“”Alone among his contemporaries, Charles Dickens seems to possess that instinctive sympthaty with whatever is human and humane which is the fundamental condition of genial and varied characterization. … in individualities which make us in love with our kind, he is unapproached.”” —The Atlantic Monthly, May 1867

The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger, of Blunderstone Rookery—or, as it’s now more commonly known, David Copperfield—is considered one of literature’s quintessential bildungsroman novels.

Originally published in serial installments stretching from May 1849 through November 1850, the tale follows the titular David Copperfield throughout the course of his life in Victorian England. In parts a coming-of-age story, satire, and autobiographical novel, Dickens called David Copperfield “”a very complicated weaving of truth and invention””—as well as named it his favorite of his own works.