'I came upon a pasteboard placard, beautifully written, which was lying on the desk and bore these words: 'TAKE CARE OF HIM. HE BITES.'
The shame and horror of the blacking factory, the trips to the pawn shop, the fecklessness that reduced his father to the debtors' prison - all the trauma of Dickens's childhood can be found within the pages of David Copperfield (1849-50), the classic account of the rootless orphan who overcomes the disadvantages of his birth to become a famous novelist. We can do nothing but rejoice in one of Dickens's finest gallery of grotesques and eccentrics - the well-intentioned but impecunious Micawber; the fawning monster Uriah Heep; Barkis 'who is willing'; the cruel headmaster Creakle, and the fallen angel, Steerforth. 'Of all my books', Dickens said of David Copperfield, 'I like this the best'.
‘A novel that has a real beating heart at its centre . . . and that heart's owner has as his initials those of Charles Dickens in reverse’
KATHRYN HUGHES
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth
With their labyrinthine plots, evocative settings and unforgettable characters, the writings of Charles Dickens have delighted generations of readers. To celebrate the 2012 bicentenary of his birth, The Folio Society presents a selection of new editions of his works, based on the celebrated 1930s Nonesuch editions and featuring original illustrations by artists including Dickens’s long-term collaborator ‘Phiz’. Each volume includes an introduction specially commissioned from an esteemed writer, such as A. N. Wilson and Peter Ackroyd. They also feature individual new binding designs, with a quote from the novel blocked in gold on the front.
