Orakel Classics
David Copperfield
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 64 chapter-aware companion links.
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CHAPTER 1. I AM BORN
CHAPTER 1. I AM BORN from David Copperfield. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry,
Open2CHAPTER 2. I OBSERVE
CHAPTER 2. I OBSERVE from David Copperfield. The first objects that assume a distinct presence before me, as I look far back, into the blank of my infancy, are my mother with her pretty hair and youthful shape, and Peggotty with no shape at all, and eyes so dark that they seemed to darken their whole neighbourhood in her face, and cheeks and arms so hard and red that I wondered the birds didn’t peck her in preference to
Open3CHAPTER 3. I HAVE A CHANGE
CHAPTER 3. I HAVE A CHANGE from David Copperfield. The carrier’s horse was the laziest horse in the world, I should hope, and shuffled along, with his head down, as if he liked to keep people waiting to whom the packages were directed. I fancied, indeed, that he sometimes chuckled audibly over this reflection, but the carrier said he was only troubled with a cough. The carrier had a way of keeping his head down, like his horse, and of drooping sleepily forward as he
Open4CHAPTER 4. I FALL INTO DISGRACE
CHAPTER 4. I FALL INTO DISGRACE from David Copperfield. If the room to which my bed was removed were a sentient thing that could give evidence, I might appeal to it at this day--who sleeps there now, I wonder!--to bear witness for me what a heavy heart I carried to it. I went up there, hearing the dog in the yard bark after me all the way while I climbed the stairs; and, looking as blank and strange upon the room as the room looked upon me, sat down with my small hands
Open5CHAPTER 5. I AM SENT AWAY FROM HOME
CHAPTER 5. I AM SENT AWAY FROM HOME from David Copperfield. We might have gone about half a mile, and my pocket-handkerchief was quite wet through, when the carrier stopped short. Looking out to ascertain for what, I saw, to My amazement, Peggotty burst from a hedge and climb into the cart. She took me in both her arms, and squeezed me to her stays until the pressure on my nose was extremely painful, though I never thought of that till afterwards when I found it very tender.
Open6CHAPTER 6. I ENLARGE MY CIRCLE OF ACQUAINTANCE
CHAPTER 6. I ENLARGE MY CIRCLE OF ACQUAINTANCE from David Copperfield. I HAD led this life about a month, when the man with the wooden leg began to stump about with a mop and a bucket of water, from which I inferred that preparations were making to receive Mr. Creakle and the boys. I was not mistaken; for the mop came into the schoolroom before long, and turned out Mr. Mell and me, who lived where we could, and got on how we could, for some days, during which we were always in the way
Open7CHAPTER 7. MY ‘FIRST HALF’ AT SALEM HOUSE
CHAPTER 7. MY ‘FIRST HALF’ AT SALEM HOUSE from David Copperfield. School began in earnest next day. A profound impression was made upon me, I remember, by the roar of voices in the schoolroom suddenly becoming hushed as death when Mr. Creakle entered after breakfast, and stood in the doorway looking round upon us like a giant in a story-book surveying his
Open8CHAPTER 8. MY HOLIDAYS. ESPECIALLY ONE HAPPY AFTERNOON
CHAPTER 8. MY HOLIDAYS. ESPECIALLY ONE HAPPY AFTERNOON from David Copperfield. When we arrived before day at the inn where the mail stopped, which was not the inn where my friend the waiter lived, I was shown up to a nice little bedroom, with DOLPHIN painted on the door. Very cold I was, I know, notwithstanding the hot tea they had given me before a large fire downstairs; and very glad I was to turn into the Dolphin’s bed, pull the Dolphin’s blankets round my head, and go to
Open9CHAPTER 9. I HAVE A MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY
CHAPTER 9. I HAVE A MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY from David Copperfield. I PASS over all that happened at school, until the anniversary of my birthday came round in March. Except that Steerforth was more to be admired than ever, I remember nothing. He was going away at the end of the half-year, if not sooner, and was more spirited and independent than before in my eyes, and therefore more engaging than before; but beyond this I remember nothing. The great remembrance by which that time
Open10CHAPTER 10. I BECOME NEGLECTED, AND AM PROVIDED FOR
CHAPTER 10. I BECOME NEGLECTED, AND AM PROVIDED FOR from David Copperfield. The first act of business Miss Murdstone performed when the day of the solemnity was over, and light was freely admitted into the house, was to give Peggotty a month’s warning. Much as Peggotty would have disliked such a service, I believe she would have retained it, for my sake, in preference to the best upon earth. She told me we must part, and told me why; and we condoled with one another, in all
Open11CHAPTER 11. I BEGIN LIFE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT, AND DON’T LIKE IT
CHAPTER 11. I BEGIN LIFE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT, AND DON’T LIKE IT from David Copperfield. I know enough of the world now, to have almost lost the capacity of being much surprised by anything; but it is matter of some surprise to me, even now, that I can have been so easily thrown away at such an age. A child of excellent abilities, and with strong powers of observation, quick, eager, delicate, and soon hurt bodily or mentally, it seems wonderful to me that nobody should have made any sign in my behalf.
Open12CHAPTER 12. LIKING LIFE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT NO BETTER, I FORM A GREAT
CHAPTER 12. LIKING LIFE ON MY OWN ACCOUNT NO BETTER, I FORM A GREAT from David Copperfield. In due time, Mr. Micawber’s petition was ripe for hearing; and that gentleman was ordered to be discharged under the Act, to my great joy. His creditors were not implacable; and Mrs. Micawber informed me that even the revengeful boot-maker had declared in open court that he bore him no malice, but that when money was owing to him he liked to be paid. He said he thought it was human
Open13CHAPTER 13. THE SEQUEL OF MY RESOLUTION
CHAPTER 13. THE SEQUEL OF MY RESOLUTION from David Copperfield. For anything I know, I may have had some wild idea of running all the way to Dover, when I gave up the pursuit of the young man with the donkey-cart, and started for Greenwich. My scattered senses were soon collected as to that point, if I had; for I came to a stop in the Kent Road, at a terrace with a piece of water before it, and a great foolish image in the middle, blowing a dry shell. Here I sat down on a
Open14CHAPTER 14. MY AUNT MAKES UP HER MIND ABOUT ME
CHAPTER 14. MY AUNT MAKES UP HER MIND ABOUT ME from David Copperfield. On going down in the morning, I found my aunt musing so profoundly over the breakfast table, with her elbow on the tray, that the contents of the urn had overflowed the teapot and were laying the whole table-cloth under water, when my entrance put her meditations to flight. I felt sure that I had been the subject of her reflections, and was more than ever anxious to know her intentions towards me. Yet I dared not
Open15CHAPTER 15. I MAKE ANOTHER BEGINNING
CHAPTER 15. I MAKE ANOTHER BEGINNING from David Copperfield. Mr. Dick and I soon became the best of friends, and very often, when his day’s work was done, went out together to fly the great kite. Every day of his life he had a long sitting at the Memorial, which never made the least progress, however hard he laboured, for King Charles the First always strayed into it, sooner or later, and then it was thrown aside, and another one begun. The patience and hope with which he
Open16CHAPTER 16. I AM A NEW BOY IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE
CHAPTER 16. I AM A NEW BOY IN MORE SENSES THAN ONE from David Copperfield. Next morning, after breakfast, I entered on school life again. I went, accompanied by Mr. Wickfield, to the scene of my future studies--a grave building in a courtyard, with a learned air about it that seemed very well suited to the stray rooks and jackdaws who came down from the Cathedral towers to walk with a clerkly bearing on the grass-plot--and was introduced to my new master, Doctor
Open17CHAPTER 17. SOMEBODY TURNS UP
CHAPTER 17. SOMEBODY TURNS UP from David Copperfield. It has not occurred to me to mention Peggotty since I ran away; but, of course, I wrote her a letter almost as soon as I was housed at Dover, and another, and a longer letter, containing all particulars fully related, when my aunt took me formally under her protection. On my being settled at Doctor Strong’s I wrote to her again, detailing my happy condition and prospects. I never could have derived anything like the
Open18CHAPTER 18. A RETROSPECT
CHAPTER 18. A RETROSPECT from David Copperfield. My school-days! The silent gliding on of my existence--the unseen, unfelt progress of my life--from childhood up to youth! Let me think, as I look back upon that flowing water, now a dry channel overgrown with leaves, whether there are any marks along its course, by which I can remember how it
Open19CHAPTER 19. I LOOK ABOUT ME, AND MAKE A DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 19. I LOOK ABOUT ME, AND MAKE A DISCOVERY from David Copperfield. I am doubtful whether I was at heart glad or sorry, when my school-days drew to an end, and the time came for my leaving Doctor Strong’s. I had been very happy there, I had a great attachment for the Doctor, and I was eminent and distinguished in that little world. For these reasons I was sorry to go; but for other reasons, unsubstantial enough, I was glad. Misty ideas of being a young man at my own disposal, of the
Open20CHAPTER 20. STEERFORTH’S HOME
CHAPTER 20. STEERFORTH’S HOME from David Copperfield. When the chambermaid tapped at my door at eight o’clock, and informed me that my shaving-water was outside, I felt severely the having no occasion for it, and blushed in my bed. The suspicion that she laughed too, when she said it, preyed upon my mind all the time I was dressing; and gave me, I was conscious, a sneaking and guilty air when I passed her on the staircase, as I was going down to breakfast. I was so
Open21CHAPTER 21. LITTLE EM’LY
CHAPTER 21. LITTLE EM’LY from David Copperfield. There was a servant in that house, a man who, I understood, was usually with Steerforth, and had come into his service at the University, who was in appearance a pattern of respectability. I believe there never existed in his station a more respectable-looking man. He was taciturn, soft-footed, very quiet in his manner, deferential, observant, always at hand when wanted, and never near when not wanted; but his great
Open22CHAPTER 22. SOME OLD SCENES, AND SOME NEW PEOPLE
CHAPTER 22. SOME OLD SCENES, AND SOME NEW PEOPLE from David Copperfield. Steerforth and I stayed for more than a fortnight in that part of the country. We were very much together, I need not say; but occasionally we were asunder for some hours at a time. He was a good sailor, and I was but an indifferent one; and when he went out boating with Mr. Peggotty, which was a favourite amusement of his, I generally remained ashore. My occupation of Peggotty’s spare-room put a constraint upon me,
Open23CHAPTER 23. I CORROBORATE Mr. DICK, AND CHOOSE A PROFESSION
CHAPTER 23. I CORROBORATE Mr. DICK, AND CHOOSE A PROFESSION from David Copperfield. When I awoke in the morning I thought very much of little Em’ly, and her emotion last night, after Martha had left. I felt as if I had come into the knowledge of those domestic weaknesses and tendernesses in a sacred confidence, and that to disclose them, even to Steerforth, would be wrong. I had no gentler feeling towards anyone than towards the pretty creature who had been my playmate, and whom I have always been
Open24CHAPTER 24. MY FIRST DISSIPATION
CHAPTER 24. MY FIRST DISSIPATION from David Copperfield. It was a wonderfully fine thing to have that lofty castle to myself, and to feel, when I shut my outer door, like Robinson Crusoe, when he had got into his fortification, and pulled his ladder up after him. It was a wonderfully fine thing to walk about town with the key of my house in my pocket, and to know that I could ask any fellow to come home, and make quite sure of its being inconvenient to nobody, if it were
Open25CHAPTER 25. GOOD AND BAD ANGELS
CHAPTER 25. GOOD AND BAD ANGELS from David Copperfield. I was going out at my door on the morning after that deplorable day of headache, sickness, and repentance, with an odd confusion in my mind relative to the date of my dinner-party, as if a body of Titans had taken an enormous lever and pushed the day before yesterday some months back, when I saw a ticket-porter coming upstairs, with a letter in his hand. He was taking his time about his errand, then; but when he saw
Open26CHAPTER 26. I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY
CHAPTER 26. I FALL INTO CAPTIVITY from David Copperfield. I saw no more of Uriah Heep, until the day when Agnes left town. I was at the coach office to take leave of her and see her go; and there was he, returning to Canterbury by the same conveyance. It was some small satisfaction to me to observe his spare, short-waisted, high-shouldered, mulberry-coloured great-coat perched up, in company with an umbrella like a small tent, on the edge of the back seat on the roof,
Open27CHAPTER 27. TOMMY TRADDLES
CHAPTER 27. TOMMY TRADDLES from David Copperfield. It may have been in consequence of Mrs. Crupp’s advice, and, perhaps, for no better reason than because there was a certain similarity in the sound of the word skittles and Traddles, that it came into my head, next day, to go and look after Traddles. The time he had mentioned was more than out, and he lived in a little street near the Veterinary College at Camden Town, which was principally tenanted, as one of our
Open28CHAPTER 28. Mr. MICAWBER’S GAUNTLET
CHAPTER 28. Mr. MICAWBER’S GAUNTLET from David Copperfield. Until the day arrived on which I was to entertain my newly-found old friends, I lived principally on Dora and coffee. In my love-lorn condition, my appetite languished; and I was glad of it, for I felt as though it would have been an act of perfidy towards Dora to have a natural relish for my dinner. The quantity of walking exercise I took, was not in this respect attended with its usual consequence, as the
Open29CHAPTER 29. I VISIT STEERFORTH AT HIS HOME, AGAIN
CHAPTER 29. I VISIT STEERFORTH AT HIS HOME, AGAIN from David Copperfield. I mentioned to Mr. Spenlow in the morning, that I wanted leave of absence for a short time; and as I was not in the receipt of any salary, and consequently was not obnoxious to the implacable Jorkins, there was no difficulty about it. I took that opportunity, with my voice sticking in my throat, and my sight failing as I uttered the words, to express my hope that Miss Spenlow was quite well; to which Mr. Spenlow
Open30CHAPTER 30. A LOSS
CHAPTER 30. A LOSS from David Copperfield. I got down to Yarmouth in the evening, and went to the inn. I knew that Peggotty’s spare room--my room--was likely to have occupation enough in a little while, if that great Visitor, before whose presence all the living must give place, were not already in the house; so I betook myself to the inn, and dined there, and engaged my
Open31CHAPTER 31. A GREATER LOSS
CHAPTER 31. A GREATER LOSS from David Copperfield. It was not difficult for me, on Peggotty’s solicitation, to resolve to stay where I was, until after the remains of the poor carrier should have made their last journey to Blunderstone. She had long ago bought, out of her own savings, a little piece of ground in our old churchyard near the grave of ‘her sweet girl’, as she always called my mother; and there they were to
Open32CHAPTER 32. THE BEGINNING OF A LONG JOURNEY
CHAPTER 32. THE BEGINNING OF A LONG JOURNEY from David Copperfield. What is natural in me, is natural in many other men, I infer, and so I am not afraid to write that I never had loved Steerforth better than when the ties that bound me to him were broken. In the keen distress of the discovery of his unworthiness, I thought more of all that was brilliant in him, I softened more towards all that was good in him, I did more justice to the qualities that might have made him a man of a
Open33CHAPTER 33. BLISSFUL
CHAPTER 33. BLISSFUL from David Copperfield. All this time, I had gone on loving Dora, harder than ever. Her idea was my refuge in disappointment and distress, and made some amends to me, even for the loss of my friend. The more I pitied myself, or pitied others, the more I sought for consolation in the image of Dora. The greater the accumulation of deceit and trouble in the world, the brighter and the purer shone the star of Dora high above the world. I don’t
Open34CHAPTER 34. MY AUNT ASTONISHES ME
CHAPTER 34. MY AUNT ASTONISHES ME from David Copperfield. I wrote to Agnes as soon as Dora and I were engaged. I wrote her a long letter, in which I tried to make her comprehend how blest I was, and what a darling Dora was. I entreated Agnes not to regard this as a thoughtless passion which could ever yield to any other, or had the least resemblance to the boyish fancies that we used to joke about. I assured her that its profundity was quite unfathomable, and expressed my
Open35CHAPTER 35. DEPRESSION
CHAPTER 35. DEPRESSION from David Copperfield. As soon as I could recover my presence of mind, which quite deserted me in the first overpowering shock of my aunt’s intelligence, I proposed to Mr. Dick to come round to the chandler’s shop, and take possession of the bed which Mr. Peggotty had lately vacated. The chandler’s shop being in Hungerford Market, and Hungerford Market being a very different place in those days, there was a low wooden colonnade before the
Open36CHAPTER 36. ENTHUSIASM
CHAPTER 36. ENTHUSIASM from David Copperfield. I began the next day with another dive into the Roman bath, and then started for Highgate. I was not dispirited now. I was not afraid of the shabby coat, and had no yearnings after gallant greys. My whole manner of thinking of our late misfortune was changed. What I had to do, was, to show my aunt that her past goodness to me had not been thrown away on an insensible, ungrateful object. What I had to do, was, to
Open37CHAPTER 37. A LITTLE COLD WATER
CHAPTER 37. A LITTLE COLD WATER from David Copperfield. My new life had lasted for more than a week, and I was stronger than ever in those tremendous practical resolutions that I felt the crisis required. I continued to walk extremely fast, and to have a general idea that I was getting on. I made it a rule to take as much out of myself as I possibly could, in my way of doing everything to which I applied my energies. I made a perfect victim of myself. I even entertained
Open38CHAPTER 38. A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP
CHAPTER 38. A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP from David Copperfield. I did not allow my resolution, with respect to the Parliamentary Debates, to cool. It was one of the irons I began to heat immediately, and one of the irons I kept hot, and hammered at, with a perseverance I may honestly admire. I bought an approved scheme of the noble art and mystery of stenography (which cost me ten and sixpence); and plunged into a sea of perplexity that brought me, in a few weeks, to the
Open39CHAPTER 39. WICKFIELD AND HEEP
CHAPTER 39. WICKFIELD AND HEEP from David Copperfield. My aunt, beginning, I imagine, to be made seriously uncomfortable by my prolonged dejection, made a pretence of being anxious that I should go to Dover, to see that all was working well at the cottage, which was let; and to conclude an agreement, with the same tenant, for a longer term of occupation. Janet was drafted into the service of Mrs. Strong, where I saw her every day. She had been undecided, on leaving
Open40CHAPTER 40. THE WANDERER
CHAPTER 40. THE WANDERER from David Copperfield. We had a very serious conversation in Buckingham Street that night, about the domestic occurrences I have detailed in the last chapter. My aunt was deeply interested in them, and walked up and down the room with her arms folded, for more than two hours afterwards. Whenever she was particularly discomposed, she always performed one of these pedestrian feats; and the amount of her discomposure might always be
Open41CHAPTER 41. DORA’S AUNTS
CHAPTER 41. DORA’S AUNTS from David Copperfield. At last, an answer came from the two old ladies. They presented their compliments to Mr. Copperfield, and informed him that they had given his letter their best consideration, ‘with a view to the happiness of both parties’--which I thought rather an alarming expression, not only because of the use they had made of it in relation to the family difference before-mentioned, but because I had (and have all my life)
Open42CHAPTER 42. MISCHIEF
CHAPTER 42. MISCHIEF from David Copperfield. I feel as if it were not for me to record, even though this manuscript is intended for no eyes but mine, how hard I worked at that tremendous short-hand, and all improvement appertaining to it, in my sense of responsibility to Dora and her aunts. I will only add, to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me,
Open43CHAPTER 43. ANOTHER RETROSPECT
CHAPTER 43. ANOTHER RETROSPECT from David Copperfield. Once again, let me pause upon a memorable period of my life. Let me stand aside, to see the phantoms of those days go by me, accompanying the shadow of myself, in dim
Open44CHAPTER 44. OUR HOUSEKEEPING
CHAPTER 44. OUR HOUSEKEEPING from David Copperfield. It was a strange condition of things, the honeymoon being over, and the bridesmaids gone home, when I found myself sitting down in my own small house with Dora; quite thrown out of employment, as I may say, in respect of the delicious old occupation of making
Open45CHAPTER 45. MR. DICK FULFILS MY AUNT’S PREDICTIONS
CHAPTER 45. MR. DICK FULFILS MY AUNT’S PREDICTIONS from David Copperfield. It was some time now, since I had left the Doctor. Living in his neighbourhood, I saw him frequently; and we all went to his house on two or three occasions to dinner or tea. The Old Soldier was in permanent quarters under the Doctor’s roof. She was exactly the same as ever, and the same immortal butterflies hovered over her
Open46CHAPTER 46. INTELLIGENCE
CHAPTER 46. INTELLIGENCE from David Copperfield. I must have been married, if I may trust to my imperfect memory for dates, about a year or so, when one evening, as I was returning from a solitary walk, thinking of the book I was then writing--for my success had steadily increased with my steady application, and I was engaged at that time upon my first work of fiction--I came past Mrs. Steerforth’s house. I had often passed it before, during my residence in that
Open47CHAPTER 47. MARTHA
CHAPTER 47. MARTHA from David Copperfield. We were now down in Westminster. We had turned back to follow her, having encountered her coming towards us; and Westminster Abbey was the point at which she passed from the lights and noise of the leading streets. She proceeded so quickly, when she got free of the two currents of passengers setting towards and from the bridge, that, between this and the advance she had of us when she struck off, we were in the
Open48CHAPTER 48. DOMESTIC
CHAPTER 48. DOMESTIC from David Copperfield. I laboured hard at my book, without allowing it to interfere with the punctual discharge of my newspaper duties; and it came out and was very successful. I was not stunned by the praise which sounded in my ears, notwithstanding that I was keenly alive to it, and thought better of my own performance, I have little doubt, than anybody else did. It has always been in my observation of human nature, that a man who has
Open49CHAPTER 49. I AM INVOLVED IN MYSTERY
CHAPTER 49. I AM INVOLVED IN MYSTERY from David Copperfield. I received one morning by the post, the following letter, dated Canterbury, and addressed to me at Doctor’s Commons; which I read with some
Open50CHAPTER 50. Mr. PEGGOTTY’S DREAM COMES TRUE
CHAPTER 50. Mr. PEGGOTTY’S DREAM COMES TRUE from David Copperfield. By this time, some months had passed since our interview on the bank of the river with Martha. I had never seen her since, but she had communicated with Mr. Peggotty on several occasions. Nothing had come of her zealous intervention; nor could I infer, from what he told me, that any clue had been obtained, for a moment, to Emily’s fate. I confess that I began to despair of her recovery, and gradually to sink deeper
Open51CHAPTER 51. THE BEGINNING OF A LONGER JOURNEY
CHAPTER 51. THE BEGINNING OF A LONGER JOURNEY from David Copperfield. It was yet early in the morning of the following day, when, as I was walking in my garden with my aunt (who took little other exercise now, being so much in attendance on my dear Dora), I was told that Mr. Peggotty desired to speak with me. He came into the garden to meet me half-way, on my going towards the gate; and bared his head, as it was always his custom to do when he saw my aunt, for whom he had a high
Open52CHAPTER 52. I ASSIST AT AN EXPLOSION
CHAPTER 52. I ASSIST AT AN EXPLOSION from David Copperfield. When the time Mr. Micawber had appointed so mysteriously, was within four-and-twenty hours of being come, my aunt and I consulted how we should proceed; for my aunt was very unwilling to leave Dora. Ah! how easily I carried Dora up and down stairs,
Open53CHAPTER 53. ANOTHER RETROSPECT
CHAPTER 53. ANOTHER RETROSPECT from David Copperfield. I must pause yet once again. O, my child-wife, there is a figure in the moving crowd before my memory, quiet and still, saying in its innocent love and childish beauty, Stop to think of me--turn to look upon the Little Blossom, as it flutters to the
Open54CHAPTER 54. Mr. MICAWBER’S TRANSACTIONS
CHAPTER 54. Mr. MICAWBER’S TRANSACTIONS from David Copperfield. This is not the time at which I am to enter on the state of my mind beneath its load of sorrow. I came to think that the Future was walled up before me, that the energy and action of my life were at an end, that I never could find any refuge but in the grave. I came to think so, I say, but not in the first shock of my grief. It slowly grew to that. If the events I go on to relate, had not thickened around me, in the
Open55CHAPTER 55. TEMPEST
CHAPTER 55. TEMPEST from David Copperfield. I now approach an event in my life, so indelible, so awful, so bound by an infinite variety of ties to all that has preceded it, in these pages, that, from the beginning of my narrative, I have seen it growing larger and larger as I advanced, like a great tower in a plain, and throwing its fore-cast shadow even on the incidents of my childish
Open56CHAPTER 56. THE NEW WOUND, AND THE OLD
CHAPTER 56. THE NEW WOUND, AND THE OLD from David Copperfield. No need, O Steerforth, to have said, when we last spoke together, in that hour which I so little deemed to be our parting-hour--no need to have said, ‘Think of me at my best!’ I had done that ever; and could I change now, looking on this
Open57CHAPTER 57. THE EMIGRANTS
CHAPTER 57. THE EMIGRANTS from David Copperfield. One thing more, I had to do, before yielding myself to the shock of these emotions. It was, to conceal what had occurred, from those who were going away; and to dismiss them on their voyage in happy ignorance. In this, no time was to be
Open58CHAPTER 58. ABSENCE
CHAPTER 58. ABSENCE from David Copperfield. It was a long and gloomy night that gathered on me, haunted by the ghosts of many hopes, of many dear remembrances, many errors, many unavailing sorrows and
Open59CHAPTER 59. RETURN
CHAPTER 59. RETURN from David Copperfield. I landed in London on a wintry autumn evening. It was dark and raining, and I saw more fog and mud in a minute than I had seen in a year. I walked from the Custom House to the Monument before I found a coach; and although the very house-fronts, looking on the swollen gutters, were like old friends to me, I could not but admit that they were very dingy
Open60CHAPTER 60. AGNES
CHAPTER 60. AGNES from David Copperfield. My aunt and I, when we were left alone, talked far into the night. How the emigrants never wrote home, otherwise than cheerfully and hopefully; how Mr. Micawber had actually remitted divers small sums of money, on account of those ‘pecuniary liabilities’, in reference to which he had been so business-like as between man and man; how Janet, returning into my aunt’s service when she came back to Dover, had finally
Open61CHAPTER 61. I AM SHOWN TWO INTERESTING PENITENTS
CHAPTER 61. I AM SHOWN TWO INTERESTING PENITENTS from David Copperfield. For a time--at all events until my book should be completed, which would be the work of several months--I took up my abode in my aunt’s house at Dover; and there, sitting in the window from which I had looked out at the moon upon the sea, when that roof first gave me shelter, I quietly pursued my
Open62CHAPTER 62. A LIGHT SHINES ON MY WAY
CHAPTER 62. A LIGHT SHINES ON MY WAY from David Copperfield. The year came round to Christmas-time, and I had been at home above two months. I had seen Agnes frequently. However loud the general voice might be in giving me encouragement, and however fervent the emotions and endeavours to which it roused me, I heard her lightest word of praise as I heard nothing
Open63CHAPTER 63. A VISITOR
CHAPTER 63. A VISITOR from David Copperfield. What I have purposed to record is nearly finished; but there is yet an incident conspicuous in my memory, on which it often rests with delight, and without which one thread in the web I have spun would have a ravelled
Open64CHAPTER 64. A LAST RETROSPECT
CHAPTER 64. A LAST RETROSPECT from David Copperfield. And now my written story ends. I look back, once more--for the last time--before I close these
Open