Reviews and reviews of the book "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens. The life of David Copperfield as told by himself

“The Life of David Copperfield” is the eighth novel by the famous English writer Charles Dickens. At the time of publication of the work, Dickens's star was already shining brightly in the firmament of world literature. The public read his “Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club”, “Oliver Twist” and “Nicholas Nickleby”, “Barnaby Rudge” and “Martin Chuzzlewit”, “Dombey and Son”, as well as “The Antiquities Shop”.

The first chapters of the life story of David Copperfield began to be published in 1849. The last, fifth, publication was made in 1850. The main character, who is also the narrator, begins the story from the moment of his own birth, and we part with a mature man, successful, in demand in his business, a loving and beloved family man.

Knowing Dickens' biography, you can find many autobiographical moments in the novel. This is also indicated by the form of the narration - the story is told in the first person. Of course, you shouldn’t completely identify the author and the main character. David Copperfield is, first of all, an artistic image, inspired by the author's memories and the uncontrollable imagination of the great prose writer.

Let's remember how David Copperfield's life turned out.

David Copperfield was born on Friday at twelve o'clock at night. The baby's first cry coincided with the first strike of the clock. The nurse and some experienced neighbors saw in this a number of mystical omens. Firstly, the boy was promised a difficult fate, full of trials and suffering, and, secondly, they assured the mother in labor that her son would see spirits and ghosts.

Years later, Copperfield analyzes that the first part of the dubious “inheritance” went to him in full, but the second has not yet passed into his possession, which, by the way, he does not regret at all.

David's young mother was little concerned about the neighbors' predictions. At that moment, she was occupied with absolutely uninteresting everyday problems. For example, how to feed your son and yourself. The thing is that David's father died suddenly four months before his birth, and the young Mrs. Copperfield, who was not adapted to life, absolutely did not know what to do next.

Just before the birth, the sister of her late husband, Miss Betsy Trotwood, came to her house. This powerful, strong woman volunteered to help her daughter-in-law and her girl. For some reason Miss Betsy was convinced that Mrs. Copperfield would certainly have a daughter. With his birth, David upset his aunt so much that without saying goodbye, she ran out of her daughter-in-law’s house and never appeared there again.

Meanwhile, young David Copperfield was growing up. He was looked after by his loving mother and caring maid Peggotty. But soon the happy times in David’s life came to an end - his mother remarried. Her chosen one, Mr. Murdstone, turned out to be a most disgusting person. He controlled absolutely everything, not excluding the relationship between mother and son. Any manifestation of affection and tenderness towards a boy was considered unacceptable.

Soon Mr. Murdstone's sister joined the family. David remembers very well the day when a stroller stopped at the threshold of their house, from which a prim lady with hair the same black as her brother stepped out. She had thick dark eyebrows that looked like a man's sideburns. Miss Murdstone brought two black chests, a copper purse and her icy voice. She was truly a “metal lady” who, from the very first day, began to rule the house as a mistress.

Little David's life was becoming a living hell. The main torture in the domestic underworld was the lessons taught by Mr. Murdstone himself. For any offense, the teacher severely punished the student. David was literally dumb with fear, every moment expecting another slap on the head. Once, during a pedagogical spanking, David bit his “tormentor.” For such inappropriate behavior, the boy was sent to the private school Salem House.

Luckily, the link turned out to be quite nice. Young Copperfield made friends he had never had before and unexpectedly showed himself to be a capable student. And most importantly, there were no hated Murdstones and their iron views at school.

David Copperfield's short-lived happiness ended on the day of his mother's death. Mr. Murdstone no longer saw the point in paying for the boy's education, informing him that he was old enough to earn his own living. At that time, David Copperfield was ten years old.

The stepfather assigns his stepson to the Murdstone and Greenby trading house, of which he is a co-owner. Peggotty's favorite maid is being counted on. She leaves for her native Yarmouth, having persuaded Murdstone to let David go stay with her.

Working in a London trading house left David with the most terrible memories. Always hungry and cold, he collapsed after grueling work shifts. The only consolation is the Micawber family, from whom he rents an apartment. These good-natured losers surround him with warmth and care, which is so necessary for a boy thrown into adulthood.

When Micawber is imprisoned as a debtor, David decides to flee London. The only hope for salvation is his grandmother, Miss Betsy Trotwood, who was once so disappointed by the fact that David was not born a girl.

Hungry, dirty, exhausted, the boy barely makes it to Miss Trotwood's house. He is ready for any twists and turns of fate, but his grandmother, surprisingly, greets her grandson very cordially. He is immediately fed, bathed and put into a clean, warm bed. For the first time in many months, David Copperfield slept peacefully.

Ten-year-old Charles Dickens, like his hero, was forced to leave school and go to work in a blacking factory. This happened because his father (a kind but extremely impractical man) ended up in debtor's prison. Dickens tried to forget the months of work at the factory like a bad dream. Since his dismissal, he never appeared at the factory again and always avoided the ill-fated street.

Finally, David Copperfield's life began to resemble that of children his age. He goes to school, eats home-cooked meals from his loving grandmother, who has become his full-time guardian, and even has a best friend - Agness Wickfield, the daughter of a local lawyer.

Agnes's father was once a successful lawyer. After the death of his wife, he seriously lost his temper, began to abuse alcohol, after which his affairs rapidly began to decline. Now he barely maintains his office, which is run by the vile swindler Uriah Heep. This adventurer carried out many vile machinations that almost ruined many of David’s loved ones, including his grandmother. Over time, Heap was brought to light, and his victims' fortunes were returned.

Meanwhile, young David Copperfield grew into a grown man. On the advice of his grandmother, he entered the Faculty of Law, but did not achieve much success in this field. But while practicing in Mr. Spenlow's office, he met Dora, the owner's daughter. David immediately fell in love with the pretty Dora and, despite the obstacles that arose in the path of the young people, he won the hand of his chosen one.

Unfortunately, the first years of their life together proved that there was nothing worthwhile behind Dora's beautiful appearance. She never became David’s comrade-in-arms, like-minded person, friend, or soul mate.

Things didn’t work out with jurisprudence either. David begins to realize that this is not the occupation to which he would like to devote his life.

Unsuccessful marriage

The marriage of Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine was unsuccessful, despite the fact that at first the future wife also captivated the young Dickens with her beauty. Already in the first years of marriage, Charles clearly sympathized with her sister Mary, whose unexpected death became a severe blow for him.

A happy ending

Life, however, put everything in its place. Silly Dora died suddenly, freeing David from the marriage that was weighing him down. He met his fate in the person of his childhood friend Agnes.

The novel “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield was born half orphaned six months after the death of his father. It so happened that his father's aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, was present at his birth - her marriage was so unsuccessful that she became a man-hater, returned to her maiden name and settled in the wilderness. Before her nephew’s marriage, she loved him very much, but she came to terms with his choice and came to meet his wife only six months after his death. Miss Betsy expressed a desire to become the godmother of a newborn girl (she definitely wanted a girl to be born), asked to name her Betsy Trotwood Copperfield and intended to “raise her properly,” protecting her from all possible mistakes. Having learned that a boy was born, she was so disappointed that, without saying goodbye, she left her nephew’s house forever.

As a child, David is surrounded by the care and love of his mother and nanny Peggotty. But his mother is getting married for the second time.

During their honeymoon, David and his nanny are sent to Yarmouth to stay with his brother Peggotty. This is how he first finds himself in a hospitable longboat house and meets its inhabitants: Mr. Peggotty, his nephew Ham, his niece Emlie (David falls in love with her as a child) and the widow of his companion Mrs. Gummidge.

Returning home, David finds there a “new dad” - Mr. Mardston and a completely changed mother: now she is afraid to caress him and obeys her husband in everything. When Mr. Mardston’s sister also moves in with them, the boy’s life becomes completely unbearable. The Mardstons are very proud of their firmness, meaning by it “the tyrannical, gloomy, arrogant, devilish disposition inherent in both of them.” The boy is taught at home; under the ferocious gaze of his stepfather and his sister, he becomes dumb with fear and cannot answer the lesson. The only joy in his life is his father's books, which, fortunately, ended up in his room. For poor studies, he is deprived of lunch and slapped on the head; Finally, Mr. Mardstone decides to resort to spanking. As soon as the first blow hit David, he bit his stepfather's hand. For this he is sent to Salem House School - right in the middle of the holidays. His mother bade him a cold farewell under the watchful gaze of Miss Mardstone, and only when the cart had pulled away from the house did the faithful Peggotty stealthily jump into it and, showering “her Davy” with kisses, provided her with a basket of delicacies and a purse, in which, among other money, were two half-crowns from his mother, wrapped in a piece of paper with the inscription: “For Davy. With love". At school, his back was immediately decorated with a poster: “Beware! It bites!” The holidays are over, its inhabitants return to the school, and David meets new friends - the recognized leader among the students, James Steerford, six years older than him, and Tommy Traddles - “the most cheerful and the most unfortunate.” The school is run by Mr. Creakle, whose teaching method is intimidation and spanking; not only his students, but also his family are mortally afraid of him. Steerford, whom Mr. Creakle fawns over, takes Copperfield under his protection because he, like Scheherazade, tells him the contents of books from his father's library at night.

The Christmas holidays come, and David goes home, not yet knowing that this meeting with his mother is destined to be his last: she will soon die, and David’s newborn brother will also die. After the death of his mother, David no longer returns to school: Mr. Mardstone explains to him that education costs money and people like David Copperfield will not need it, because it is time for them to earn a living. The boy acutely feels his abandonment: the Mardstons have calculated Peggotty, and the kind nanny is the only person in the world who loves him. Peggotty returns to Yarmouth and marries the carter Barkis; but before parting, she begged the Mardstons to let David stay in Yarmouth, and he again ends up in a longboat house on the seashore, where everyone sympathizes with him and everyone is kind to him - the last breath of love before difficult trials.

Mardstone sends David to London to work at the Mardston and Grinby trading house. So at the age of ten, David enters into an independent life - that is, he becomes a slave of the company. Together with other boys, always hungry, he washes bottles all day long, feeling how he is gradually forgetting the wisdom of school and horrified at the thought that someone from his former life might see him. His suffering is strong and deep, but he does not complain.

David becomes very attached to the family of the owner of his apartment, Mr. Micawber, a frivolous loser, constantly besieged by creditors and living in the eternal hope that someday “happiness will smile on us.” Mrs. Micawber, easily hysterical and just as easily consoled, continually asks David to pawn either a silver spoon or sugar tweezers. But they also have to part with the Micawbers: they end up in a debtor’s prison, and after their release they go to seek their fortune in Plymouth. David, who does not have a single loved one left in this city, firmly decides to run to Grandma Trotwood. In the letter, he asks Peggotty where his grandmother lives and asks him to send him half a guinea as a loan. Having received the money and a very vague answer that Miss Trotwood lives “somewhere near Dover,” David collects his things in a chest and goes to the mail coach station; On the way he is robbed, and, already without a chest and without money, he sets off on foot. He spends the night in the open air and sells his jacket and vest to buy bread, he is exposed to many dangers - and on the sixth day, hungry and dirty, with broken legs, he comes to Dover. Having happily found his grandmother's house, sobbing, he tells his story and asks for protection. Grandmother writes to the Mardstons and promises to give a final answer after talking with them, but in the meantime David is washed, fed dinner and put into a real, clean bed.

After talking with the Mardstons and understanding the full extent of their gloom, rudeness and greed (taking advantage of the fact that David’s mother, whom they brought to the grave, did not stipulate David’s share in the will, they took possession of all her property without allocating him a penny), the grandmother decides to become David's official guardian.

Finally David returns to normal life. Although his grandmother is eccentric, she is very, very kind, and not only to her great-nephew. In her house lives the quiet, crazy Mr. Dick, whom she saved from Bedlam. David begins studying at Dr. Strong's school in Canterbury; Since there are no more places in the boarding school at the school, the grandmother gratefully accepts the offer of her lawyer Mr. Wickfield to place the boy with him. After the death of his wife, Mr. Wickfield, drowning in grief, began to have an immoderate passion for port wine; the only light of his life is his daughter Agnes, the same age as David. For David, she also became a good angel. Uriah Heep works in Mr. Wickfield's law office - a disgusting type, red-haired, writhing with his whole body, with unclosing red eyes, without eyelashes, with eternally cold and damp hands, to each of his phrases, obsequiously adding: “we are small, humble people.”

Dr. Strong's school turns out to be the exact opposite of Mr. Creakle's school. David is a successful student, and the happy school years, warmed by the love of his grandmother, Mr. Dick, and Agnes's good angel, fly by instantly.

After finishing school, his grandmother invites David to go to London, visit Peggotty and, after resting, choose a business to his liking; David goes traveling. In London he meets Steerford, with whom he studied at Salem House. Steerford invites him to stay with his mother, and David accepts the invitation. In turn, David invites Steerford to go with him to Yarmouth.

They come to the longboat house at the moment of Emly and Ham's engagement, Emly has grown and blossomed, women all over the area hate her for her beauty and ability to dress with taste; she works as a seamstress. David lives in his nanny's house, Steerford in an inn; David spends his days wandering around the cemetery around his family’s graves, Steerford goes to sea, arranges feasts for sailors and charms the entire population of the coast, “impelled by an unconscious desire to rule, an unconscious need to conquer, to conquer even that which has no value to him.” How David will regret bringing him here!

Steerford seduces Emly, and on the eve of the wedding she runs away with him, "to return as a lady or not to return at all." Ham's heart is broken, he longs to lose himself in work, Mr. Peggotty goes to look for Emly around the world, and only Mrs. Gummidge remains in the longboat house - so that the light is always on in the window, in case Emly returns. For many years there is no news about her, finally David learns that in Italy Emly ran away from Steerford when he, having become bored with her, invited her to marry his servant.

Grandma suggests that David choose a career as a lawyer - a proctor at Doctor Commons. David agrees, his grandmother pays a thousand pounds for his education, arranges his life and returns to Dover.

David's independent life begins in London. He is glad to meet again Tommy Traddles, his friend from Salem House, who also works in the legal field, but, being poor, earns his living and education on his own. Traddles is engaged and eagerly tells David about his Sophie. David is also in love - with Dora, the daughter of Mr. Spenlow, the owner of the company where he is studying. Friends have a lot to talk about. Despite the fact that life does not spoil him, Traddles is surprisingly good-natured. It turns out that the owners of his apartment are the Micawbers; They are, as usual, enmeshed in debt. David is happy to renew his acquaintance; Traddles and the Micawbers form his social circle until the Micawbers go to Canterbury - under pressure from circumstances and inspired by the hope that “fortune has smiled on them”: Mr. Micawber got a job in the Wickfield and Heap office.

Uriah Heap, skillfully playing on Mr. Wickfield's weakness, became his partner and is gradually taking over the office. He deliberately confuses the accounts and shamelessly robs the firm and its clients, getting Mr. Wickfield drunk and instilling in him the belief that the cause of the disastrous state of affairs is his drunkenness. He takes up residence in Mr. Wickfield's house and sexually harasses Agnes. And Micawber, wholly dependent on him, is hired to help him in his dirty business.

One of Uriah Heep's victims is David's grandmother. She is ruined; with Mr. Dick and all her belongings, she comes to London, renting out her house in Dover in order to feed herself. David is not at all discouraged by this news; he goes to work as a secretary for Dr. Strong, who retired and settled in London (the good angel Agnes recommended this place to him); In addition, he studies shorthand. The grandmother manages their household in such a way that it seems to David that he has become richer, not poorer; Mr. Dick earns money by copying papers. Having mastered shorthand, David begins to make very good money as a parliamentary reporter.

Having learned about the change in David's financial situation, Mr. Spenlow, Dora's father, refuses him the house. Dora is also afraid of poverty. David is inconsolable; but when Mr. Spenlow died suddenly, it turned out that his affairs were in complete disarray - Dora, who now lives with her aunts, is no richer than David. David is allowed to visit her; Dora's aunts got along very well with David's grandmother. David is slightly embarrassed that everyone treats Dora like a toy; but she herself has nothing against it. Having reached adulthood, David marries. This marriage turned out to be short-lived: two years later, Dora dies before she has time to grow up.

Mr Peggotty finds Emly; after much ordeal, she reached London, where Martha Endell, a fallen girl from Yarmouth, whom Emly once helped, in turn saves her and brings her to her uncle’s apartment. (It was David’s idea to involve Martha in the search for Emly.) Mr. Peggotty now intends to emigrate to Australia, where no one will be interested in Emly’s past.

Meanwhile, Mr. Micawber, unable to participate in Uriah Heap's frauds, with the help of Traddles, exposes him. Mr. Wickfield's good name is saved, and fortunes are restored to Grandma and other clients. Full of gratitude, Miss Trotwood and David pay the Micawber bills and lend money to this nice family: the Micawbers also decided to go to Australia. Mr. Wickfield liquidates the company and retires; Agnes opens a school for girls.

On the eve of the ship's departure to Australia, a terrible storm occurred on the Yarmouth coast - it claimed the lives of Ham and Steerford.

After Dora's death, David, who has become a famous writer (he moved from journalism to fiction), goes to the continent to work to overcome his grief. Returning three years later, he marries Agnes, who, as it turned out, loved him all her life. Grandma finally became godmother to Betsy Trotwood Copperfield (that’s the name of one of her great-granddaughters); Peggotty babysits David's children; Traddles is also married and happy. The emigrants have settled down wonderfully in Australia. Uriah Heap is held in a prison run by Mr. Creakle.

Thus, life put everything in its place.

The work of Charles Dickens "David Copperfield"

Dickens critical realism Copperfield

Of all the books I read, I chose a work from Dickens’s third period - the novel “David Copperfield” (1850). The work is among the masterpieces of world literature. Dickens loved this novel more than his other works. The novel is written in the form of a biography and is largely autobiographical. It is very harmonious both in composition and in the manner of writing. The pages devoted to the hero's childhood and youth remain the best in world literature, for they give a true picture of the inner world of a child and youth. Dickens turns to the world of childhood for the first time. But his images of children, deeply unhappy, deprived of care and warmth, are drawn with varying degrees of convincingness. However, the depth of psychological characteristics in Dombey and Son led Dickens to create the spiritual world of a child and youth on a different, more complex level in the novel David Copperfield.

So, this is a work of critical realism because:

1. As mentioned above, the typification of realism uses psychologism, that is, the disclosure of a complex spiritual world - the world of the character’s thoughts and feelings. Dickens showed the hero in development, depicting the evolution of David's character, which was determined by the complex interaction of his personality and society. David Copperfield sees injustice and fights against it, gaining friends and allies. Exploring Life and other people, David opens himself, not at all hiding from the reader the contradictions of his nature. The main thing in David's character is his inexhaustible faith in people, in goodness, and justice. This trait was also inherent in the author, having experienced adversity in life (at the age of ten, having left school, Charles had to earn his own living and help his family, who ended up in London's Marshalsea prison due to unpaid bills), Dickens invariably believed in democratic ideals and humanism . “My faith in the people is limitless,” he said.

2. In connection with the events that actually took place, we see the second feature of realism - this work reflects the essence of socio-historical phenomena, the characters of the work carry typical, collective features of a particular social stratum or class, and the conditions in which they act , are not a random fruit of the writer’s imagination, but a reflection of the laws of the socio-economic and political life of the era. Dickens objectively described the existing aspects of life, remaining true to high ideals. Dickens biographer Hescote Pearson writes: “...here, in the London slums, he, without knowing it, received his true education... wandering around the city and its gloomy outskirts, he unnoticedly obtained the raw materials from which he was to create his heroes. Unconsciously he accumulated a rich store of observations. All these places were subsequently described by him, and many of their inhabitants later became heroes of his novels.”1

3. The novel is dominated by interest in the problem of “personality and society”, in the problem of education. Several methods of education are shown here: the system of David's stepfather Mr. Murdstone, the system of Creakle - a former hop merchant turned headmaster of a boys' school, and the system of Betsy Trotwood. Problems of upbringing and education occupy a significant place in this novel. They are associated with the process of personality formation and its moral qualities. David's story is directed to the past, to his childhood, and the pictures of his childhood are drawn using imaginative child thinking. That's why visual, picturesque portraits predominate here - Peggotty's red cheeks amaze David so much that he wonders why birds didn't peck at them instead of apples. Murdstone's white-black-brown face and empty eyes are a brief description of the hero David hates because he is cruel and heartless and considers the child a burden.

Crickle's system is very peculiar, although it differs little from Squeers' system. Creakle himself "knows nothing but the art of spanking, and is more ignorant than the lowest student in school." Both Murdstone and Creakle evoke hostility and disgust in David. Their methods of education are inhumane and inhumane. Betsy Trotwood wants to make David a good man and useful to society. David sees in her the embodiment of goodness and justice, although this is hidden under the mask of external severity.

In "David Copperfield" Dickens analyzes the reasons for the moral imperfection of people, their moral ugliness. Two characters - Uriah Heap and Steerforth, belonging to different types of social structure, turn out to be living illustrations of Dickens's judgment about the imperfection of the education system and social relations. Both fail, the fates of both are crippled, although for different reasons. Steerforth is an aristocrat who was allowed everything back at Crickle’s school, where he enjoyed freedom and independence; in life he is a snob who considers his origin to be an excuse for the most unseemly actions. Uriah Heap, educated at a school for the poor, is also a victim of his upbringing. He is servile, servile and sycophantic; by nature he is disgusting, vindictive, cruel, and base.

1. Pearson Hescote. Dickens. M: 1963, pp. 10-11.

Dickens in his novels, in particular in the novel “David Copperfield,” writes about social injustice and class contradictions. The writer was not a supporter of the revolutionary struggle, but he deeply sympathized with the situation of the working people of England and his work reflected the sentiments of the broad masses during the period of intensified social and class struggle in England in the 19th century. Dickens was a contemporary of the Chartist movement, whose rise dates back to 1830-1840. The Chartist movement determined the humanistic pathos, the distinctive power of the works of Dickens and his contemporaries - realist writers W. Thackeray, the Bronte sisters, E. Gaskell.

THE LIFE OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, AS TELL BY HIMSELF Novel (1850) David Copperfield was born half an orphan - six months after the death of his father. It so happened that his father's aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, was present at his birth - her marriage was so unsuccessful that she became a man-hater, returned her maiden name and settled in the wilderness. Before her nephew’s marriage, she loved him very much, but she came to terms with his choice and came to meet his wife only six months after his death. Miss Betsy expressed a desire to become the godmother of the newborn (she definitely wanted a girl to be born), asked to name her Betsy Trotwood Copperfield and intended to “raise her properly,” protecting her from all possible mistakes. Having learned that a boy was born, she was so disappointed that, without saying goodbye, she left her nephew’s house forever.

As a child, David is surrounded by the care and love of his mother and nanny Peggotty. But his mother is getting married for the second time.

Returning home, David finds there a “new dad” - Mr. Mardston and a completely changed mother: now she is afraid to caress him and obeys her husband in everything. When Mr. Mardston's sister also moves in with them, the boy's life becomes completely unbearable.

The Mardstons are very proud of their firmness, meaning by it “the tyrannical, gloomy, arrogant, devilish disposition inherent in both of them.” The boy is taught at home; under the ferocious gaze of his stepfather and his sister, he becomes dumb with fear and cannot answer the lesson. The only joy in his life is his father's books, which, fortunately, were in his room. For poor studies, he is deprived of lunch and slapped on the head; Finally, Mr. Mardstone decides to resort to flogging. As soon as the first blow hit David, he bit his stepfather's hand.

For this he is sent to Salem House School - right in the middle of the holidays. His mother bade him a cold farewell under the watchful eye of Miss Mardstone, and only when the carriage had pulled away from the house did the faithful Peggotty stealthily jump into it and, showering “her Davy” with kisses, provided him with a basket of delicacies and a purse, which, among other money, contained two half-crowns from mother, wrapped in a piece of paper with the inscription: "For Davy. With love." At school, his back was immediately decorated with a poster: "Beware! It bites!" The holidays are over, its inhabitants return to school, and David meets new friends - the recognized leader among the students, James Steerford, six years older than him, and Tommy Traddles - “the most cheerful and the most unfortunate.” The school is run by Mr. Creakle, whose teaching method is bullying and spanking; not only his students, but also his family are mortally afraid of him. Steerford, whom Mr. Creakle fawns over, takes Copperfield under his protection because he, like Scheherazade, tells him at night the contents of books from his father's library.

The Christmas holidays come, and David goes home, not yet knowing that this meeting with his mother is destined to be his last: she will soon die, and David’s newborn brother will also die. After the death of his mother, David no longer returns to school: Mr. Mardstone explains to him that education costs money and people like David Copperfield will not need it, because it is time for them to earn a living. The boy acutely feels his abandonment: the Mardstons have calculated Peggotty, and the kind nanny is the only person in the world who loves him. Pegot-ty returns to Yarmouth and marries the carter Barkis; but before parting, she begged the Mardstons to let David stay in Yarmouth, and he again ends up in a longboat house on the seashore, where everyone sympathizes with him and everyone is kind to him - the last breath of love before difficult trials.

Mardstone sends David to London to work at the Mardston and Grinby trading house. So at the age of ten, David enters into an independent life - that is, he becomes a slave of the company.

Together with other boys, always hungry, he washes bottles all day long, feeling how he is gradually forgetting the wisdom of school, and horrified at the thought that someone from his previous life might see him. His suffering is strong and deep, but he does not complain.

David becomes very attached to the family of his landlord, Mr. Micawber, a frivolous loser, constantly besieged by creditors and living in the eternal hope that someday “fortune will smile on us.” Mrs. Micawber, easily hysterical and just as easily consoled, continually asks David to pawn either a silver spoon or sugar tweezers. But they also have to part with the Micawbers: they end up in a debtor’s prison, and after their release they go to seek their fortune in Plymouth. David, who does not have a single loved one left in this city, firmly decides to run to Grandma Trotwood. In the letter, he asks Peggotty where his grandmother lives and asks him to send him half a guinea as a loan. Having received the money and a very vague answer that Miss Trotwood lives “somewhere near Dover,” David collects his things in a chest and goes to the mail coach station; On the way he is robbed, and, already without a chest and without money, he makes his way on foot. He spends the night in the open air and sells his jacket and vest to buy bread, he is exposed to many dangers and on the sixth day, hungry and dirty, with broken legs, he comes to Dover.

Having finally found his grandmother’s house, sobbing, he tells his story and asks for protection.

Grandmother writes to the Mardstons and promises to give a final answer after talking with them, but in the meantime David is washed, fed dinner and put into a real, clean bed.

After talking with the Mardstons and understanding the extent of their rudeness and greed, the grandmother decides to become David's official guardian.

Finally David returns to normal life. Although his grandmother is eccentric, she is very, very kind, and not only to her great-nephew. In her house lives the quiet, crazy Mr. Dick, whom she saved from Bedlam. David begins studying at Dr. Strong's school in Canterbury; Since there are no more places in the boarding school at the school, the grandmother gratefully accepts the offer of her lawyer Mr. Wickfield to place the boy with him. After the death of his wife, Mr. Wickfield, drowning in grief, began to have an immoderate passion for port wine; the only light of his life was his daughter Agnes, the same age as David. For David, she also became a good angel. Uriah Heep works in Mr. Wickfield's law office - a disgusting type, red-haired, writhing with his whole body, with unclosing red eyes without eyelashes, with eternally cold and damp hands, obsequiously adding to each of his phrases: “we are small, humble people.”

After finishing school, his grandmother invites David to go to London. There he meets Steerford, with whom he studied at Salem House. Steerford invites him to stay with his mother, and David accepts the invitation. In turn, David invites Steerford to go with him to Yarmouth.

They come to the longboat house at the moment of Emly and Ham's engagement. Emly has grown and blossomed, women all over the area hate her for her beauty and ability to dress with taste; she works as a seamstress.

David lives in his nanny's house, Steerford in an inn; David spends his days wandering around the cemetery, around his family’s graves, Steerford goes to sea, arranges feasts for sailors and charms the entire population of the coast, “impelled by an unconscious desire to rule, an unconscious need to conquer, to conquer even that which has no value for him.” How David will regret bringing him here! Steerford seduces Emly, and on the eve of the wedding she runs away with him, "to return as a lady or not to return at all." Ham's heart is broken, he longs to lose himself in work, Mr. Peggotty goes to look for Emly around the world, and only Mrs. Gummidge remains in the longboat house - so that the light is always on in the window, in case Emly returns. For many years there is no news about her, finally David learns that in Italy Emly ran away from Steerford when he, bored with her, invited her to marry his servant.

Grandma suggests that David choose a career as a lawyer - a proctor at Doctor Commons. David agrees, his grandmother pays a thousand pounds for his education, arranges his life and returns to Dover.

David's independent life begins in London. He is in love with Dora, the daughter of Mr. Spenlow, the owner of the company where he is studying. David is glad to renew his acquaintance with the Micawbers; “luck has smiled on them”: Mr. Micawber got a job in the Wickfield and Heap office.

Uriah Heap, skillfully playing on Mr. Wickfield's weakness, became his partner and is gradually taking over the office. He deliberately confuses the accounts and shamelessly robs the firm and its clients, getting Mr. Wickfield drunk and convincing him that the reason for the disastrous state of affairs is his drunkenness. He takes up residence in Mr. Wickfield's house and sexually harasses Agnes. And Micawber, wholly dependent on him, is hired to help him in his dirty business.

Having reached adulthood, David marries. This marriage turned out to be short-lived: two years later, Dora dies before she has time to grow up.

Meanwhile, Mr. Micawber, unable to participate in Uriah Heap's frauds, with the help of Traddles, exposes him. Mr. Wickfield's good name is saved, and fortunes are restored to Grandma and other clients. Full of gratitude, Miss Trotwood and David pay Micawber's bills and lend money to this glorious family: the Micawbers also decided to go to Australia. Mr. Wickfield liquidates the company and retires; Agnes opens a school for girls.

On the eve of the ship's departure to Australia, a terrible storm occurred on the Yarmouth coast - it claimed the lives of Ham and Steerford.

After Dora's death, David, who has become a famous writer (he moved from journalism to fiction), goes to the continent to work through his grief. Returning three years later, he marries Agnes, who, as it turned out, loved him all her life. Grandma finally became godmother to Betsy Trotwood Copperfield (that’s the name of one of her great-granddaughters); Peggotty babysits David's children; Traddles is also married and happy. The emigrants have settled down wonderfully in Australia. Uriah Heap is held in prison, where Mr. Creakle is the warden. Thus, life put everything in its place.

Bibliography

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Like the most vivid impressions of reality. In this regard, Dickens has a rare gift of artistic expression. II.3 Features of portrait characteristics in the system of images of Charles Dickens’s novel “The Life of David Copperfield” In the novel “The Life of David Copperfield”, as in previous novels, along with the central character, there is a division of characters into positive and...

The ship is English society. Polypnyak invisibly, but very noticeably sticks to the life of each hero of the novel. Money is a theme most important for the art of the 19th century. and one of the central ones in Dickens’s entire work - acquired a different, deeper interpretation in both the social and ethical sense in his later novels. In Dickens's early novels, money was often a saving, good force (Brownlow in "...

They gave him unforgettable examples of legal chicanery. Wanting to somehow improve his affairs, Dickens's father mastered shorthand and became a journalist of a higher caliber. Following him, Charles Dickens learned shorthand. He also rose higher and was able to take part in the same courts no longer as an errand boy, but as a reporter at trials. Dickens is going up. Becomes a reporter...

Love for the homeland alone is not enough - love only gives energy, feeling, but does not give content; You also need to know your people well, get to know them better, become closer to them.” 2. Features of the realistic method in Dickens’s early novels (“The Adventures of Oliver Twist”) Dickens’s social philosophy and the formation of the realistic method Dickens’s social philosophy in the form in which it...

Any reader, after reading a work, I think, always wants to visualize the hero, to make him move from his own imagination to another reality and come to life there. Cinema provides us with such an opportunity of “the life of the heroes of a work” in another reality. At the same time, this reality is accessible to us; it’s enough just to watch the film and here he is, your hero is alive and real in the historical setting that the author of the work shows us.

The problem is that not all films accurately reproduce the picture of time for us, bring our imaginary hero to life, and even more so convey the content of a particular work. Most often, on the contrary, the director takes only key moments of the plot and does not make a film based on the work, but gives his own interpretation of the book. This happened, for example, with the films of director Mira Nair “Vanity Fair” (2004), where the work of William Thackeray is not present at all, the characters of the heroes are completely different the insidious careerist Becky Sharp is shown as almost a sweet and naive girl, there is no point in talking about small inaccuracies in the transmission of the narrative. In this case, we can talk about “Vanity Fair” as a separate film, but not as a film based on the work. We will encounter the same situation if we dwell on Fyodor Bondarchuk’s film “Inhabited Island,” in which the director tried to film the Strugatsky Brothers.

Often we are faced only with attempts at film adaptation, which in no way coincide with our ideas. However, among such “attempts” one can find a picture that is truly accurate in conveying the nuances of the work and characters, and vivid in depicting the situation and context of events. Such a film can be called “David Copperfield” based on the work of the same name by Charles Dickens.

The picture is interesting primarily due to the incredible accuracy of the reproduction of the events that the author narrates in the text. We see an absolutely identical sequence here. This is truly the life of David Copperfield as told by himself. We see here all the stages of his life’s journey, and the director does not hide the details from us and shows even the most difficult and unremarkable moments from David’s life, for example, how the boy worked as a wine bottle washer. I think the director of the film takes this fragment for a reason, there is rather a hint here although the novel does not pretend to be autobiographical, some events from Dickens’ life are still present in it. And this very moment is taken from the biography, with the only inaccuracy that Dickens himself worked in a blacking factory.

The film "David Copperfield" is a complete "literal" repetition of the novel. Its content can be traced through the chapters of the work: “I am being sent away from my home,” “I am expanding my circle of acquaintances,” “My “first half of the year” at Salem House School,” “Grandmother decides my fate” all this is depicted in detail in the picture .

The film adaptation of this work attracts with its thoroughness, its solid book basis. That is why, here we can talk about the “educational effect” of the picture. After watching the film, the viewer can obtain fairly reliable information about the work, its content and the characteristics of the characters.

I think more films like this need to be made. After all, the works on which they are based are rightfully considered the best classics of world literature.