The Charles Dickens Museum - Virtual Tour
The Ground Floor > The Front Hallway > Timeline of Dickens's Life
1812 - 1837: Beginnings
1812 7 February: Charles John Huffam Dickens is born in Portsmouth, Hampshire.
1815 The Dickens family moves to London.
1816 They move again to Chatham, Kent, where Dickens's father John works in the Navy Pay Office.
1822 They move to London. John Dickens has money troubles.
1824 Charles is sent out to work, in Warren's Blacking Factory. John Dickens is sent to the Marshalsea prison for debt.
1825 After John is released, Charles resumes his schooling.
1827 Charles gets a job as a lawyer's clerk.
1831 He becomes a reporter, recording debates in Parliament.
1833 He begins to write stories and features for magazines and newspapers.
1836 He marries Catherine Hogarth.

Some of his stories and features are published in book form as Sketches by Boz, First Series. (Further series follow.)

Pickwick Papers begins (20 parts, March 1836 - November 1837) and brings him instant fame.
1837 His first child, Charles Culliford Boz, is born.

1837 - 1844: The Young Celebrity
1837 Dickens and Catherine move to 48 Doughty Street (which is now the location of The Charles Dickens Museum), where his daughters Mary and Kate are born in 1838 and 1839.

Oliver Twist is serialized (24 installments, February 1837 - April 1839) in the magazine Bently's Miscellany.
1838 Nicholas Nickleby appears in 20 parts, March 1838 - September 1839.
1839 The Dickens family moves to 1 Devinshire Terrace, Marylebone. Here are born five children: Walter (1841), Francis (1844), Alfred (1845), Sydney (1847) and Henry (1849).
1840 Dickens starts a weekly magazine, Master Humphrey's Clock. It does not succeed as a magazine, so he used it to publish his next two novels:
The Old Curiosity Shop, April 1840 - February 1841, and
1841 Barnaby Rudge, February - November 1841.
1842 Dickens and Catherine visit America, from January to June, and Dickens then writes American Notes.

Martin Chuzzlewit appears in 20 parts, January 1843 - July 1844.
1843 Dickens writes the first of his Christmas books, A Christmas Carol.
1844 Dickens and family visit Italy, July 1844 - June 1845.

1844 - 1855: The Literary Lion
1844 Dickens publishes his second Christmas book, The Chimes.
1845 Dickens starts an amateur theatrical company, in which he both acts and directs. The third Christmas book: The Cricket on the Hearth.
1846 He starts a newspaper, the Daily New, but quickly hands it on to others.

Pictures from Italy is published.

Dombey and Son appears in 20, October 1846 - April 1848.

The fourth Christmas book: The Battle of Life.
1848 The fifth Christmas book: The Haunted Man.
1849 David Copperfield appears in 20 parts, May 1849 - November 1850.
1850 Dickens begins a weekly magazine, Household Words.
1851 The Dickens family moves to Tavistock House, Tavistock Square. Here Dickens's last child, Edward, is born in 1852.
1852 Bleak House appears in 20 parts, March 1852 - September 1853.
1854 Hard Times is serialized in Household Words, April - August.
1855 Little Dorrit appears in 20 parts, December 1855 - June 1857.

1856 - 1870: Trouble and Tired
1856 Dickens purchases Gad's Hill Place, near Rochester, Kent, as a country retreat.
1857 His amateur theatrical company performs Wilkie Collins's play The Frozen Deep, in which he meets an actress, Ellen Ternan. He begins a secret relationship with her.
1858 Dickens starts to give public readings from his works, touring throughout Britain. He separates from his wife.
1859 He gives more readings. Further tours follow throughout the 1860s. He writes less, and performs more. He closes down Household Words, and starts a new magazine, All the Year Round, where A Tale of Two Cities appears, April - November.
1860 Here also appear the Uncommercial Traveler series, and the novel Great Expectations, December 1860 - August 1861.

Dickens settles at Gad's Hill as his home. His relationship with Ellen Ternan continues.
1864 Our Mutual Friend appears in 20 parts, May 1864 - November 1865.
1867 Dickens makes a reading tour in America.
1869 His health failing, Dickens gives his Farewell Readings in London.
1870 The publication of The Mystery of Edwin Drood begins.

9 June: Dickens dies after a stroke.