David Copperfield

Classic Fiction · No. 5 — Becoming the hero of your own life.

• Classic Fiction
• 35 min
• Ages 15–99
• 6 chapters

About this audiobook

David Copperfield's happy childhood ends when his gentle mother marries the cold Mr. Murdstone. Beaten, sent away, orphaned, and put to work washing bottles at ten years old, David walks penniless to Dover to throw himself on the mercy of an aunt he has never met — and eccentric, donkey-chasing Betsey Trotwood turns out to be the best rescue in English fiction. Through school and love and loss — the dazzling false friend Steerforth, the 'humble' villain Uriah Heep, the improvident Micawbers, pretty Dora and steadfast Agnes — David learns which voices to keep and which to unlearn, and becomes the hero of his own life.

Why it's worth a listen

Orphaned and sent to wash bottles at ten years old, David walks penniless to a great-aunt he has never met — and that is only where his story begins, among the finest characters Dickens ever drew. It is his own boyhood transformed: the cold Murdstones, the dazzling false friend Steerforth, and the magnificent, always-broke Mr. Micawber. And it turns on a question we all live: who teaches you who to become, and how do you unlearn the wrong lessons?

A question to keep

Who teaches you who to become — and how do you unlearn the wrong lessons?

Based on the book by Retold from Charles Dickens, published by Emma's Library original retelling

Chapters

1. The Rookery and the Boat-House
2. Bottles and the Great Road
3. Canterbury and the Humble Clerk
4. Shadows over Yarmouth
5. The Storm and the Unmasking
6. A Question to Keep