David Copperfield (novel)

David Copperfield atau The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which he never meant to publish on any account) adalah sebuah buku novel oleh Charles Dickens, pertama kali diterbitkan sebagai sebuah novel pada 1850. Seperti kebanyakan karyanya, ia terlebih dahulu muncul dalam bentuk bersiri setahun sebelumnya. Banyak unsur dalam novel ini mengikut peristiwa dalam hidup Dickens sendiri, dan ia mungkin yang paling berautobiografi dari kesemua novelnya. Dalam pramuka pada 1867 edisi Charles Dickens, dia menulis, "… seperti banyak ibu bapa yang penyayang, saya mempunyai dalam hati dari banyak hati saya seorang anak kesayangan. Dan namanya adalah David Copperfield." 

Novel ini sering dikenali sebagai sebuah mahakarya dari Dickens terutamanya sebagai karya yang membuka kepada penulisan yang matang dari penulis tersebut. Ia juga penting sebagai suatu pengenal kepada pendekatan menerap dan menonjol latar-latar tempat dan masyarakat sebagai wahana penyedaran melalui penulisan, sepertimana satira Dickens terhadap keadaan masyarakat zaman Victoria - Dickens berjaya mendorong perjuangan mengurangkan perburuhan dan menaikkan peluang pendidikan kepada anak-anak mencecah usia 12 tahun.

Ringkasan jalan cerita 
Cerita mengurus dengan hidup David Copperfield dari zaman kanak-kanak ke kematangan. David lahir di England pada 1820. Bapa David meninggal dunia enam bulan sebelum dia lahir, dan tujuh tahun kemudian, ibunya berkahwin dengan En Edward Murdstone. David diberikan alasan baik untuk tidak menyukai bapa tirinya dan mempunyai perasaan yang mirip terhadap kakak En Murdstone Jane, yang memindah ke dalam rumah tidak lama kemudian. En Murdstone menyebat David oleh kerana ketinggalan dalam pelajarannya. Berikutnya salah satu dari sebatan ini, David menggigitnya dan dikirimkan ke sebuah sekolah asrama, Salem House, dengan seorang guru besar tanpa belas kasihan, En. Creakle. Di sini dia berkawan dengan James Steerforth dan Tommy Traddles, yang dia bertemua kedua-dua mereka kemudian.

David kembali untuk cuti sekolah untuk mendapati bahawa ibunya mempunyai seorang bayi lelaki. Tidak lama kemudian selepas David pulang ke Salem House, ibunya dan bayinya meninggal dunia dan David harus pulang rumah selanjutnya. En Murdstone mengirimnya untuk bekerja dalam sebuah kilang di London, di mana Murdstone adalah seorang pemilik sama. Kebenaran grim reality of hand-to-mouth factory existence echoes Dickens' own travails in a blacking factory. His landlord, Mr Wilkins Micawber, is sent to a debtor's prison (the King's Bench Prison) after going bankrupt, and is there for several months before being released and moving to Plymouth. David now has nobody left to care for him in London, and decides to run away.

He walks all the way from London to Dover, to find his only relative, his aunt Miss Betsey. His eccentric Aunt Betsey Trotwood agrees to bring him up, despite Mr Murdstone visiting in a bid to regain custody of David. David's aunt renames him 'Trotwood Copperfield', soon shortened to "Trot", and for the rest of the novel he is called by either name, depending on whether he is communicating with someone he has known for a long time, or someone he has only recently met.

The story follows David as he grows to adulthood, and is enlivened by the many well-known characters who enter, leave and re-enter his life. These include Peggotty, his faithful former housekeeper for his mother, her family, and their orphaned niece Little Em'ly who lives with them and charms the young David. David's romantic but self-serving schoolfriend, Steerforth, seduces and dishonors Little Emily, triggering the novel's greatest tragedy; and his landlord's daughter and ideal "angel in the house," Agnes Wickfield, becomes his confidante. The two most familiar characters are David's sometime mentor, the constantly debt-ridden Mr Wilkins Micawber, and the devious and fraudulent clerk, Uriah Heep, whose misdeeds are eventually discovered with Micawber's assistance. Micawber is painted as a sympathetic character, even as the author deplores his financial ineptitude; and Micawber, like Dickens's own father, is briefly imprisoned for insolvency.

In typical Dickens fashion, the major characters get some measure of what they deserve, and few narrative threads are left hanging. Dan Peggotty safely transports Little Em'ly to a new life in Australia; accompanying these two central characters are Mrs. Gummidge and the Micawbers. Everybody involved finally finds security and happiness in their new lives in Australia. David first marries the beautiful but naïve Dora Spenlow, but she dies after failing to recover from a miscarriage early in their marriage. David then does some soul-searching and eventually marries and finds true happiness with the sensible Agnes, who had secretly always loved him. They have several children, including a daughter named in honor of Betsey Trotwood.

Butiran keluaran 
 1850, UK, Bradbury & Evans ?, Pub date 1 May 1849 and 1 November 1850, Serial (first publication as serial)
 1850, UK, Bradbury & Evans ?, Pub date ? ? 1850, Hardback (first book edition)
 1981 (Reprinted 2003) UK, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-812492-9 Hardback, Edited by Nina Burgis, The Clarendon Dickens (considered the definitive editions of Dickens's works) 781 pages
 1990, USA, W W Norton & Co Ltd ISBN 0-393-95828-0, Pub date 31 January 1990, Hardback (Jerome H. Buckley (Editor), Norton Critical Edition – contains annotations, introduction, critical essays, bibliography and other material.)
 1994, UK, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0-14-062026-5, Pub date 24 February 1994, Paperback
 1999, UK, Oxford Paperbacks ISBN 0-19-283578-5, Pub date 11 February 1999, Paperback
and many many others

Nota

Rujukan 
 
 David Copperfield (Major Literary Characters series). Edited and with an Introduction by Harold Bloom. 255 pages. 1992 New York: Chelsea House Publishers
 Graham Storey: David Copperfield – Interweaving Truth and Fiction (Twayne's Masterworks Studies). 111 pages. 1991 Boston: Twayne Publishers
 Approaches to Teaching Dickens' David Copperfield. Edited by Richard J. Dunn. 162 pages. 1984 New York: The Modern Language Association of America
 Barry Westburg: The Confessional Fictions of Charles Dickens. See pages 33 to 114. 1977 DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press
 Catcher in The Rye, J.D. Salinger; Penguin 1951
 Black Books -TV Series/DVD – Assembly Film and Television/Channel 4, 2002; Episode 2, Series 1 – 'Manny's First Day.'

Pautan luar 
Edisi dalam talian

 David Copperfield at Internet Archive.
 David Copperfield, at Bartleby.com (HTML w/ additional commentary)
 David Copperfield, at Librivox (audiobook)

Lain
 Information and analysis, Illustrations, Forums, and Select Resources on the novel 
 Analysis of the theme of David Copperfield and its characters. 
 List of over 50 characters.
 David Copperfield: Cummings Study Guides
 David Copperfield: Lectures d'une Oeuvre

Novel 1849
Novel oleh Charles Dickens
Novel autobiografi
Novel berbahasa Inggeris
Novel pertama kali diterbitkan dalam bentuk siri
Bildungsroman