David Copperfield

6W Charles Dickens. Collins Pocket Classics, ca. 1920.

Notes

Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, originally published in monthly serial installments between 1849 and 1850, stands as the author's deeply personal, crowning achievement of Victorian fiction. The epic narrative, written in the first person, tracks the emotional and psychological development of David Copperfield from his idyllic childhood in Blunderstone to his eventual rise as a successful, mature novelist. David’s life is structurally fractured by a series of severe trials, beginning with the arrival of his cruel, abusive stepfather, Edward Murdstone, who sends him away to a brutal boarding school and later condemns him to grueling manual labor in a London warehouse. Escaping this squalor, David walks to Dover to find his eccentric, warm-hearted great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood, who provides him with the education and stable home necessary to build a life. Along his expansive journey, David navigates a rich, interconnected web of unforgettable characters—including the perpetually indebted but ever-optimistic Wilkins Micawber, the fiercely loyal Peggotty family, the deeply deceitful and sycophantic Uriah Heep, and his two radically different loves, the childish Dora Spenlow and the steady, maternal Agnes Wickfield. Through this grand, fictionalized tapestry, the novel explores profound themes of class mobility, the devastating impact of industrial labor on children, the necessity of personal discipline, and the elusive quest for identity in a rapidly shifting world.

Description 

Red cloth binding with gilt lettering to spine and original dustwrapper. Inscription to flyleaf dated December 1923.