David Copperfield by Dickens

David Copperfield by Dickens

David Copperfield follows the psychological and moral growth of the narrator, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to maturity. David Copperfield is characterised in the book as trusting, goal-oriented, but as yet immature. The novel begins, like other novels by Dickens, with a bleak picture of childhood in Victorian England, followed by young Copperfield's slow social ascent, as he painfully provides for his aunt, while continuing his studies.

David Copperfield is also an autobiographical novel, a very complicated weaving of truth and invention with events following Dickens's own life. Of the books he wrote, it was his favourite. Called the triumph of the art of Dickens, it marks a turning point in his work, separating the novels of youth and those of maturity. The novel has a primary theme of growth and change, but Dickens also satirises many aspects of Victorian life. These include the plight of prostitutes, the status of women in marriage, class structure, the criminal justice system, the quality of schools and the employment of children in factories.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has been remembered in history as one of the greatest authors of the Victorian era. Not only having received tremendous success while he was alive, Charles Dickens' work continues to be read as voraciously as when it was first published. Because of his tremendous popularity, Charles Dickens has secured himself the position of not only being one of the greatest writers of his generation, but one of the most celebrated writers of all time. In addition to his writing, Charles Dickens was a prominent activist, dedicating much of his life to fighting for better social conditions for the poor as well as powerfully advocating for better laws to protect the rights of children. When a piece of literature refers to either unfair working and living conditions, or else portrays the state of a morally corrupt social class, the writing is thus referred to as Dickensian. Much of literary traditions thus owe their inspiration from the writing of Charles Dickens.