we're looking at the first installment of "david copperfield." one shilling would get you the monthly parts. here is the beginning part of the booklet. it is page after page after page of advertisements for books and pills and remedies and all kinds of things. here you have the original illustrations that accompany each part, separated by tissue, of course. here is the very first page of the narrative. "whether i shall turn out to be the hero of my own life or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." >> they are written month by month. is this particular to dickens? >> it was really dickens who pioneered this and was the most successful perpetrator of publishing installments. >> these numbers could afford to read it. >> very affordable. bob cratchit earned 15 shillings a week -- even someone as poor as bob cratchit could have afforded to buy a novel. >> dickens was a charismatic figure and knew how to manipulate an audience of one or an audience of 3000 people. there are reports of people fainting at readings. pe

as in "copperfield." by the time he's writing "great expectations" he's willing to accept that there are flaws intrinsic to the character he's tried to right through. and i think that's what makes it such a remarkable journey. >> rose: john, you have gone fro from professor to screenwriter. how does dickens influence what you might want to do on the page? >> i was so surprised when i made that move and moved to los angeles to join the after the at "hill street blues" and i found that people were talking about stephen crane and conrad and they were talking about dickens. especially about dickens. >> rose: sitting around a room talking about him? >> the writers, which can be one of the great places of creative any if america, the writers' room in a show. we were all at various stages of having dropped out of english departments one way another to get there in los angeles and the subject of dickens was always coming up. we were writing about cities, we were writing about crimes, we were writing about cops. d

but then he wrote, david copperfield, nicholas nickelby all these things.ne who engages the dickens' novel never reads. i feel it makes him human. totally human. >> he's the mother of your children, how could you be so trial. >> i shall always be grateful but i do not love her. she comprehends nothing. she sees nothing. >> as dickens' affair evened he wrote what he considered his best novel "great expectations". >> we promise the sum of 1,000 pounds. >> liz showed us the checks he received as payment. >> over 3,000 pounds which in -- talking about 1862. that's an awful lot of money. >> absolutely is. you can multiply that by at least 100 i'd say. for equivalent. >> i can't help thinking "great expectations" comes out of the anguish and turmoil he was going through trying to figure out his life with nelly or not. >> dickens is believed continued his relationship with nelly turnin until his death in 1870. at age 58. did you like dickens? >> i liked dickens, yeah. i do. i think dickens is like a hungry child trying to entertain you. and perceptive child, and t

dickens had written a type of perfect, pure young woman in his books likester summers in-- david copperfield and little doority, and suddenly he meets her. and there she is. i think he projects a lot. >> he thinks that is what she is. >> he projects on to her it is his projection. and then part of it is earn willing who she really is. you know, but i think and then i think, you know, what felicity's performance shows brilliantly is the sort of way that nellie negotiates dicken's attention and has to sort of accept or find her way through to eventually, you know, accepting being in love with him. >> rose: you says he's very good at being honest. what did you mean? >> there's no dressing things up or falseness in his direction or in the way he lives as a man. and that is always what you want as an actor with a director. you know, sometimes people will come up to you and say that was great, that was amazing and you know it's not true. and so i think from the very beginning we set up a relationship of honesty and we both care deeply about these characters and about the film. and it was about por