David Copperfield
Charles Dickens (1850)
“A boy who narrates his own life discovers that the people who shaped him were never who he thought they were — and neither was he.”
Short Summary
David Copperfield is born posthumously into genteel poverty, suffers under a cruel stepfather, is sent to labor in a London warehouse at ten, escapes to his eccentric aunt Betsey Trotwood, and slowly builds a life as a writer. Along the way, he is deceived by the sycophantic Uriah Heep, devastated by the fall of his charming friend Steerforth, and learns — through two marriages and a gallery of unforgettable characters — that an 'undisciplined heart' is more dangerous than poverty, cruelty, or bad luck combined.
Detailed Summary
David Copperfield begins with his own birth — his father dead six months before, his mother Clara a sweet and helpless young widow. The infant David is raised in the Blunderstone cottage by Clara and her devoted servant Peggotty, in a brief paradise of warmth and reading by the fire. This ends when ...