Book description
With an essay by Matthew Arnold.
'Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or
whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show'
Dickens's epic, exuberant novel is one of the greatest coming-of-age
stories in literature. It chronicles David Copperfield's extraordinary
journey through life, as he encounters villains, saviours, eccentrics
and grotesques, including the wicked Mr Murdstone, stout-hearted
Peggotty, formidable Betsey Trotwood, impecunious Micawber and odious
Uriah Heep.
Dickens's great Bildungsroman (based, in part, on his own
boyhood, and which he described as a 'favourite child') is a work
filled with life, both comic and tragic.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in
English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the
beginning of the First World War.
Charles Dickens (1812-70) had his first, astounding success with
his first novel The Pickwick Papers and never looked back. In
an extraordinarily full life he wrote, campaigned and spoke on a huge
range of issues, and was involved in many of the key aspects of
Victorian life, by turns cajoling, moving and irritating. He completed
fourteen full-length novels and volume after volume of journalism. Of
all his many works, he called David Copperfield his 'favourite child'.
The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas
Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge,
A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and
Son, Bleak House, Hard Times, Litte Dorrit,
A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our
Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood are also
published in the Penguin English Library.
