Charles Dickens · 1850 · overland

Charles Dickens's 1850 novel, his most autobiographical. It follows David from a Suffolk childhood through the cruelty of the Murdstones, the warehouses of London, and the famous flight on foot to his aunt at Dover, to schooling in Canterbury and a hard-won adult life in the capital. A life rather than a single journey, its geography traces the making of a man across the south of England.

1. 1
   Blunderstone

   David Copperfield is born at Blunderstone in Suffolk, into a childhood that the cruel Mr Murdstone will soon turn to misery.

2. 2
   Yarmouth

   He is sent to Yarmouth to stay with the Peggottys in their upturned-boat house on the beach, the happiest refuge of his young life.

3. 3
   London

   After his mother's death he is put to drudgery in a London warehouse, lodging with the kindly, always-hopeful, always-broke Mr Micawber.

4. 4
   Dover

   In desperation he runs away, trudging the long road from London to Dover to throw himself on the mercy of his aunt, Betsey Trotwood.

5. 5
   Canterbury

   Taken in at last, he is sent to school in Canterbury and lodged with the Wickfields, where he meets the gentle Agnes and the oily, scheming Uriah Heep.

6. 6
   London

   He returns to London to make his way in the world, through love and loss and labour, until he grows at last into the man, and the writer, telling this tale.