Contents introduction The role of critical realism in english literature of 19 century

"David Copjjerfield" (1850). Dicken's autobiographical novel "David Copperfield" tells of David's fate. David is the hero of the novel and the narrator. The best chapters of the book are those describing the boy's unhappy childhood. He is an orphan and is cruelly treated by his stepfather. After his mother's death David has to earn his own living until he reaches his rough and strange-looking aunt Betsy Trotwood. She takes care of her nephew. David receives a good education and becomes a lawyer and a writer.
The novel offers a realistic picture of the total English bourgeois society in the middle of the XIX century. Its author attacks oppres­sion of all kinds and raises his voice in defence of the poof. He shows that only the lower classes are capable of real love and de­votion. The bourgeoisie and the aristocracy are spoiled by money. The other problems of the book are those of education and marriage in capitalist society. Dickens's humour, optimism and sympathy for the common people made the book one of his most popular novels. "Of all my books," he wrote, "I like this the best."
True, this work is more cheerful and romantic than other of his later novels, although it also shows the hopelessness of the fate of the poor people. Hardships and misfortune reach them every­where. He paints life as it is. Cruelty exists side by side with goodness, misery — with happiness, repulsive people mix with noble ones. Life is hard, but beautiful. Nobility is rewarded and wickedness is punished in the long run.
Like Defoe Dickens not only entertains his readers, but also teaches them, encourages the oppressed and sympathizes with the unhappy. His realism arouses love for man, and there is something warm about the world he created.
Dickens is famous for his unforgettable characters. He has left a gallery of portraits. Many of them are drawn by applying hyper­bole. Each speaks his own language, each acts in his own sur­roundings, each has one feature, the leading one among the others, many of them have label-names and all are shown in action. Dickens's heroes are either entirely good or entirely wicked. By this contrast he makes them more expressive. No one can forget Mr. Pickwick and his faithful Sam "Waller, the devoted Pegotty, the disgusting hypocrite Uriah [jua'raiaj Heep, the angel-like Agnes Wickfield. Their creator is the physician of mind, who can penetrate a human soul to its very depth.