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David Copperfield: Preface to the Charles Dickens Edition

David Copperfield
Preface to the Charles Dickens Edition
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table of contents
  1. Title Page
  2. Imprint
  3. Preface to the 1850 Edition
  4. Preface to the Charles Dickens Edition
  5. David Copperfield
    1. Dedication
    2. I: I Am Born
    3. II: I Observe
    4. III: I Have a Change
    5. IV: I Fall Into Disgrace
    6. V: I Am Sent Away From Home
    7. VI: I Enlarge My Circle of Acquaintance
    8. VII: My “First Half” at Salem House
    9. VIII: My Holidays. Especially One Happy Afternoon
    10. IX: I Have a Memorable Birthday
    11. X: I Become Neglected, and Am Provided For
    12. XI: I Begin Life on My Own Account, and Don’t Like It
    13. XII: Liking Life on My Own Account No Better, I Form a Great Resolution
    14. XIII: The Sequel of My Resolution
    15. XIV: My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me
    16. XV: I Make Another Beginning
    17. XVI: I Am a New Boy in More Senses Than One
    18. XVII: Somebody Turns Up
    19. XVIII: A Retrospect
    20. XIX: I Look About Me, and Make a Discovery
    21. XX: Steerforth’s Home
    22. XXI: Little Em’ly
    23. XXII: Some Old Scenes, and Some New People
    24. XXIII: I Corroborate Mr. Dick, and Choose a Profession
    25. XXIV: My First Dissipation
    26. XXV: Good and Bad Angels
    27. XXVI: I Fall Into Captivity
    28. XXVII: Tommy Traddles
    29. XXVIII: Mr. Micawber’s Gauntlet
    30. XXIX: I Visit Steerforth at His Home, Again
    31. XXX: A Loss
    32. XXXI: A Greater Loss
    33. XXXII: The Beginning of a Long Journey
    34. XXXIII: Blissful
    35. XXXIV: My Aunt Astonishes Me
    36. XXXV: Depression
    37. XXXVI: Enthusiasm
    38. XXXVII: A Little Cold Water
    39. XXXVIII: A Dissolution of Partnership
    40. XXXIX: Wickfield and Heep
    41. XL: The Wanderer
    42. XLI: Dora’s Aunts
    43. XLII: Mischief
    44. XLIII: Another Retrospect
    45. XLIV: Our Housekeeping
    46. XLV: Mr. Dick Fulfils My Aunt’s Predictions
    47. XLVI: Intelligence
    48. XLVII: Martha
    49. XLVIII: Domestic
    50. XLIX: I Am Involved in Mystery
    51. L: Mr. Peggotty’s Dream Comes True
    52. LI: The Beginning of a Longer Journey
    53. LII: I Assist at an Explosion
    54. LIII: Another Retrospect
    55. LIV: Mr. Micawber’s Transactions
    56. LV: Tempest
    57. LVI: The New Wound, and the Old
    58. LVII: The Emigrants
    59. LVIII: Absence
    60. LIX: Return
    61. LX: Agnes
    62. LXI: I Am Shown Two Interesting Penitents
    63. LXII: A Light Shines on My Way
    64. LXIII: A Visitor
    65. LXIV: A Last Retrospect
  6. Colophon
  7. Uncopyright

Preface to the Charles Dickens Edition

I remarked in the original preface to this book, that I did not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from it, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require. My interest in it was so recent and strong, and my mind was so divided between pleasure and regret⁠—pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions⁠—that I was in danger of wearying the reader with personal confidences and private emotions.

Besides which, all that I could have said of the story to any purpose, I had endeavoured to say in it.

It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years’ imaginative task; or how an author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him forever. Yet, I had nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still), that no one can ever believe this narrative, in the reading, more than I believed it in the writing.

So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more. Of all my books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is

David Copperfield

1869

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The source text and artwork in this ebook edition are believed to be in the U.S. public domain. This ebook edition is released under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, available at https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. For full license information see the Uncopyright file included at the end of this ebook.
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