What is the main message of David Copperfield?

The main message of David Copperfield is the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

How long does it take to read David Copperfield?

The reading time for David Copperfield varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of David Copperfield?

The author of David Copperfield is Charles Dickens.

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David Copperfield Book Summary - David Copperfield Book explained in key points

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David Copperfield summary

Name: David Copperfield
Rating: 4.3 (54 reviews)
Author: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Venture Into a Classic Tale of Resilience and Growth

4.3 (54 ratings)

19 mins

Brief summary

David Copperfield is a classic novel by Charles Dickens that tells the story of the titular character's journey from a troubled childhood to adulthood. Filled with unforgettable characters and poignant moments, it is a timeless tale of resilience and redemption.

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David Copperfield
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What’s in it for me? Discover a writer’s own story.

Charles Dickens is one of the nineteenth century’s most celebrated, not to mention prolific, writers. He wrote 16 novels, some of them more than 1,000 pages long. With Dickens, then, the great question is always – where to begin?

No novel is a more perfect introduction to Charles Dickens than David Copperfield. The story contains all the Dickens trademarks: a dramatic plot, a cast of memorable characters from across the social spectrum, trenchant social commentary, and richly descriptive prose. In addition, it’s rightly considered Dickens's most autobiographical work. Like David, the novel’s protagonist, Charles Dickens also fell on hard times as a boy and was put to work as a child laborer. Like David, Dickens pursued a career as a legal clerk, then turned his hand to writing, where he found great fame and fortune.

The story of David Copperfield echoes the story of Dickens himself. Whether you’re stepping into Dickens’s world for the first time, or revisiting it, David Copperfield gives an insight not only into Dickens at the peak of his powers, but into Charles Dickens himself.

David Copperfield’s England.

The story of David Copperfield begins –

Wait. Before we start, let’s take a moment to set the scene.

Over the course of this story, you’ll be taken across England, and through the nineteenth century, but the heart of the tale takes place in Victorian London, in the 1840s and 1850s. This was a time of rapid urban growth and industrialization, a time when the divide between rich and poor was growing increasingly stark. Reflecting this, the city’s streets were a study in contradiction. Along the grander avenues in the city center, well-appointed carriages clattered over cobblestones, carrying ladies in expensive gowns and gentlemen in finely tailored suits past grand buildings and stores selling luxury wares, like satin gloves, imported teas, watches, and jewelry.

Take a turn down one of the narrow side-streets, though, and the scene quickly shifts. Ramshackle tenements lean perilously against each other. Inside, up to dozens of families live, crammed into stifling quarters. The air is thick with the smell of burning coal and raw sewage. The genteel clip-clop of horse hooves on cobbled streets has given way to the clanking and grinding noises that emanate from the factories and workhouses, the laughter and shouts that spill from the open doors of local ale houses, the crying of babies, the sing-song slogans of street vendors hawking their wares, the rasp of knives on the knife-grinders whetstone.

Like London itself, David Copperfield bustles with a cast of characters from across the social spectrum, all trying to find their fortunes and assert their place in Victorian society. In the story, beginning in the Suffolk countryside, you’ll meet David’s gentle mother, Clara, and the steadfast family servant Peggotty, as well as Peggotty’s family – fishing people who live on the beach at Yarmouth. You’ll follow David to London where you’ll encounter the penniless but ever-optimistic Mr. Micawber, and his charming yet calculating schoolfriend Steerforth. And you’ll get to know some of David’s most loyal friends: his eccentric great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood, and the steadfast Agnes Wickfield.

The most memorable character, of course, is the titular David Copperfield. Shall we get acquainted with him?

A turbulent beginning.

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my life,” says David Copperfield in the opening lines of the novel, “or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” The rest of Dickens's novel – all 1,000-or-so pages of it – is devoted to answering the question posed here.

David is born on a bleak Friday, at the stroke of midnight, a time which, according to village superstition, marks the young boy for a life of “immodest” fortune. His dramatic arrival is accompanied by the equally dramatic arrival of his great-aunt, Betsey Trotwood. Betsey intends to play the role of godmother to her niece Clara’s newborn daughter. She hasn’t considered that Clara might have a son instead. Finding that David is a boy, she leaves in disgust. Betsey suffered through a long marriage to a worthless husband and now professes to hate all men, infant boys included.

A change in fortune.

David pawns his few possessions to fund the journey to his great-aunt Betsey Trotwood’s house, in Dover. At last, after many days of travel, including long stints of walking country roads, he reaches his destination. The comfortable cottage in its lush garden looks, to David, like something out of a dream. But Betsey, who still hasn’t forgiven David for being born a boy, receives David as her guest with marked reluctance. But when the Murdstones arrive demanding David’s return, she makes up her mind about her unexpected visitor once and for all: she defends David fiercely and tells the Murdstones she has taken him on as her charge.

With this settled, Betsey sends David to Dr. Strong's Academy, a school in Canterbury which is, thankfully, very different to Salem House. In Canterbury, he lodges with the Wickfields. Mr. Wickfield is a lawyer. His daughter, Agnes, is David’s age, and the two become fast friends. The Wickfields live a life of privilege and contentment, though the arrival of Wickfield’s newest employee, the clerk Uriah Heep, will soon sour their happy existence. Heep's subservient manner conceals vile ambitions. Mr. Wickfield is a jovial occasional drinker, yet under Uriah’s influence he takes to the bottle more and more frequently.

Endings, sad and happy.

With his economic prospects considerably diminished, David tries to discuss financial practicalities with Dora, but his – admittedly rather spoiled and childish – lover is sent into hysterics at the mere mention of household management. Crestfallen, David seeks solace with the Wickfields. But here, too, fortunes have taken a turn for the worse. Wickfield’s business is completely in the hands of Uriah Heep. Wickfield is in Heep’s debt, and though Agnes does her best to resist Heep’s advances, she begins to feel she has no choice but to accept his proposal of marriage.

Dan Peggotty, meanwhile, feverishly pursues any leads he can find about Emily’s whereabouts, eventually tracing her to Italy. Steerforth’s manservant, Littimer, sends word to David that Steerforth has tired of Emily, leaving David and Dan to understand that Emily has been, essentially, abandoned. But when they try to deduce Emily’s exact whereabouts, her trail runs cold. Ham Peggotty, meanwhile, is wounded by his fiancée’s behavior but blames himself for not stopping Steerforth’s flirtation with the hapless Emily. He throws himself into his work as a fisherman.

Analysis

Charles Dickens’s sprawling novels typically intertwine subplots from every social stratum in Victorian England. David Copperfield is no exception – and it is a particularly excoriating exposé of the conditions the English working classes suffered in the Victorian era. Dickens is unflinching in showing how the most vulnerable in society – children, women, the poor – are routinely exploited and abused by those with power over them. His descriptions of David’s time at the bottling factory are especially harrowing: “The deep remembrance of the sense I had,” says David, “of being utterly without hope now; of the shame I felt in my position; of the misery it was to my young heart to believe that day by day what I had learned, and thought, and delighted in, and raised my fancy and my emulation up by, would pass away from me, little by little, never to be brought back any more; cannot be written.”

As a child, Dickens himself was put to work in a blacking factory, pasting labels on jars of shoe polish. Once he achieved success as a novelist, he campaigned to reform child labor laws and used his novels to draw attention to the plight of the working classes.

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What is David Copperfield about?

David Copperfield (1850) follows the life of David Copperfield, from his troubled childhood and turbulent adolescence to his growth into a successful writer. It vividly portrays his struggles, relationships, and the colorful characters he encounters, and reflects the complex social issues of Victorian England.

David Copperfield Review

David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens is a captivating novel that takes readers on a tumultuous journey through the life of an orphaned protagonist. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With its richly developed characters and intricate plot, the book immerses readers in a Victorian world full of drama, love, and adversity.
Exploring themes like resilience, social class, and personal growth, the story offers profound insights into the human condition and the power of overcoming obstacles.
Through Dickens' vivid descriptions and engaging storytelling, the book paints a vivid picture of 19th-century England, ensuring that readers are never bored.

Who should read David Copperfield?

Lovers of literature after a pacy story studded with dramatic twists and turns
History buffs keen to know more about day-to-day life in 19th century England
Anyone interested in one of the Victorian era’s great works of fiction

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was a prolific English novelist and social critic, renowned for his vivid storytelling and memorable characters. Dickens achieved widespread acclaim with novels such as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and Great Expectations, and he used his literary prowess to shed light on social injustices and advocate for reform in Victorian society.

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