Dickens's most autobiographical novel and his own favorite of his works. The making of a young writer told from inside the experience — the cruel stepfather, the blacking factory, the rescue by an eccentric aunt, the slow recognition of vocation. Joyce called it a book of childhood unequalled in the language. Copperfield is the template every coming-of-age novel since has worked against.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.