Including a volume on Charles Dickens in a series on teaching masterpieces of world literature seems appropriate, but the reasons for basing this volume on David Copperfield may be less apparent. Dickensians generally disagree over their nominations for the best Dickens novel. But David Copperfield, since first appearing serially in 1849-50, has remained a popular classic, and in the past thirty years its biographical, social, and psychological elements have attracted increasing academic interest. Therefore, in today"s college and university courses David Copperfield serves not only to introduce Dickens or the novel but also to demonstrate the relations of fiction and autobiography, the roles of myth archetype, and fantasy in fiction. Essays in this volume describe the many ways teachers use David Copperfield in courses of varied subject emphasis, size, and student experience. Like other volumes in the series, the present book concerns teaching at the undergraduate level, and the intention throughout is to assist the nonspecialist as well as the teacher more experienced in Dickens, the novel, and Victorian literature.