Dora Spenlow is a character in the novel David Copperfield

David Copperfield (novel)

The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery , commonly referred to as David Copperfield, is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial...

by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

. David falls in love with Dora, who is beautiful but foolish, and later marries her. She proves unable to cope with anything but being a child bride, and is more interested in playing with her dog, Jip, than in acting as David's housekeeper. All this has a profound effect on David, but he always loves her. She dies following a miscarriage

Miscarriage

Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...

, after only a short period of marriage.

Charles Dickens named his daughter Dora Annie Dickens

Dora Annie Dickens

Dora Annie Dickens was the infant daughter of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. She was the ninth of their ten children, and the youngest of their three daughters.-A short life:...

(1850 – 1851) after the character.