`I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD,' wrote Dickens of what is the most personal, certainly one of the most popular, of all his novels. Dickens wrote the book after the completion of a fragment of autobiography recalling his employment as a child in a London warehouse, and in the first-person narrative, a new departure for him, realized marvellously the workings of memory. The embodiment of his boyhood experience in the novel involved a `complicated interweaving of truth and fiction', at its most subtle in the portrait of his father as Mr Micawber, one of Dickens's greatest comic creations. Enjoying a humour that never becomes caricature, the reader shares David's affection for the eccentric Betsey Trotwood and her protege Mr Dick, and smiles with the narrator at the trials he endures in his love for the delightfully silly Dora. Settings, (East Anglia, the London of the 1820s), people, and events are unified by their relationship to the story of Steerforth's treachery, which reaches its powerful climax in the storm scene. This edition, which has the accurate Clarendon text, includes Dickens's trial titles and working notes, and eight of the original illustrations by `Phiz'. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

From reviews of volume five "The appearance of a volume of the Pilgrim Edition of Dickens's letters is an event of great moment in the world of English literary scholarship.... Indispensable to the scholar and of absorbing interest to the general reader."--English Studies. "Any true admirer of Dickens ought to be left both stunned and delighted by the wealth of material in this fifth volume of the monumental Pilgrim Letters."--The Dickensian. "Generous in scope, diverse in subject matter, rich in annotation, the work is a central resource not simply for devotees of Dickens but for students of virtually every aspect of 19th-century civilization."--Nineteenth-Century Fiction. The sixth volume features 1,592 letters--668 of them previously unpublished--covering 1850 to 1852, years of great creativity in which Dickens finished David Copperfield, and began work on BleakHouse.

The eighth novel of Charles Dickens, which was first published serially between May 1849 and November 1850, "David Copperfield", is viewed as one of the most autobiographical of all the author's novels. A classic coming-of-age story, it is the tale of its titular character from childhood to maturity which chronicles the struggle between the emotional and moral aspects of his life. Central to the theme of the novel is the idea of the disciplined heart. Dickens suggests that people basically fall into three categories: those who have one, those who don't, and those who seek to cultivate one. It is this development of a disciplined heart inside David Copperfield which establishes the principal context of his relationships throughout the novel. David's story is one filled with trials and tribulations which he struggles to overcome in his pursuit of a happy and fulfilled life. Considered by many as one of Dickens's greatest works, "David Copperfield" remains as popular today as when it was first published. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.