Publishing contract
Like Dombey and Son, David Copperfield was not the subject of a specific contract; it followed the agreement of 1 June 1844, which was still valid. In that contract, the publishing house Bradbury and Evans received a quarter of the receipts from what Dickens wrote for the next eight years. This did not prevent the novelist from criticizing his publisher, or providing an incomplete number, just "to see exactly where I am" and for his illustrator Phiz to have "some material to work on".[201]
Dedication and preface
The 1850 book, published by Bradbury and Evans, was dedicated to the honorable Mr and Mrs Richard Watson, from Rockingham, Northamptonshire, aristocratic friends met on a trip to Switzerland five years ago.[202] A brief preface was written in 1850 by the author, already entrusted to Forster after he finished his manuscript, with the promise that a new work will follow. This text was also used for the 1859 edition, the Cheap Edition. The ultimate version of 1867, also called the Charles Dickens edition, included another preface by the author with the statement that David Copperfield is the favourite work of the author.
Other editions
Three volumes were published by Tauchnitz in 1849–50, in English, for distribution outside Great Britain in Europe. During Dickens's lifetime, many other editions were released, and many since he died. According to Paul Schlicke, the most reliable edition is the 1981 edition from Clarendon Press with an introduction and notes by Nina Burgis; it serves as a reference for later editions, including those of Collins, Penguin Books and Wordsworth Classics.[10]
List of editions
- 1850, UK, Bradbury & Evans, publication date 14 November 1850, bound (first edition), 624 pages,[1] 38 plates.
- 1858, UK, Chapman & Hall and Bradbury & Evans, publication date 1858, hardback, 'Library Edition', 515 pages.
- 1867, UK, Wordsworth Classics, Preface by the author (the "Charles Dickens edition", with his statement "But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is DAVID COPPERFIELD.")
- 1962 (reprinted 2006 with an afterword by Gish Jen) US, Signet Classics ISBN 0-451-53004-7. Includes passages deleted for the original monthly serial, and unrestored in subsequent editions.
- 1981 (reprinted 2003) UK, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-812492-9, hardback, edited by Nina Burgis, The Clarendon Dickens, 781 pages.
- 1990, USA, W W Norton & Co Ltd ISBN 0-393-95828-0, publication date 31 January 1990, hardback (Jerome H. Buckley (Editor), Norton Critical Edition – contains annotations, introduction, critical essays, bibliography and other material).
