Costumes of English Literary Characters: David Copperfield


Figure 1.--Here is an early illustration of David Copperfield. We do not yet know who the illustrator is and what edition in which it appeared. Note the chimley sweep in the background. The man with David is presumably Mr McCawber. David's top hat doesn't seem quite right, but our knowledge of English 1830s-40s fashions is limited.

Dickens published David Copperfield in 1849. Thus the clothing styles can be assumed to have been those of the 1840s. As David aged in the book, clothing of the 1830s may be correctly used for David as a boy. Thus David can be correctly shown wearing a skelrton suit. They were, however, going out of style in the 1830s, at least by the late-30s. Other clothing items like tunics might be accuate, at least for well-to-do boys going to school. Boys of all ages wore long pants, even fashionably dressed boys from affluent familirs. Headwear might be peaked caps with military styling. Boys also wore suits with vests. The jackets were cut short. Often the jackets did not match the pants. And vests were contrasting. The most definitive source for the proper fashions would of course be the illustrations in the original published version.




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Created: October 19, 1998
Last updated: 11:17 PM 12/25/2008