Dickens in Serial: David Copperfield
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Dickens pioneered the method of publishing novels in serial. By writing and publishing a novel in 19 monthly or 36 weekly installments, Dickens could change his story, shared and shaped by the audience who read it, at any time, depending on what his readers liked or disliked. And he did. By reading David Copperfield (1850), his personal favorite, part-by-part, readers can weave Dickens's fictional world into their own real world. As the story and characters develop and change over 19 months, so, too, does the reader's own life. Readers see the changes in their lives through the lens of the fictional character's lives and realize how literature can mirror life.