The novel follows the character David Copperfield, and is written in the first person, as a description of his life until middle age, with his own adventures and the web of friends and enemies he meets along his way.

Copperfield finds career success as an author, and is a person of deep emotions.

Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens's own life, and it is often considered his veiled autobiography.

It was Dickens' favourite among his own novels.