David Copperfield · Chapter
Preface to the 1850 Edition explained
Dickens reflects on the completion of David Copperfield, expressing both pleasure in finishing a long design and regret at parting from the characters he has created.
What happens
Dickens reflects on the completion of David Copperfield, expressing both pleasure in finishing a long design and regret at parting from the characters he has created. He notes that he has said all he intended in the story itself and looks forward to future work with gratitude for the reception of this novel.
Key passages
“I do not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from this book, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require.”
Dickens admits he is too emotionally close to the novel to write a detached preface.
Shows the author's personal attachment to the work.
“My interest in it, is so recent and strong; and my mind is so divided between pleasure and regret—pleasure in the achievement of a long design, regret in the separation from many companions—that I am in danger of wearying the reader whom I love, with personal confidences, and private emotions.”
Dickens feels both joy at completing the book and sadness at leaving its characters, and worries he might bore readers with his personal feelings.
Highlights the emotional duality of finishing a long creative project.
“It would concern the reader little, perhaps, to know, how sorrowfully the pen is laid down at the close of a two-years’ imaginative task; or how an author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him forever.”
Dickens suggests readers may not care that he is sad to finish the two-year writing process, feeling as if he is sending part of himself away as his fictional characters leave him permanently.
Reveals the deep connection between author and characters.
“Yet, I have nothing else to tell; unless, indeed, I were to confess (which might be of less moment still) that no one can ever believe this narrative, in the reading, more than I have believed it in the writing.”
Dickens has nothing more to add except that he believes the story even more strongly while writing it than readers will while reading it.
Emphasizes the author's immersion in his own fiction.
“Instead of looking back, therefore, I will look forward. I cannot close this volume more agreeably to myself, than with a hopeful glance towards the time when I shall again put forth my two green leaves once a month, and with a faithful remembrance of the genial sun and showers that have fallen on these leaves of David Copperfield, and made me happy.”
Rather than dwelling on the past, Dickens looks ahead to his next serialized work, remembering fondly the positive reception of David Copperfield.
Ends the preface on a forward-looking and grateful note.