Timeline of Charles Dickens

1812---->Born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7 in Portsmouth, England

1814---->Dickens family relocates to London.

1816----> Charles’ first official schooling.

1821---->Financial disaster, Dickens family relocates toChatham.

1822---->Relocation to Camden Town.

1824---->John Dickens imprisoned in the Marshalsea; Charles begins work at Warren’s Blacking Factory; John Dickens released in May.

1827---->Removed from school; works in attorney’s office.

1829---->Employed as freelance reporter. Meets Maria Beadnell.

1830---->Is jilted by Beadnell; first published story appears (“Dinner at Poplar Walk,”MonthlyMagazine).

1834----> Becomes “Boz”; meets Catherine Hogarth.

1835---->Becomes engaged to Catherine Hogarth

1836---->Is married to Catherine Hogarth on April 2; first Boss sketches appear; editsBentley’s Miscellany, is introduced to Forster; Pickwick begins.

1837---->First child born in January; Mary Hogarth, living with the Dickenses, dies in Charles’ arms; Dickens beginsOliver Twist.

1838---->Begins Nicholas Nickleby.

1839---->Leaves the Miscellany.

1840---->Master Humphrey’s Clock introduced; begins The OldCuriosity Shop

1840-41->The Old Curiosity Shop appears in Master Humphrey’s Clock.

1841---->Barnaby Rudge appears in Master Humphrey’s Clock; travels with Catherine to Scotland.

1842---->Visits the United States and Canada with Catherine and is lavishly received; produces American Notes, which is found offensive; Georgina Hogarth resides with Dickenses.

1843---->A Christmas Carol, begins Martin Chuzzlewit.

1844---->Journeys to Italy and, later, returns to Genoa; The Chimes.

1845---->Begins amateur theatrical company; The Cricket and the Hearth.

1846---->Journeys to Switzerland and France; begins Dombey and Son; The Battle of Life.

1848---->Tries hand at autobiography; The Haunted Man.

1849-50->David Copperfield.

1850---->Founds Household Words.

1851-53->Bleak House.

1853---->Begins public readings of his work.

1854---->Hard Times.

1855---->Reunited, disastrously, with Maria Beadnell (Mrs. Henry Winter); Little Dorrit begins.

1856---->Collaborates with Collins on The Frozen Deep; purchases Gad’s Hill Place.

1857---->Meets Ellen (Nellie) Ternan while co-starring with her and her mother in his and Collins’The Frozen Deep; Dickens and Catherine take separate bedrooms.

1858---->Catherine accuses him of having an affair in the spring), separated from Catherine; quells rumors about relationship with Georgina Hogarth; begins paid readings of his work.

1859---->A Tale of Two Cities.

1860----> Family relocates to Gad’s Hill; Great Expectations.

1864---->Health begins to fail from strain of work and public readings; Our Mutual Friend.

1865---->Train from Paris derails on a bridge, endangeringDickens and Ellen Ternan; Dickens rescues themanuscript of Our Mutual Friend.

1867-68->Visits United States again.

1869---->The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

1870---->Final public readings; dies of paralytic stroke; is buried in Westminster Abbey