David Copperfield
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
David Copperfield
| Full title | The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles Dickens |
| Published | 1850 |
| Pages | 1,024 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Dickens’s most openly autobiographical novel — a first-person life from a childhood handed to a cruel stepfather and a bottling warehouse through to a career as a novelist — and the one he called his own favourite. It holds up as a curriculum text because Micawber, Steerforth, Uriah Heep and Betsey Trotwood are all tests of judgment. |
David Copperfield
Where I heard about it
- Dissident Teacher — on A Library to Build Great Americans, a 468-title curriculum published on Substack in December 2025, in the Ages 13–99+ band under Fiction.
About this edition
Dickens (1812–1870) published it in monthly instalments between 1849 and 1850. He had himself worked in a boot-blacking factory at twelve while his father sat in debtors’ prison, and had told almost nobody. In his preface to a later edition he called it his favourite of his own novels.
Connections
- Charles Dickens — the author.
- Poverty — the childhood the book opens with, and the one Dickens had.
- Literature
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.