David Copperfield

David Copperfield’s childhood changes when his widowed mother marries the harsh Edward Murdstone. Sent first to an abusive school and then to factory work in London, David eventually escapes to his formidable great-aunt Betsey Trotwood, who gives him the chance of education and a profession. His later life brings friendship, love, bereavement and repeated encounters with the charming but unreliable Mr Micawber and the manipulative Uriah Heep.

Told as David’s retrospective account of becoming a writer, the novel traces how memory and experience shape identity. It examines child labour, education, marriage, debt and professional ambition while asking how a person can recognise genuine loyalty and overcome the emotional patterns established in childhood.