David Copperfield

The story deals with the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity. David is born in the England of the 1810s. David's father dies before he is born, and about seven years later, his mother marries Mr. Murdstone. David dislikes his step-father

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David Copperfield

by Charles Dickens

December, 1996 [Etext #766]

[Date last updated: July 15, 2006]

Project Gutenberg Etext of David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

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DAVID COPPERFIELD

by CHARLES DICKENS

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO

THE HON Mr AND Mrs RICHARD WATSON,

OF ROCKINGHAM, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

CONTENTS

I I Am Born

II I Observe

III I Have a Change

IV I Fall into Disgrace

V I Am Sent Away

VI I Enlarge My Circle of Acquaintance

VII My 'First Half' at Salem House

VIII My Holidays Especially One Happy Afternoon

IX I Have a Memorable Birthday

X I Become Neglected, and Am Provided For

XI I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don't Like It

XII Liking Life on My Own Account No Better, I Form a Great Resolution XIII The Sequel of My Resolution

XIV My Aunt Makes up Her Mind About Me

XV I Make Another Beginning

XVI I Am a New Boy in More Senses Than One

XVII Somebody Turns Up

XVIII A Retrospect

XIX I Look About Me and Make a Discovery

XX Steerforth's Home

XXI Little Em'ly

XXII Some Old Scenes, and Some New People

XXIII I Corroborate Mr Dick, and Choose a Profession

XXIV My First Dissipation

XXV Good and Bad Angels

XXVI I Fall into Captivity

XXVII Tommy Traddles

XXVIII Mr Micawber's Gauntlet

XXIX I Visit Steerforth at His Home, Again

XXX A Loss

XXXI A Greater Loss

XXXII The Beginning of a Long Journey

XXXIII Blissful

XXXIV My Aunt Astonishes Me

XXXV Depression

XXXVI Enthusiasm

XXXVII A Little Cold Water

XXXVIII A Dissolution of Partnership

XXXIX Wickfield and Heep

XL The Wanderer

XLI Dora's Aunts

XLII Mischief

XLIII Another Retrospect

XLIV Our Housekeeping

XLV Mr Dick Fulfils My Aunt's Predictions

XLVI Intelligence

XLVII Martha

XLVIII Domestic

XLIX I Am Involved in Mystery

L Mr Peggotty's Dream Comes True

LI The Beginning of a Longer Journey

LII I Assist at an Explosion

LIII Another Retrospect

LIV Mr Micawber's Transactions

LV Tempest

LVI The New Wound, and the Old

LVII The Emigrants

LVIII Absence

LIX Return

LX Agnes

LXI I Am Shown Two Interesting Penitents

LXII A Light Shines on My Way

LXIII A Visitor

LXIV A Last Retrospect

PREFACE TO 1850 EDITION

I do not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from this Book,

in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with

the composure which this formal heading would seem to require My interest in it, is so recent and strong; and my mind is so divided between pleasure and regret - pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions - that I am

in danger of wearying the reader whom I love, with personal

confidences, and private emotions

Besides which, all that I could say of the Story, to any purpose,

I have endeavoured to say in it

It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know, how

sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years'

imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever Yet, I have

nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which

might be of less moment still) that no one can ever believe this

Narrative, in the reading, more than I have believed it in the

writing

Instead of looking back, therefore, I will look forward I cannot close this Volume more agreeably to myself, than with a hopeful glance towards the time when I shall again put forth my two green leaves once a month, and with a faithful remembrance of the genial sun and showers that have fallen on these leaves of David

Copperfield, and made me happy

London, October, 1850

PREFACE TO

THE CHARLES DICKENS EDITION

I REMARKED in the original Preface to this Book, that I did not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from it, in the first

sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require My interest in it was so recent and strong, and my mind was so divided between pleasure and regret - pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions - that I was in

danger of wearying the reader with personal confidences and private emotions

Besides which, all that I could have said of the Story to any

purpose, I had endeavoured to say in it

It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how

sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years'

imaginative task; or how an Author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him for ever Yet, I had

nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which

might be of less moment still), that no one can ever believe this Narrative, in the reading, more than I believed it in the writing

So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more Of all my books, I like this the best It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent

to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that

family as dearly as I love them But, like many fond parents, I

have in my heart of hearts a favourite child And his name is

DAVID COPPERFIELD

1869

THE PERSONAL HISTORY AND

EXPERIENCE OF

DAVID COPPERFIELD THE YOUNGER

CHAPTER 1

I AM BORN

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

To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was

born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve

o'clock at night It was remarked that the clock began to strike,

and I began to cry, simultaneously

In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared

by the nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I

was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was

privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably

attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either

gender, born towards the small hours on a Friday night

I need say nothing here, on the first head, because nothing can

show better than my history whether that prediction was verified or falsified by the result On the second branch of the question, I

will only remark, that unless I ran through that part of my

inheritance while I was still a baby, I have not come into it yet

But I do not at all complain of having been kept out of this

property; and if anybody else should be in the present enjoyment of

it, he is heartily welcome to keep it

I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the

newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas Whether sea-going people were short of money about that time, or were short of faith and preferred cork jackets, I don't know; all I know is, that there was but one solitary bidding, and that was from an attorney

connected with the bill-broking business, who offered two pounds in cash, and the balance in sherry, but declined to be guaranteed from drowning on any higher bargain Consequently the advertisement was withdrawn at a dead loss - for as to sherry, my poor dear mother's own sherry was in the market then - and ten years afterwards, the caul was put up in a raffle down in our part of the country, to

fifty members at half-a-crown a head, the winner to spend five

shillings I was present myself, and I remember to have felt quite uncomfortable and confused, at a part of myself being disposed of

in that way The caul was won, I recollect, by an old lady with a

hand-basket, who, very reluctantly, produced from it the stipulated five shillings, all in halfpence, and twopence halfpenny short - as

it took an immense time and a great waste of arithmetic, to

endeavour without any effect to prove to her It is a fact which

will be long remembered as remarkable down there, that she was never drowned, but died triumphantly in bed, at ninety-two I have understood that it was, to the last, her proudest boast, that she

never had been on the water in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to which she was extremely partial) she, to the

last, expressed her indignation at the impiety of mariners and

others, who had the presumption to go 'meandering' about the world

It was in vain to represent to her that some conveniences, tea

perhaps included, resulted from this objectionable practice She always returned, with greater emphasis and with an instinctive

knowledge of the strength of her objection, 'Let us have no

meandering.'

Not to meander myself, at present, I will go back to my birth

I was born at Blunderstone, in Suffolk, or 'there by', as they say

in Scotland I was a posthumous child My father's eyes had

closed upon the light of this world six months, when mine opened on

it There is something strange to me, even now, in the reflection

that he never saw me; and something stranger yet in the shadowy remembrance that I have of my first childish associations with his white grave-stone in the churchyard, and of the indefinable

compassion I used to feel for it lying out alone there in the dark

night, when our little parlour was warm and bright with fire and

candle, and the doors of our house were - almost cruelly, it seemed

to me sometimes - bolted and locked against it

An aunt of my father's, and consequently a great-aunt of mine, of whom I shall have more to relate by and by, was the principal

magnate of our family Miss Trotwood, or Miss Betsey, as my poor mother always called her, when she sufficiently overcame her dread

of this formidable personage to mention her at all (which was