David Copperfield (Bantam Classics)

Of all Dickens's novels,David Copperfieldmost fervently embraces the comic delights, the tender warmth, the tragic horrors of childhood. It is our classic tale of growing up, an enchanting story of a gently orphan discovering life and love in an indifferent adult world. Persecuted by his wrathful stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; deceived by his boyhood idol, the callous, charming Steerforth; driven into mortal combat with the sniveling clerk Uriah Heep; and hurled, pell-mell, into a blizzard of infatuation with the adorably dim-witted Dora, he survives the worstand the bestwith inimitable style, his bafflement tuming to self-awareness and his unbridles young heart growing ever more disciplined and true. Of this richly autobiographical novel Dickens himself wrote, "like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child. And his name is David Copperfield.