David Copperfield was Dickens' 'favourite child' and is a novel of personal development with richly comic as well as deeply poignant moments. "Great Expectations" also traces the progress of a young man through life but, as a novel of the author's maturity, is expressed in subtler shades of nuance. "Oliver Twist" is more black-and-white than either, highlighting the incorruptibility of young Oliver as he battles with the evil of Fagin and Bill Sikes. "A Christmas Carol" is both a ghost story and a moral tale, which defined the pattern of Christmas celebrations. The four books in one volume represent much of Dickens' finest writing.