The birth of David Copperfield is blighted by its timing: 12 o'clock on a Friday night at precisely the time the clock began to strike. Such untimeliness means that David was destined to be unlucky in life and would receive the dubious privilege to see ghosts and spirits. Drawing on Dickens' own experiences, David Copperfield chronicles the life of a young man as he endures a difficult childhood before finding success as a popular novelist.