Charles Dickens Timeline
| Charles Dickens: Timeline | |
|---|---|
| Charles Dickens, the son of John Dickens and Elizabeth Dickens, was born in Landport (7th June). | 1812 |
| The Dickens family move to Southsea. | 1813 |
| John Dickens transferred to London and establishes a home in St Pancras. | 1814 |
| The Dickens family move to Chatham. | 1821 |
| John Dickens transferred back to London and establishes a home in Camden Town. | 1822 |
| John Dickens arrested for debt and imprisoned at Marshalsea Prison in Southwark (February). | 1824 |
| Charles Dickens employed at the Warren Blacking Factory (9th February). | |
| John Dickens's mother dies and he inherits the sum of £450 (April). | 1825 |
| John Dickens leaves Marshalsea Prison (May). | |
| John Dickens leaves the Navy Office with a pension of £145.16s.8d. a year. | |
| Charles Dickens is sent to Wellington House Academy. | |
| Dickens family evicted for non-payment of rates and Charles Dickens removed from Wellington House Academy (February) | 1827 |
| Elizabeth Dickens arranges for her son to work as an office boy at the Ellis & Blackmore law firm in Gray's Inn. | 1828 |
| Dickens went to work for another solicitor, Charles Molloy, in Chancery Lane (November). | |
| Dickens learns shorthand and becomes a freelance reporter. | 1829 |
| Dickens falls in love with Maria Beadnell (May). | 1830 |
| Charles Dickens meets John Forster for the first time. | 1831 |
| Charles Dickens Dickens begins working for the Mirror of Parliament. | |
| Maria Beadnell breaks off relationship with Dickens. | 1832 |
| Dickens's first story, A Dinner at Popular Walk, is published in The Monthly Magazine. | 1833 |
| Dickens meets Catherine Hogarth (February). Dickens becomes a reporter on the Morning Chronicle (August). George Hogarth commissions Sketches of London for his newspaper, Evening Chronicle. | 1834 |
| Sketches of London begins in the Evening Chronicle (January). Dickens becomes engaged to Catherine Hogarth (May). | 1835 |
| Dickens Sketches by Boz published (8th February). First episode of The Pickwick Papers published (31st March). Charles Dickens marries Catherine Hogarth (2nd April). Mary Hogarth goes to live at Furnival's Inn with Charles and Catherine Dickens. Dickens’s agrees to edit Bentley's Miscellany (4th November). John Forster introduces Charles Dickens to William Harrison Ainsworth (25th December). | 1836 |
| First number of Bentley's Miscellany published (1st January). Birth of Charles Culliford Dickens (6th January). Dickens elected member of the Garrick Club (21st January). First instalment of Oliver Twist is published in Bentley's Miscellany (31st January) Mary Hogarth dies suddenly after a visit to the theatre (7th May). Dickens and family holiday at Broadstairs (August - September). John Forster introduces Dickens to William Charles Macready (16th June). Last instalment of The Pickwick Papers published (30th October). | 1837 |
| Birth of Mary (Maime) Dickens (6th March). First instalment of Nicholas Nickleby published (31st March). Charles Dickens and family holiday on the Isle of Wight (September). The Pickwick Papers is published in three volumes (9th November). | 1838 |
| Dickens begins writing Barnaby Rudge (January). Dickens relinquishes editorship of Bentley's Miscellany (31st January). Last instalment of Oliver Twist published (March). Nicholas Nickleby published in one volume (23rd October).Dickens and family move to 1 Devonshire Terrace, York Gate (December). Birth of Kate Macready Dickens (6th December). | 1839 |
| First number of Master Humphrey's Clock (4th April). First instalment of The Old Curiosity Shop published (25th April). Charles Dickens and family holiday at Broadstairs (June). Dickens, John Forster and Daniel Maclise visit Rochester (29th June). Dickens visits his parents in Devon (July). Dickens family stay at Lawn House, Broadstairs (August-September). | 1840 |
| Last instalment of The Old Curiosity Shop (January). Birth of Walter Landor Dickens (13th February). Dickens declines invitation by Thomas Talfourd to become the Liberal Party parliamentary candidate for Reading (29th March). Charles and Catherine Dickens have holiday in Edinburgh (June-July). Dickens family stay at Lawn House, Broadstairs (August-September). Dickens undergoes an operation for anal fistula (8th October). Last instalment of Barnaby Rudge (27th November). The Old Curiosity Shop published in one volume (15th December). | 1841 |
| Charles and Catherine Dickens sail from Liverpool to Boston (4th January). Dickens speaks on international copyright at Hartford (February). Dickens criticises slavery in Richmond (March). Charles and Catherine visit Niagara Falls (May). Charles and Catherine arrive back in London (1st July). Georgina Hogarth joins the household (July). Dickens family stay in Broadstairs (August). Dickens, John Forster and Daniel Maclise go on holiday to Cornwall (October-November). First instalment of Martin Chuzzlewit (31st December). | 1842 |
| Dickens family stay in Broadstairs (August). A Christmas Carol is published (19th December). | 1843 |
| Birth of Francis (Frank) Dickens (15th January). Dickens leaves Chapman and Hall for Bradbury & Evans (June). Martin Chuzzlewit published in one volume (July). | 1844 |
| Charles and Catherine Dickens arrive in Rome (30th January) Georgina Hogarth joins them in Naples (February) The Dickens’s party are joined in Brussels by Daniel Maclise, Douglas Jerrold and John Forster (June). Birth of Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens (28th October). The Cricket on the Hearth published (December). | 1845 |
| Dickens publishes the first issue of The Daily News (11th January). Dickens resigns editorship of The Daily News (9th February). First instalment of Dombey and Son published (September). Dickens family arrive in Paris for a three month stay (20th November). | 1846 |
| Charley Dickens catches scarlet fever while at King’s College School and his parents return from France to be at his bedside (February). Birth of Sydney Smith Dickens (18th April). Charles, Catherine, Charley and Georgina Hogarth holiday in Brighton (May). The Dickens family holiday at the Royal Albion Hotel, Broadstairs (June-September). | 1847 |
| Last instalment of Dombey and Son published (March). The Haunted Man short story published (19th December). Charles Dickens, John Forster, Mark Lemon and John Leech visit Norwich (31st December). | 1848 |
| Birth of Henry Fielding Dickens (15th January). First instalment of David Copperfield published (30th April). Dickens family at Fort House, Broadstairs (July) Dickens family and friends at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight (August-September). Dickens outlines his plans to John Forster about his proposed journal Household Words. (7th October). | 1849 |
| First issue of Household Words published (30th March). Charles Dickens and Daniel Maclise have holiday in France (July). Birth of Dora Dickens (16th August). David Copperfield published in one volume (December). | 1850 |
| Serialization of A Child's History of England begins in Household Words (January). Catherine Dickens suffers a nervous collapse (March). John Dickens dies in London (31st March). Dora Dickens dies at Devonshire Terrace (14th April). Dickens family at Fort House, Broadstairs (May). Dickens family move into Tavistock House, Bloomsbury (November). | 1851 |
| First instalment of Bleak House (March). Birth of Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (13th March). First volume of A Child's History of England published (December). | 1852 |
| Charley Dickens leaves Eton (January). Last instalment of Bleak House published (September). Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Augustus Egg, holiday in Italy (October-December). Second volume of A Child's History of England published (December). Dickens gives first reading of A Christmas Carol in Birmingham Town Hall (29th December). | 1853 |
| Dickens visits the industrial town of Preston (January). First instalment of Hard Times in Household Words (1st April). Dickens holidays in Boulogne at the Villa Camp de Droite (June-October). Last instalment of Hard Times in Household Words (12th August). Third volume of A Child's History of England published (December). | 1854 |
| Dickens spends a fortnight in Paris with Wilkie Collins (February). Dickens receives a letter from first love, Maria Winter, the former Maria Beadnell (May). Dickens disappointed by meeting with Maria (May). Dickens holidays in Folkestone (July). First instalment of Little Dorrit published (1st December). | 1855 |
| Dickens purchases Gad's Hill Place (14th March). Dickens and family holiday at Boulogne (June-August). Dickens helps Wilkie Collins write The Frozen Deep (November). | 1856 |
| The Frozen Deep performed at Tavistock House for the first time (6th January). The Dickens family move to Gad's Hill Place (February). Last instalment of Little Dorrit published (June). Death of Dickens’s close friend, Douglas Jerrold (4th July). Walter Landor Dickens leaves for India (20th July). Dickens meets and falls in love with Ellen Ternan (August). | 1857 |
| Charles Dickens separates from Catherine Dickens (May). Dickens makes a public statement about his relationship with his wife (12th June). Dickens makes first provincial reading tour that includes 44 stops and 87 readings (2nd August). | 1858 |
| Dickens decides to start a new journal, All the Year Round (28th January). Dickens leases new offices at 11 Wellington Street, Strand (February). First issue of All the Year Round appears containing the opening instalment of A Tale of Two Cities (30th April). Last issue of Household Words published (28th May). Dickens begins second provincial reading tour (10th October). Last instalment of A Tale of Two Cities published (26th November). | 1859 |
| Kate Dickens marries Charles Allston Collins (17th July). Dickens leaves Tavistock House (July). Dickens and Georgina Hogarth move into Gad's Hill Place (September). First instalment of Great Expectations appears in All the Year Round (1st December). Uncommercial Traveller published in book form (December). | 1860 |
| Charles Dickens takes 3 Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park, as his London base (March). Last instalment of Great Expectations is published in All the Year Round (3rd August). Dickens begins a long series of provincial readings in Norwich (28th October). Charley Dickens marries Bessie Evans, daughter of Frederick Evans, his former publisher (19th November). | 1861 |
| Dickens takes lease on 16 Hyde Park Gate for three months (February-April). Georgina Hogarth is seriously ill (March). | 1862 |
| Dickens visits Paris with Georgina Hogarth and Mamie Dickens (January). Death of his mother, Elizabeth Dickens (12th September). Death of his former friend, William Makepeace Thackeray (24th December). Death of Walter Landor Dickens (31st December). | 1863 |
| Francis Dickens leaves for India (January). First instalment of Our Mutual Friend published (1st May). Death of his friend, John Leech (29th October). Charles Fechter presents Dickens with a Swiss chalet to be erected at Gad's Hill Place (December). | 1864 |
| Dickens attacked by pain and lameness in left foot (February). Dickens takes short holiday in Paris (June). Dickens and Ellen Ternan in serious railway accident in Staplehurst (9th June). Last instalment of Our Mutual Friend published (November). | 1865 |
| Dickens takes furnished house at 6 Southwick Place, Hyde Park (March). Death of his friend, Jane Carlyle (21st April) | 1866 |
| Dickens begins new series of 50 provincial readings at Liverpool (January) Dickens ends his tour after suffering from pain and swelling in left foot (14th May). After receiving a positive report from George Dolby, Dickens telegraphs acceptance of American tour to James Thomas Fields (30th September). Dickens and Dolby arrive in Boston (19th November). Dickens writes to John Forster claiming he is making a clear profit of £1,300 a week in his tour of America (2nd December). Dickens gives first reading in New York City (9th December). Doctor is called to treat Dickens for his health problems (27th December). | 1867 |
| Dickens leaves New York City and sails for England (22nd April). Edward Bulwer Dickens sails for Australia (September). Dickens starts a farewell reading tour (5th October). | 1868 |
| First reading of the Murder of Nancy (5th January). Dickens is ordered to abandon his readings by his doctor as he is in danger of suffering from “paralysis” (22nd April). Dickens begins writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood (July). | 1869 |
| Dickens visits Ellen Ternan regularly at Windsor Lodge, Peckham (January). Dickens begins a series of 12 readings at St. James’s Hall (11th January). Queen Victoria receives Dickens at Buckingham Palace (9th March). Dickens gives final reading at St. James’s Hall (15th March). First instalment of The Mystery of Edwin Drood is published (1st April). Dickens drives from Gad's Hill Place to Cobham Park with Georgina Hogarth (7th June). Dickens dies of cerebral haemorrhage (9th June). Dickens is buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey (14th June). Last instalment of The Mystery of Edwin Drood published (September). | 1870 |