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David Copperfield | Introduction

Charles Dickens’s autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, published in 1850, was the author’s favorite and has remained a favorite for generations of readers. In fact, Dickens is arguably England’s most beloved, read, and critically acclaimed novelist. Noted scholar Harold Bloom, in his study of Dickens, praises the author’s “astonishing universality, in which he nearly rivals Shakespeare and the Bible.” This universality is one of the novel’s celebrated qualities.

The novel is a bildungsroman, a story of growing up, that takes the protagonist from early childhood to early middle age. It is a story of the development of a writer, but it is also a portrait of Victorian England at mid-century with a host of characters designed to show various social features, for example, class structure, the penal system, the education available for poorer children, and the sundry forms of child labor and abuse. A novel of social protest, David Copperfield examines social problems while in certain particulars it relates the story of Dickens’s own development into adulthood and into his life’s work as a writer.

David Copperfield Summary

Chapters 1–3
After a digression about the predictions concerning his future at the time of his birth, David, the adult narrator of David Copperfield, notes that he was born at Blunderstone, in Suffolk, England, six months after his father had died. David’s great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood, appeared at the Copperfield home just prior to David’s birth, insisting that Clara, David’s mother, would have a daughter and that Betsey would become her godmother. When Clara remembered her husband’s kindness to her, she became upset, which started her labor. When Betsey discovered that she had delivered a boy, she said nothing, immediately walked out and never returned, vanishing “like a discontented fairy.”

One day Clara brings home Edward Murdstone, whom, David later discovers, has been courting her. David and his beloved nanny, Peggotty, immediately dislike him, and David becomes jealous of his mother’s attentions toward him. Peggotty insists that Clara should not marry a man that her husband would not like, which brings Clara to tears. Murdstone brings David into town with him in an effort to try to win him over, but David, who admits that his observational powers are keen, finds the man “clever and cold” in his dealings with his business acquaintances and later, “stern and silent.”

One evening, Peggotty asks David if he would like to go with her to stay with her brother and his family for two weeks at Yarmouth, a seaside village. David worries about who will take care of his mother while they are gone, but after Peggotty’s assurances that she has found someone to help Clara, David agrees to go.

David and Peggotty arrive at the beached, black barge that is the Peggotty family home, and David “could not have been more charmed with the romantic idea of living in it.” There he meets all of Peggotty’s family: her brother Dan Peggotty; Mrs. Gummidge, the widow of Mr. Peggotty’s partner; and Little Em’ly and Ham, her niece and nephew. The family warmly receives David, and he spends an idyllic two weeks playing on the beach with Em’ly, with whom he falls in love. He is quite reluctant to leave them at the end of his stay but looks forward to being reunited with his mother.

When David arrives home, he discovers that his mother has married Mr. Murdstone, which fills him with trepidation. He immediately sees a change in her as she approaches him timidly. David soon discovers that Mr. Murdstone has taken control of her as well as the household, and he is unable to look at either of them.

Chapters 4–11
David is despondent about the radical changes in his home. When Clara tries to comfort her son, who feels as if no one wants him in this new family, Murdstone insists that she be firm with him. When the two are alone, Murdstone tells David that if he had an obstinate horse or dog, he would “conquer” him by beating him into submission. David recognizes this as a threat to him.

Jane Murdstone, Edward’s sister, soon arrives and proves herself to be as harsh and unfeeling as her brother. In an effort to protect him, Clara tells David to try to love his new father and to obey him. Miss Murdstone begins to take control of the house just as her brother has taken control of Clara and David. When Clara tries to protest, insisting that she has never previously had any trouble running the house, Murdstone rebukes her sternly, for “everybody was to be bent to his firmness.” Clara gives in, resigning herself to her loss of control.

Murdstone and his sister determine that they will educate David, forcing him to complete difficult and long daily lessons. Yet, under their stern and unforgiving eyes, he fails miserably. Miss Murdstone admonishes Clara every time she tries to slip David answers. One day, after David is unable to make any progress on his lessons, Murdstone determines that a beating will encourage him to perform more satisfactorily. When, in an effort to stop him, David bites his hand, Murdstone beats him brutally as Clara and Peggotty cry outside the door. David is then locked in his room for five days, forbidden to see anyone except Miss Murdstone.

On the fifth night, Peggotty informs him that he will be sent away to Salem House, a boarding school near London the next day. As David travels by coach to school, crying inconsolably, Peggotty appears along the side of the road and climbs in. She hugs him and crams food and money into his pockets before leaving. David determines to be brave like Roderick Random or the captain in the Royal British Navy, heroes of his father’s adventure novels. He discovers a note from his mother folded around some money among the things that Peggotty has given him.

After David shares some of Peggotty’s cakes with the driver, Mr. Barkis, the later inquires whether she is married and asks David to inform her that “Barkis was willin,’” his way of proposing to her, which David eventually passes on to her in a letter. David and Barkis soon stop at an inn where a waiter swindles David out of his dinner and a good portion of his money as a tip. David continues with an empty stomach to school on a new coach full of passengers who have assumed that he has eaten the large meal all by himself and so make fun of him.

David’s excitement over seeing London, the city where many of his literary heroes experienced their most exciting adventures, is soon overcome by a feeling of abandonment and uncertainty about his future. Eventually, Mr. Mell, one of the teachers from the school, picks him up and takes him to his mother’s house for breakfast before continuing onto Salem House.

David arrives at school, deeming it, “the most forlorn and desolate place [he] had ever seen” and finds the boys, along with Mr. Creakle, the proprietor, all gone for the holidays. Mr. Mell has been instructed to tell David that he must wear a sign on his back that reads: “Take care of him. He bites.” The sign causes him great suffering during his early days at school, but he gains some support from Mr. Mell who speaks only a little but provides some company for him.

David meets the proprietor of Salem House, Mr. Creakle, a cruel man who beats the children for the slightest infraction or just to exercise his power. He then meets Tommy Traddles, a good-natured boy who, much to David’s relief, makes a game of the sign on his back. David is brought before the most powerful boy at the school, James Steerforth, who declares the sign “‘a jolly shame,’” sparking David’s undying devotion to him. The older boy convinces David to give him all of his money, claiming that he can get what ever he wants from the outside and that he will take care of him.

On the first day of school, Mr. Creakle chides David about the sign and strikes him with his cane, as he does eventually with most of the other boys, except Steerforth, due to his family’s social status and wealth. David is extremely flattered by the protection and attention Steerforth offers him, yet he fails to recognize that the older boy is taking advantage of him, insisting that David hand over Peggotty’s food baskets and spend half the night telling stories from his father’s books. He also fails to recognize his friend’s class prejudices when Steerforth tries to humiliate Mr. Mell and eventually engineers his dismissal. David’s devotion to him is instead redoubled after Steerforth charms Mr. Peggotty and Ham during a visit.

David returns home during school break and finds that his mother has given birth to a boy. They all have a warm reunion since Murdstone and his sister have gone out for a visit that day. Yet, David notes that his mother looks much more tired and worn. The next morning, David apologizes to Murdstone for biting him, but while the man accepts it, it does not remove the “sinister expression in his face.” David’s days at home are filled with melancholy and discomfort under the Murdstones’ domination. As a result of his ill treatment there, David is happy to return to school.

Two months later, he learns that his mother and brother have died and that he is now an orphan. David returns for the funerals where he is comforted by Peggotty. After Miss Murdstone fires Peggotty, she invites David to Yarmouth for a visit with her family. David is reunited with Little Em’ly who has grown more pretty and “both sly and shy at once,” which captivates him “more than ever.” He feels, however, a distance between them. After David and Em’ly attend Peggotty’s wedding to Barkis, he swears his undying devotion to her and she allows him to kiss her.

When he returns home, he is neglected but is allowed to visit Peggotty occasionally. In an effort to get rid of him, Murdstone sends ten-year-old David to London to work in his wine bottling warehouse where he finds decayed floors, rats, and general “rottenness.” David is despondent over his situation, especially since he now sees no hope of regaining his status in the world. His... » Complete David Copperfield Summary