Charles Dickens's David Copperfield

A Routledge Study Guide and Sourcebook
Erscheinungsjahr 2003
ISBN: 978-0-415-27541-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 188 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 340 g

Reihe: Routledge Guides to Literature

This guidebook offers the ideal introduction to one of the most enduringly popular works of the nineteenth century. Richard J. Dunn first places David Copperfield in its social, biographical and literary contexts, touching upon such fascinating issues as autobiography and Victorian social conditions, before offering a handy chronology and reprinted documents from the period. In a second section, 'Interpretations', he traces responses to the novel from the first reviews to modern criticism and reprints extracts from key critical works. The overview and extracts together offer insight into a remarkable range of issues, from the novel's humour to its reflections of class and gender structures. The section also considers the long history of stage and screen interpretations of Dickens's highly dramatic text. The third major section pulls together text and context by reprinting key passages of the novel, carefully cross-referenced to materials in the previous sections. The links between text, context and criticism enable original readings of the novel and detailed, accessible headnotes to the extracts further enrich our understanding of the work. A final section suggests targeted further reading. Read from beginning to end or used as a reference tool, this sourcebook reveals the varied life of David Copperfield in the hands of generations of readers, critics and adaptors, and ensures that it will continue to thrive. An ideal introduction to one of Dicken's most popular novels, this text includes autobiography, text interpretations, period illustrations, stage and screen history, and key passages carefully cross-referenced to earlier material.

Zielgruppe

Undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dunn, Richard J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Prosa, Erzählung, Roman, Prosaautoren
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Series Editor’s Preface Introduction, 1: Contexts, Contextual Overview, Chronology, Contemporary Documents, From Charles Dickens, ‘Autobiographical Fragment’ (mid-1840s), From Charles Dickens, ‘An Appeal to Fallen Women’ (1847), From Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843), From Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (1859), From William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1850), From Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847), From Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam (1850), 2: Interpretations, Critical History, Early Critical Reception, From [H. F. Chorley], ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ (1850), From [Margaret Oliphant] ‘Charles Dickens’ (1855), From John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens (1874), Modern Criticism, From J. Hillis Miller, ‘David Copperfield ’ (1958), From Q. D. Leavis, ‘Dickens and Tolstoy: The Case for a Serious View of David Copperfield’ (1970), From James R. Kincaid, ‘David Copperfield: Laughter and Point of View’ (1971), From William J. Palmer, ‘Dickens and Shipwreck’ (1997), From Malcolm Andrews, ‘Children and the Childlike’ and ‘The Trials of Maturity’ (1994), From Mary Poovey, ‘The Man-of-Letters Hero: David Copperfield and the Professional Writer’ (1988), From Juliet John, ‘Byronic Baddies, Melodramatic Anxieties’ (2001), From Alexander Welsh, ‘A Novelist’s Novelist’ and ‘Women Passing By’ (1987), From Stephen Lutman, ‘Reading Illustrations: Pictures in David Copperfield’ (1980), The Novel in Performance, Introduction, From Philip Collins, ‘David Copperfield’ (1975), From James R. Kincaid, ‘Viewing and Blurring in Dickens: The Misrepresentation of Representation’ (1987), From Glenn K. S. Mann, ‘Cukor’s and Selznick’s David Copperfield: Dickens in Hollywood’ (1990), From Robert Giddings, ‘David Copperfield on BBC 1 (1999)’ (2000), 3: Key Passages, Introduction, 1 The Monthly Parts Cover, 2 1867 Preface, 3 The Opening Chapters, 4 Little Em’ly and the Peggottys, 5 The Murdstones, 6 Salem House, 7 Murdstone and Grinby’s, 8 Betsey Trotwood, 9 Agnes Wickfield and Uriah Heep, 10 Somebody Turns Up, 11 Steerforth, 12 Dora, 13 Em’ly and Steerforth, 14 Work, 15 Child-Wife, 16 Em’ly’s Return, 17 Heep Unmasked, 18 Death of Dora, 19 The Storm Scene, 20 David Abroad, 21 The Concluding Chapters, 4: Further Reading

Über Autor(innen)

Richard J. Dunn is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Washington. He has published numerous studies of Victorian authors and has edited David Copperfield: An Annotated Bibliography (1981, supplement with Ann Tandy 2000) and Approaches to Teaching Dickens's David Copperfield (1984).