It is at this time that Dickens is writing the autobiographical fragment he
shares with Forster and which he mined for his most autobiographical novel, The
Personal History of David Copperfield , published in twenty monthly installments
from May, 1849, to November, 1850, the last issue being a double number. David
Copperfield opens with David, the narrator, indicating that the pages of his
book must show whether he will turn out to be the hero of his own life.
After overcoming the brutal experiences based on Dickens's own experience at the
blacking warehouse, David eventually marries, sets up household, establishes a
growing reputation as a novelist, and yet discovers "a vague unhappy loss or
want of something" in his life.
He wonders if this unhappiness is the result of his having given in to "the
first mistaken impulse of an undisciplined heart" by marrying his child-wife, or
if it is representative of the human condition. He does know it would have been
better if his wife "could have helped me more, and shared the many thoughts to
which I had no partner; and that this might have been; I knew."
