Both Uses
David Copperfield
in
Listening for Lions
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- After class I curled up in a hammock strung between two cedar trees with a dog-eared copy of Dickens's David Copperfield.†
Book 1 *
- I thought of David Copperfield working fourteen hours a day in a London factory.†
Book 1
Definitions:
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(1)
(David Copperfield as in: the novel) Charles Dickens's most autobiographical novel, a coming-of-age story depicting the inhuman treatment of children in 19th-century England (1850)Although the story is fiction, Dickens drew on his own painful childhood. Like David, he was sent to work in a grim factory at a young age while his father was imprisoned for debt.
Along the way, David meets a cast of memorable characters—some kind, some exploitative—and the novel becomes a coming-of-age story about finding stability, learning whom to trust, and shaping one’s own future.
For Victorian readers, the book helped shine a harsh light on how orphaned and poor children could be treated as cheap, disposable machines rather than as human beings. It follows David from a miserable childhood to a successful career, emphasizing that character and perseverance can matter more than the social class someone is born into. -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) a stage magician by that name