This Norton Critical Edition reprints the original 1850 text of Dickens’ most autobiographical novel, and his own personal favorite, including all of the line drawings by Phiz.

The editor has made necessary typographical corrections and carefully introduced and annotated the text for the student reader.

Dickens’ number plans for David Copperfield, which reveal his practice both as a serial writer and as a craftsman, are also included.

"Backgrounds" focuses on Dickens’ personal involvement with and response to the novel’s publication. Included are passages from his letters relating to David Copperfield, an autobiographical fragment, his preface to the 1869 edition of the novel, and a relevant excerpt from Little Dorrit.

Preface

The Text of David Copperfield (1850)

 A Note of the Illustrations

 Number Plans for David Copperfield

Backgrounds

 Preface to the 1869 Edition

 The Autobiographical Fragment

 Passages from Dickens’ Letters Relating to David Copperfield

 Excerpt from Little Dorrit, Chapter XIII

Criticism

 John Forster, [David, Less and More than Dickens]

 Matthew Arnold, [Mr. Creakle and the Irish]

 E.K. Brown, [The Art of "The Crowded Novel"]

 Gwendolyn B. Needham, The Undisciplined Heart of David Copperfield

 Monroe Engel, [The Theme of David Copperfield]

 J. Hillis Miller, [Dickens’ Novel as Memory]

 Mark Spilka, David Copperfield as Psychological Fiction

 Harry Stone, Fairy Tales and Ogres: Dickens’ Imagination and David Copperfield

 Bert G. Hornback, [David’s Vocation as Novelist: Frustration and Resolution in David Copperfield]

 Garrett Stewart, [Mr. Micawber’s Novel]

 Robert L. Patten, Autobiography into Autobiography

 Alexander Welsh, A Novelist’s Novelist

A Chronology of Dickens’ Life and Work

Selected Bibliography