25 MARCH 1922, Page 25

David Copperfield : a Reading. . By Charles Dickens. (H.

Sotheran. 15s. net.)—This attractive little volume con- tains a reprint . of the selections from David Copper-field- privately printed in 1866—which Dickens made for his public readings. The subjects of the five chapters were Em'ly's disappearance, Micawber at David's chambers, Peggotty describing his vain search, Dora as the child-wife, and the wreck at Yarmouth. Mr. J. H. Stonehouse prefixes an essay on Maria Beadnell, whom Dickens courted in vain and who is said by the pundits to be the original of Dora Spenlow and also of Flora Finching. Miss Beadnell married Henry Louis Winter and died in 1886, leaving to her daughter some letters from Dickens which have been printed in America and are summarized in this essay.