Charles Dickens Biography

1822: family moved to London

1824: Charles Dickens's father John was imprisoned for debt. Result: Was withdrawn from school. Send to work in a shoe-dy factory. Dickens lived alone in a lodging house in North London. The most terrible experience of his life. This experience shaped much of his future writing.

Some months later Dickens father was released from prison. Allowed him to go back to school. At 15, Dickens was forced to return to work (Clerk in a law firm, then a shorthand reporter in the courts, and finally a parliamentary and newspaper reporter).

1833: Began to contribute short stories and essays to periodicals

1836: His comic narrative accompanying a series of engravings were published as the Pickwick Papers. Became internationally popular. Resigned as newspaper reporter. Became editor of a monthly magazine entitled Bentley's Miscellany.

1836: He married Catherine Hogarth. They had nine surviving children. They separated in 1858.

1837: Oliver Twist was serialized in Bentley's Miscellany

1838: Began to publish monthly installments of Nicholas Nickleby (although Oliver Twist was only half completed). Dickens had so many projects in the works he could'nt stay ahead of his monthly deadlines.

After finishing Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby he produced weekly installments of The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge

1841: Short vacation in the United States.

1843: Began to publish annual Christmas stories started with A Christmas Carol)

As citizen and as part of the community he fought actively for social issues: education reform, sanitary measures, slum clearance. His novel Dombey and Son (1846-1848) are directly related to his fight.

1850: Established a weekly jounal "Household Words". He contribueted the serialized works of Child's History of England (1851-53), Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations (1860-61).

During this time he continued to work on his novels:
1849.1850 David Copperfield
1852.1853 Bleak House
1855.1857 Little Dorrit
1864.1865 Our mutual friend

But the more he works, the more he became disenchanted, angered and disullusioned with society

1858: Began a series of paid readings. All in all,he performed more than 400 times. These readings left him often exhausted and ill but they increased his income. During this year, he divorced Catherine Hogarth Dickens

1860: After his divorce from Catherine Hogarth, Dickens, he moved to his country house "Gad's Hill", near Chatham.

1860: He started an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. It lasted till Charles Dickens death. This affair was kept quite secret.

1869: Dickens has to abandon his reading tours because his health began to decline. Retired to Gad's Hill, began to work on Edwin Drood (was never completed)

1870 June 9: Died suddenly at home (stroke). He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

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Some of his Works:

Sketches by Boz (1836)
Pickwick Papers (serialized monthly 1836-37)
Oliver Twist (serialized monthly 1837-39)
Nicholas Nickleby (serialized monthly 1838-39)
The Old Curiosity Shop (serialized weekly 1840-41)
Barnaby Rudge (serialized weekly 1841)
Martin Chuzzlewit (serialized monthly 1843-44)
Dombey and Son (serialized monthly 1846-48)
David Copperfield (serialized monthly 1849-50)
Bleak House (serialized monthly 1852-53)
Hard Times (serialized weekly 1854)
Little Dorrit (serialized monthly 1855-57)
A Tale of Two Cities (serialized weekly 1859)
Great Expectations (serialized weekly 1860-61)
Our Mutual Friend (serialized monthly 1864-65)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood - unfinished (serialized monthly 1870)

Weekly Magazines:

Master Humphrey's Clock (1840-41)
Household Words (1850-59)
All the Year Round (1859-70)