Summary Chapter 1
David Copperfield is born with a caul, a fetal membrane, on a Friday at 12 a.m. The caul, eventually, ends up with a lady with a hand-basket who dies peaceably in her bed at the age of 92, thus substantiating the belief that a caul is an insurance against dying by drowning. On the eve of his birth, a Miss Betsey Trotwood Copperfield, Miss Betsey, visits David Copperfied's mother. Miss Betsey, who had once been married to an abusive husband, is David's great-aunt and David's father's aunt. Disapproving of David's father's marriage on account her nephew's bride's youth and naivety, Miss Betsey had alienated herself from her nephew, who had died a year later, 6 months before David's birth, on account of a weak constitution. She has come to inform Mrs. Copperfield that she-Miss Betsey-will ac
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