Hello, I'm Darren. Today I'm going to tell you one of Charles Dickens' favourite novels.
It's the story of a boy called David Copperfield, who survived the cruel treatment of his stepfather
but grew up to find true love and success.
David spends his first happy years with his loving mother, a widow, and Pegotty, their
devoted housekeeper. Everything changes when Clara Copperfield meets the handsome but cruel
Mr Murdstone, who treats David badly. Pegotty takes David to Yarmouth to visit her brother,
a fisherman, who has taken two orphans, Ham and Emily, into care. After a wonderful fortnight,
David returns to find his mother has married Mr Murdstone. David's stepfather continues
to mistreat him. One day David bites him. Furious, Mr Murdstone takes the opportunity
to persuade Clara to send David to boarding school. It's a grim place, but David meets
the dashing Steerforth - the school's head boy.
Tragedy strikes when David learns that his mother and baby brother have died. He is sent
by Mr Murdstone to work in his London wine factory. He lodges with the happy-go-lucky
Micawber family, who are always in debt. When the authorities take Mr Micawber off to prison,
David runs away to Dover to take refuge with his aunt. Miss Betsy is quite formidable but
she takes pity on her nephew and sends him to a good school in Canterbury. He lives with
Mr Wickfield, her business manager, and his daughter. Agnes is David's good angel. David
also encounters the scheming Uriah Heep, Mr Wickfield's clerk. Such a creep and hypocrite!
David takes an instant dislike to him and indeed, Uriah will bring ruin to the Wickhams
and Aunt Betsy.
David, now 17, leaves school. En route to Yarmouth, he bumps into Steerforth, who travels
with him to Yarmouth. There they find Emily and Ham are engaged, though Steerforth seems
quite taken with Emily. This doesn't bode well!
I'll tell you what happens in the next part of the story when I see you next time. Bye
for now.