Allusions - Analysis, David Copperfield | David Copperfield - Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literary and Philosophical References

• The Adventures of Roderick Random, Tobias Smollett (4.88, 5.3, 11.57, 30.12)
• Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes (4.88)
• Gil Blas, Alain-René Lesage (4.88, 7.26)
• Arabian Nights (4.88, 7.19, [the Sultana Scheherazade] 7.22, 33.63)
• Tom Jones, Henry Fielding (4.88)
• The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Tobias Smollett (4.89, 7.16, 7.26)
• The Book of Martyrs, John Foxe (7.16, 7.26)
• Practice of the Superior Courts of Law in Personal Actions and Ejectment, William Tidd (16.85)
• Sinbad the Sailor (16.149)
• Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare (19.118)
• Macbeth, William Shakespeare (22.28; ["fretful porcupine"] 41.9)
• Punch (23.79, 23.81, 38.47)
• William Shakespeare (25.5, 48.31)
• The Bible, Isaiah 64.9: "Oh do not remember" (25.5)
• Hamlet, William Shakespeare (25.77; ["as the philosophic Dane observes"] 52.100)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (27.76)
• Twelfth Night (["Patience on a Monument"] 38.116)
• Doctor Samuel Johnson (45.9)
• "Auld Lang Syne," Robert Burns (28.54, 49.61, 63.51)
• "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," Thomas Gray (49.65)
• "Scots Wha' Hae," Robert Burns (54.127)

Historical References

• The Gunpowder Plot (10.137; [Guy Fawkes and the fifth of November] 25.5)
• Insolvent Debtors Act (11.64)
• King Charles I (Chapter 14 and throughout)
• Benjamin Franklin (14.65)

Pop Culture References

• "The Lass of Richmond Hill" (25.150)
• Barclay & Perkins Brewers (28.63)
• Truman, Hanbury, and Buxton Brewers (28.63)
• Dick Whittington (48.4)
• Croesus (64.16)