The PERSONAL HISTORY Of DAVID COPPERFIELD

London: Bradbury & Evans, 11, Bouverie Street, 1850. 1st volume edition, with 1850 to engraved title & 'Norwich' p. 558, but with 'screwed', p. 132 (Smith I, 9). Custom bound in a deep,and lovely, full russet leather binding by Bayntun, elaborate gilt decorated spine, gilt stamped Dickens bust to front board, gilt facsimile signature to rear board, gilt dentelles, AEG, marbled eps. Bright gilt, a pleasing & enviable Fine copy of Dickens classic tale, now known to be primarily autobiographical.. xiv, [2], 624 pp. Text & plates quite clean [washed sometime prior?]. Illustrated with frontis, vignette title-page & 38 plates by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz). 8vo. 8-3/8" x 5-1/2" David Copperfield is a novel in the bildungsroman genre, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to maturity. It 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.

At first glance, the work is modelled on 18th-century "personal histories" that were very popular, like Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews or Tom Jones, but David Copperfield is a more carefully structured work. It 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.

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.