Critical Insights: Great Expectations

Chronology of Charles Dicken’s Life

Year Event 1812 Born Charles John Huffam Dickens, the second of eight children, on February 7 to John and Elizabeth Dickens. 1813 Alfred Allen Dickens (brother) is born. 1814 John Dickens, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office, is transferred from Portsea to London. During these early years, Dickens is schooled by his mother and takes a strong interest in reading the fiction classics found in his father’s library. Alfred Allen Dickens dies. 1816 Letitia Mary Dickens (sister) is born. 1817 John Dickens moves the family to Chatham. Charles attends Dame School with his sister Fanny. 1819 Harriet Dickens (sister) is born. 1820 Frederick Dickens (brother) is born. 1821 Dickens begins studying at the Rev. William Giles School. He remains at this school, even after his family moves back to London in 1822. 1822 Composes his first tragedy, Misnar, the Sultan of India. Alfred Lamert Dickens (brother) is born. 1824 John Dickens is arrested for debt and imprisoned at Marshalsea Prison. Charles begins working at Warren’s Blacking Factory and moves into a poor neighborhood. His father is released three months later. 1824-1826 Dickens attends Wellington House Academy in London but is forced to leave when his father is evicted from his home. 1827 Dickens studies at Mr. Dawson’s school and works as a law clerk and spends time reading in the British Museum. Augustus Dickens (brother) is born. 1830 Meets Maria Beadnell, the daughter of George Beadnell, a prosperous banker. 1831 Becomes a reporter for the Mirror of Parliament. 1832 Works as a staff writer for the True Sun. 1833 Dickens publishes his first piece, “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” in Monthly Magazine under the pen name Boz. Maria Beadnell ends relationship with Dickens. 1834 Dickens works as a staff writer on the Morning Chronicle. His “street sketches” begin to appear in the Evening Chronicle. Dickens meets Catherine Hogarth. John Dickens is arrested for debt. 1836 Sketches by Boz, illustrated by George Cruikshank, is published. Dickens and Catherine Hogarth marry in April. Two plays are produced, The Strange Gentleman and The Village Coquettes, both at the St. James’s Theatre. Dickens starts work as the editor of Bentley’s Miscellany. Dickens meets John Forster. 1836-1837 Pickwick Papers is published in monthly installments. 1837 Pickwick Papers is published in book form; Oliver Twist begins to appear in Bentley’s Miscellany. Dickens moves to 48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury (now home of the Charles Dickens Museum). Is She His Wife?, a play, is produced at the St. James’s Theatre. Dickens’s first child, Charles Culliford Boz Dickens, is born. Catherine’s sister Mary dies. 1838 Nicholas Nickleby is published in installments and is completed in October of 1839. Dickens’s first daughter, Mary, is born. 1839 The Dickenses move to Devonshire Terrace. Daughter, Kate Macready Dickens, is born. Nicholas Nickleby appears in book form. 1840 Dickens edits Master Humphrey’s Clock; publishes The Old Curiosity Shop. 1841 Barnaby Rudge is published in Master Humphrey’s Clock. Son Walter Landor Dickens is born. 1842 Dickens and his wife travel to America. Dickens publishes American Notes and begins work on Martin Chuzzlewit. 1843 Martin Chuzzlewit appears in monthly installments. A Christmas Carol is published. 1844 Dickens travels to Italy. The Chimes is completed. Son Francis Jeffrey Dickens is born. 1845 Dickens produces and acts in Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour. The Cricket on the Hearth is written, and Dickens begins work on Pictures from Italy. A fourth son, Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens, is born. 1846 Dickens creates and edits the Daily News but resigns shortly afterward. Begins Dombey and Son. Travels to Switzerland. The Battle of Life: A Love Story appears. 1847 Son Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens is born. Dickens begins managing a theatrical company. 1848 Older sister Frances (Fanny) dies. Dickens’s theatrical company performs for Queen Victoria. Dickens publishes his last Christmas book, The Haunted Man. 1849 Dickens begins work on David Copperfield. A sixth son, Henry Fielding Dickens, is born. 1850 Dickens begins publishing Household Words, a weekly journal. Daughter Dora Annie Dickens is born and dies. 1851 Dickens’s father dies. 1852 Bleak House begins appearing in monthly installments. The first bound volume of A Child’s History of England appears. Dickens’s last child, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, is born. 1854 Hard Times is published in Household Words and later appears in book form. 1855 Little Dorrit appears in monthly installments. The Dickens family travels to Paris. 1856 Dickens purchases Gad’s Hill Place. Rehearses Wilkie Collins’s The Frozen Deep. 1857 Dickens performs in The Frozen Deep. Meets Ellen Ternan. Hans Christian Andersen visits Gad’s Hill. 1858 Dickens begins a series of paid public readings. Separates from Catherine and tries to dispel rumors of an affair with Ellen Ternan. 1859 Dickens begins a new weekly, All the Year Round. A Tale of Two Cities is published. 1860 Dickens begins writing the series The Uncommercial Traveller. Great Expectations appears in weekly installments. 1861 First installment of Great Expectations is published in Harper’s Weekly, New York, in November. 1863 Dickens continues his readings in Paris and London. His daughter Elizabeth dies and his own health is in serious decline. 1864 Our Mutual Friend appears in installments. 1865 Dickens and Ellen Ternan survive a train crash in Kent. Our Mutual Friend appears in book form. The second collection of The Uncommercial Traveller is published. 1866 Despite poor health, Dickens continues to give readings in the English provinces. 1867 Dickens travels to America and gives readings in Boston and New York. Meets President Andrew Johnson. 1869 Begins The Mystery of Edwin Drood. 1870 On June 9, Charles Dickens dies at age fifty-eight.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"Chronology Of Charles Dicken’s Life." Critical Insights: Great Expectations, edited by Eugene Goodheart, Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CIW_Great_Expect_1017.
APA 7th
Chronology of Charles Dicken’s Life. Critical Insights: Great Expectations, In E. Goodheart (Ed.), Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CIW_Great_Expect_1017.
CMOS 17th
"Chronology Of Charles Dicken’s Life." Critical Insights: Great Expectations, Edited by Eugene Goodheart. Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CIW_Great_Expect_1017.