Editing David Copperfield (section)

==="The privileged child" of Dickens===
Dickens welcomed the publication of his work with intense emotion, and he continued to experience this until the end of his life. When he went through a period of personal difficulty and frustration in the 1850s, he returned to ''David Copperfield'' as to a dear friend who resembled him: "Why," he wrote to Forster, "Why is it, as with poor David, a sense comes always crashing on me now, when I fall into low spirits, as of one happiness I have missed in life, and one friend and companion I have never made?"<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', letter to John Forster, 3 and 4 (?) February 1855.</ref><ref group="N">It is likely here that Dickens refers to the failure of his marriage with [[Catherine Dickens|his wife]].</ref> When Dickens begins writing ''[[Great Expectations]]'', which was also written in the first person, he reread ''David Copperfield'' and confided his feelings to Forster: "was affected by it to a degree you would hardly believe".<ref>Charles Dickens, ''Letters'', Letter to John Forster, early October 1860.</ref> Criticism has not always been even-handed, though over time the high importance of this novel has been recognised.