Copper-full"
of Mrs. Crupp, the "Master Copperfield" of Uriah Heep, and the "Dear
Copperfield" of Mr. Wilkins Micawber?

That "The Personal History and Experiences of David Copperfield
the Younger" was, among all its author's works, his own particular
favourite, he himself, in his very last preface to it, in 1867, formally
acknowledged. Several years previously, while sauntering with him to
and fro one evening on the grass-plot at Gadshill, we remember receiving
from him that same admission. "Which of all your books do you think
I regard as incomparably your best?" "Which?" "David Copperfield." A
momentary pause ensuing, he added, readily and without the smallest
reservation, "You are quite right." The acknowledgment then made as
to this being in fact his own opinion was thus simply but emphatically
expressed. Pen in hand, long afterwards, he made the same admission,
only with yet greater emphasis, when the Preface to the new edition of
the story in 1867 was thus closed by Charles Dickens--"Of all my books,
I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent
to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as
dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart
of hearts a favourite child. And his name is 'David Copperfield.'"
Having that confession from his own lips and under his own hand, it will
be readily understood that the Novelist always took an especial delight
when, in the course of his Readings, the turn came for that of "David
Copperfield."

One of the keenest sensations of pleasure he ever experienced as a
Reader--as he himself related to us with the liveliest gratification,
evidently, even in the mere recollection of the incident--occurred
in connection with this very Reading. Strange to say, moreover,
it occurred, not in England or in America, in the presence of an
English-speaking audience, but in Paris, and face to face with an
audience more than half of which was composed of Frenchmen. And the
hearer who caused him, there, that artistic sense, one might almost call
it thrill of satisfaction---was a Frenchman! All that was expressed
on the part of this appreciative listener, being uttered by him
instantaneously in a half-whispered, monosyllabic ejaculation. As we
have already explained upon an earlier page, the Readings which took
place in Paris, and which were in behalf of the British Charitable Fund
in that capital, were given there before a