular Victorian author in Great Britain and the United States, Charles Dickens was both gifted humorist and critic of the social evils of […]
David Copperfield
Setting
David Copperfield begins in Blunderstone Rookery, a house in rural Suffolk. The rooks no longer nested on the property, but David’s father had liked the […]
Themes and Characters
The title character in David Copperfield presents himself, his life, and the people and experiences who have helped shape his personality by reconstructing them from […]
Literary Qualities
Dickens attempted to write his autobiography, but found that some episodes in his early life were too painful to relive in an autobiographical, or confessional […]
Social Sensitivity
Dickens in David Copperfield is not as concerned as he usually is with “the condition of England question,” Thomas Carlyle’s term for Dickens’ concern with […]
Topics for Discussion
1. Is David Copperfield’s childhood at all like that of American children in the 19th century? 2. Could an Edward Murdstone exploit today a young […]
Ideas for Reports and Papers
1. Freud admired Dickens both as a writer and for his insights into the mystery of the human personality. David Copperfield was his favorite novel […]
Related Titles and Adaptations
Ten years after completing David Copperfield Dickens wrote his second bildungsroman, Great Expectations (1860-1861). There is little optimism despite the title in this work, and […]