40 h 26 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How do you become the hero of your own life when others keep deciding your fate?
David Copperfield begins life in a quiet English village, but his mother's marriage to Edward Murdstone brings fear into his home. School offers little shelter. Sent to work in a London warehouse while still a boy, David must find a way toward kindness, safety and a future of his own.
Charles Dickens lets David tell his own story, looking back with warmth, humour and painful honesty. Around him gather loyal Clara Peggotty, fierce Betsey Trotwood and endlessly hopeful Wilkins Micawber. As work, friendship and love widen his world, David faces a harder task: learning whom to trust, and seeing where his own good heart leads him astray.
What you’ll discover
- A childhood under pressure Follow a vulnerable boy through harsh treatment without losing sight of his warmth and imagination.
- Kindness with a backbone Meet Betsey Trotwood and Clara Peggotty, whose different kinds of care give David much-needed support.
- Charm worth questioning Watch James Steerforth's easy charm test David's ability to judge the people he admires.
- The cost of work See how money and class shape choices, from warehouse labour to the law.
- Laughter beside the pain Find humour in Micawber's stubborn hope and tenderness in David's effort to understand himself.
Who will love it
For readers who love character-filled stories about growing up, and anyone curious about Victorian life, work and class. Its humour, warmth and memorable friendships will appeal to readers drawn to stories of love and learning to judge wisely.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy is born into a house of women
- A stepfather brings fear into the home
- School brings both a tyrant and a friend
- A child alone in London learns to work
- A long walk leads to a new home
- Young manhood brings work, love and folly
- The book asks what a good heart needs
- Money, class and work shape every life
- A life told by memory, humour and design
Who’s who
- David CopperfieldThe warm, imaginative boy who tells the story, he loses his early home and must learn to work, judge and love wisely.
- Clara PeggottyDavid's devoted nurse and servant, plain and loyal, she gives him love without condition and never forgets him.
- Betsey TrotwoodDavid's fierce great aunt, who hates being crossed yet proves generous, and who wants him to grow up steady and sensible.
- Edward MurdstoneDavid's cold, stern stepfather, who believes in firmness and uses it to control his wife and the boy.
- James SteerforthA handsome, rich older schoolboy who charms David and leads him, careless of what his actions cost others.
- Wilkins MicawberA talkative, always indebted lodger who is certain that something will turn up, and who shows kindness to David.
- Agnes WickfieldA calm, wise lawyer's daughter who becomes David's confidante and guide, and whose steady goodness he is slow to appreciate.
- Uriah HeepA red-haired law clerk who insists he is humble while he plots to rise in the world.
Formats and delivery
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- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 40 h 26 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 15 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens · 1849
From a London warehouse to his first loves, David must learn whom to trust and how to become the hero of his own life.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 9
A boy is born into a house of women
The story opens at Blunderstone in Suffolk. David is born six months after the death of his father, so he never knows him. His young mother, Clara, is gentle, pretty and a little helpless. She is looked after by the housemaid Clara Peggotty, who is always called Peggotty, and she lives in dread of a visit from her husband's formidable aunt.
That aunt is Betsey Trotwood, and she arrives on the very afternoon of the birth. She has made up her mind that the baby will be a girl, whom she plans to bring up wisely and keep free of mistakes in love. When she learns the child is a boy, she leaves in a sort of cold fury and does not come back for years. It is one of the best comic scenes in the book, and it plants a thread that will matter much later.
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What is David Copperfield about?
It follows David from his birth and early childhood through a cruel stepfather, hard labour in London and a rescue by his aunt, to his schooling, his career and his early loves, as he learns to judge people and himself.
Is David Copperfield based on a true story?
It is fiction, but Dickens drew heavily on his own life. His time working in a warehouse as a boy, his work as a reporter and his love of the theatre all shape the book. He reversed his initials for the title.
When was David Copperfield written and published?
Dickens wrote it in the late 1840s, and it came out in monthly instalments before being published as a single volume. Readers followed each part as it appeared.
The author
Charles Dickens
1812–1870 · English novelist
Charles Dickens was an English novelist born in Portsmouth in 1812. He lived in London and later at Gad’s Hill Place in Kent, where he died in 1870. His books include The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837), A Christmas Carol (1843), David Copperfield (1849–1850), and Great Expectations (1860–1861).
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