David Copperfield

by Charles Dickens

Overview

Der Roman erzählt die Lebensgeschichte von David Copperfield, hinter dem sich der Autor selbst in verfremdeter Form verbirgt. Man erfährt von David Copperfields Werdegang und langsamem Erwachsenwerden. Die Erzählung lebt von den zahlreichen (berühmt gewordenen) Figuren, die seinen Weg kreuzen, ihn einen Teil seines Lebens begleiten, verschwinden und wieder auftauchen. Darunter sein Kindermädchen Peggotty, ihre Familie, die mit ihnen lebende kleine Waise Emily, die David verzaubert; seine enge Vertraute Agnes Wickfield, ein idealisiertes, engelsgleiches Wesen; und sein Schulfreund Steerforth, für den Emily, von falschen Versprechen geblendet, später ihren Verlobten verlässt, um mit ihm eine Affäre einzugehen. Genau dieses Ereignis löst auch die größte Tragödie des Romans aus. Sie durchzieht - wie vieles andere - das gesamte Werk bis an sein teilweise dramatisches Ende. (Auszug aus Wikipedia)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149795215
Publisher:	OTB ebook publishing
Publication date:	07/15/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB
Language:	German

About the Author

Born on February 7, 1812, Charles Dickens was the second of eight children in a family burdened with financial troubles. Despite difficult early years, he became the most successful British writer of the Victorian age.

In 1824, young Charles was withdrawn from school and forced to work at a boot-blacking factory when his improvident father, accompanied by his mother and siblings, was sentenced to three months in a debtor's prison. Once they were released, Charles attended a private school for three years. The young man then became a solicitor's clerk, mastered shorthand, and before long was employed as a Parliamentary reporter. When he was in his early twenties, Dickens began to publish stories and sketches of London life in a variety of periodicals.

It was the publication of Pickwick Papers (1836-1837) that catapulted the twenty-five-year-old author to national renown. Dickens wrote with unequaled speed and often worked on several novels at a time, publishing them first in monthly installments and then as books. His early novels Oliver Twist (1837-1838), Nicholas Nickleby (1838-1839), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840-1841), and A Christmas Carol (1843) solidified his enormous, ongoing popularity. As Dickens matured, his social criticism became increasingly biting, his humor dark, and his view of poverty darker still. David Copperfield (1849-1850), Bleak House (1852-1853), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1860-1861), and Our Mutual Friend (1864-1865) are the great works of his masterful and prolific period.

In 1858 Dickens's twenty-three-year marriage to Catherine Hogarth dissolved when he fell in love with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. The last years of his life were filled with intense activity: writing, managing amateur theatricals, and undertaking several reading tours that reinforced the public's favorable view of his work but took an enormous toll on his health. Working feverishly to the last, Dickens collapsed and died on June 8, 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood uncompleted.

Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of David Copperfield.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington