David Copperfield (Further Reading)

Further Reading

• Kaplan, Fred, Dickens: A Biography, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

  This highly praised biography examines the relationships between Dickens's personal life and his art, especially the experiences of his youth. Kaplan also focuses on Dickens's view of himself and how he was seen by others as an artist and social reformer.

• Myers, Margaret, "The Lost Self: Gender in David Copperfield," in Gender Studies: New Directions in Feminist Criticism, edited by Judith Spector, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1986, pp. 120-32.

  In this essay, Myers claims that David is able to establish a firm sense of self only after allowing the feminine to integrate with the masculine in his personality.

• Needham, Gwendolyn B., "The Undisciplined Heart of David Copperfield," in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 9, No. 2, September 1954, pp. 81-107.

  Needham explores the emotional development of David's character and its relationship to the novel's theme and structure.

• Stone, Harry, "Fairy Tales and Ogres: Dickens' Imagination and David Copperfield," in Criticism, Vol. 6, 1954, pp. 324-30.

  Stone examines Dickens's imaginative use of fairy tales in the novel, including the development of Betsey Trotwood's character in the clothes shop scene, highlighting the complexity of David's responses to his experiences.