David Copperfield B2

UPPER INTERMEDIATE

B2

ON CD 15

GLOSSARY

1 scholars: académicos 2 best-loved: más queridas 3 to weave: entretejer 4 bildungsroman: novela de formación (préstamo del alemán) 5 to pass away: fallecer 6 stepfather: padrastro 7 to hinder: impedir 8 cast of characters: galería de personajes 9 debt: deudas 10 to share: compartir 11 to fail: ser incapaz

David Copperfield

by Charles Dickens

Born in 1812, Charles Dickens was a literary genius and the most famous author of the 19th century. He possessed what scholars1 called “the conscience of his age”, combining social critique, characterisation and humour in his writing, exploring the inequalities and contradictions of Victorian society. First published as a serial in 1849-50, and as a book in 1850, David Copperfield is one of his best-loved2 novels and according to the author himself “is a very complicated weaving3 of truth and invention.”

EDUCATION

A middle-aged David Copperfield narrates the novel in first person. Now an eminent author, he looks back on his formative years and experiences in classic bildungsroman4 style. David’s father dies before he is born and his mother passes away5 when he is still very young. At the age of ten, he is taken out of school by his stepfather6 and sent to work in a factory —which was also Dickens’ experience as a child: “You have received some considerable education already. Education is costly; and even if it were not, and I could afford it, I am of the opinion that it would not be at all advantageous to you to be kept at school. What is before you, is a fight with the world; and the sooner you begin it, the better.”

“Has recibido hasta ahora una esmerada educación. Un internado es muy caro y, aunque no lo fuese y yo pudiera costearlo, tengo el convencimiento de que no sería lo mejor para ti. En este mundo, la

David Copperfield

Es una de las novelas más populares del autor inglés y, según él mismo, una de sus preferidas. Una historia de formación parcialmente autobiográfica con una galería de personajes que encarnan los valores de la sociedad británica de la época.

vida es una lucha y, cuanto antes comiences, mejor”.

DEBT

David’s “fight with the world” is helped and sometimes hindered7 by a memorable cast of characters8: Peggotty, Betsey Trotwood, Barkis, Uriah Heep, Steerforth, Agnes and Mr. and Mrs. Micawber. Mr. Micawber finds himself imprisoned for debt9, as was Dickens’ own father. Micawber shares10 the rule of happiness in life with David, a rule he himself has sadly failed11 to follow: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery… In short you are for ever floored. As I am!”

“Si sus ingresos anuales son de veinte libras, gaste diecinueve libras, diecinueve chelines y seis peniques: será un

PUBLICATION DATE: 1850 GENRE: BILDUNGSROMAN

*Traducción de Marta Salís, Debolsillo, Barcelona, 2005

Opposite page: scenes featuring David Copperfield and Uriah Heep, a manipulative law clerk, illustrated by Frederick Barnard for journal The Bookman, 1912. Left: an engraving from the 1850 edition illustrated by H.K. Browne. Below: Charles Dickens c.1875.

hombre feliz. No gaste veinte libras y seis peniques: será muy desdichado. […] en una palabra, usted se hunde para siempre. ¡Al igual que yo!”

PERSERVERANCE

Tragedy and romance often go handin-hand in Dickens’ novels, and David Copperfield is no exception. Committing himself12 to a marriage with young Dora, despite13 fundamental differences in outlook14 and values, David Copperfield suffers heartbreak15, but also insight16. He concludes that good character, integrity and hard work are more important than talent or sophistication:

“I will only add, to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured in me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if it have any strength at all, that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success.”

Top: the 1935 US film version of David Copperfield directed by George Cukor. Above: the 2019 comedy-drama film of the novel directed by Armando Iannucci and starring Dev Patel (left). Opposite page: Dickens’ Dream an unfinished painting by Robert William Buss, 1870s. “He hablado ya de mi perseverancia en ese período de mi vida, y de la paciente y continua energía que empezó entonces a madurar en mí, y que constituye sin duda la parte más fuerte de mi carácter (si es que hay alguna fuerza en él). Añadiré solamente que, cuando vuelvo la vista atrás, descubro en esas cualidades la fuente de mis éxitos”.

AUTHOR

Charles Dickens worked in a law office, taught himself shorthand17 and became a reporter before writing fiction. David Copperfield follows a similar path18, training as a legal clerk19 and writing newspaper reports on parliamentary debates before reinventing himself as an author. When Copperfield visits his aunt and suggests going for a horse ride, she remarks20 on his progress:

“The ride will do his master good, at all events,’ observed my aunt, glancing at the papers on my table. ‘Ah, child, you pass a good many hours here! I never thought, when I used to read books, what work it was to write them.’ ‘It’s work enough to read them, sometimes,’ I returned. ‘As to the writing, it has its own charms, aunt.’”

“—De todos modos, el paseo le sentará bien a su amo —señaló mi tía, echando una mirada a los papeles que había enla mesa—. ¡Ay, hijo! ¡Pasas muchas horas aquí! Jamás pensé, cuando leía libros, que costara tanto escribirlos. —A veces tampoco es fácil leerlos—repuse— En cuanto a escribirlos, le aseguro que tiene sus encantos, tía”.

READING TOURS

Dickens described David Copperfield as his “favourite child”, and the book was hugely popular on his reading tours, which were attended by large crowds21 . When he died in 1870, Dickens left a legacy of fifteen novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles. Alongside22 his list of enduring23 characters and stories, Dickens is remembered for his campaigning and support for children’s rights, education and other social reforms. David Copperfield marks the point where Dickens matures as a serious writer, following an ethos24 explained by David Copperfield himself: “Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well.”

GLOSSARY

12 to commit oneself: comprometerse 13 despite: a pesar de 14 outlook: mentalidad, actitud 15 heartbreak: desamor 16 insight: perspicacia 17 shorthand: taquigrafía 18 path: camino 19 clerk: oficinista 20 to remark: observar 21 crowds: multitudes 22 alongside: junto a 23 enduring: duradero 24 ethos: ética