The England of the beginning industrialisation: harsh educational institutions, debtors' prisons. Midnight strikes on a Friday, and the cry of the newborn David Copperfield mingles with the chimes. Not a good omen. But Charles Dickens, with exuberant realism and sharp tongue, with feeling and wit, knows how to depict not only the boy's ordeal, but to present a colourful regiment of characters whose stubbornness or goodness of heart remain vivid long after you have slammed the book shut.
