Editing David Copperfield (section)

===Fragments of autobiography===
Between 1845 and 1848, Dickens wrote fragments of autobiography, excerpts of which he showed to his wife and [[John Forster (biographer)|John Forster]]. Then in 1855 he made an attempt at revising it. This was a failure because, as he tells his first love Maria Beadnell (now Mrs Winter), when he began dealing with his youthful love for her, "I lost courage and burned the rest".<ref name=DickenslettersWinter>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', letter to Mrs Winter, 22 February 1855</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Alison |last=Flood |title=Young Dickens in love: sugary, and waxing lyrical about gloves |newspaper=The Guardian|location=London |date=13 February 2015 |access-date=11 February 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/13/charles-dickens-in-love-poetry-first-love-maria-beadnell}}</ref> Paul Schlicke points out that in fact not all the pages have gone through the flames and that, as Dickens began writing ''David Copperfield'' some pages were unearthed. Proof of this is found in the eleventh chapter of the novel: "I begin Life on my own Account and don't like it", where the story of Dickens's experience at the Warren Shoe Factory is told almost verbatim, with the only change, "[[Wilkins Micawber|Mr Micawber]]" instead of "my father".<ref name=Schlicke1999p158>{{harvnb|Schlicke|1999|p=158}}</ref> John Forster also published substantial extracts relating to this period in Dickens's biography, including a paragraph devoted to Wellington House College, which corresponds with the second stage of childhood recounted in the novel.<ref>{{harvnb|Forster|1966|p=I, 3}}</ref> Thus Dickens looks back on his painful past, already evoked by the martyrdom of Little Paul in ''[[Dombey and Son]]'', though voiced by an [[Narrative point of view#POV omniscient|omniscient narrator]] in that earlier novel.<ref name=Schlicke1999p150>{{harvnb|Schlicke|1999|p=150}}</ref> Until Forster published his biography of Dickens in 1872–1874, no one knew that Dickens had worked in a factory as a child, not even his wife, until Dickens wrote it down and gave the papers to Forster in 1847.<ref>{{harvnb|Bradbury|2008|page=19}}</ref> The first generations of readers did not know this part of David Copperfield's story began like an incident in the author's life.