David Copperfield (1935 film) David Copperfield (1935 film) David Copperfield is a 1935 American film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer based upon the Charles Dickens novel "The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger". A number of characters and incidents from the novel were omitted – notably David's time at Salem House boarding school, although one character he met at Salem House (Steerforth) was retained for the film as a head boy at the school David attended after his aunt Betsey Trotwood gained custody of him. The story was adapted by Hugh Walpole from the Dickens novel, and the film was directed
Charles Dickens a chapter on Charles Dickens, who was not amused by what Powell had written. One item that seemed to have annoyed him was the assertion that he had based the character of Paul Dombey ("Dombey and Son") on Thomas Chapman, one of the principal partners at John Chapman & Co. Dickens immediately sent a letter to Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor of the New York literary magazine "The Knickerbocker", saying that Powell was a forger and thief. Clark published the letter in the "New-York Tribune", and several other papers picked up on the story. Powell began proceedings to sue these publications,