A Psychoanalytic Dictionary of David Copperfield

Abstract

Sigmund Freud was a fond reader of Charles Dickens, and his favourite Dickens novel was The Personal History of David Copperfield. Freud gave a copy of this novel to his fiancée Martha Benays in June, 1882. In an accompanying letter to Benays, Freud wrote that of all Dickens's books, Copperfield included the least stereotypical characters, because they were “individualized” and “sinful without being abominable.”