The Chronology of Dickens

1812 Born in Portsmouth (February 7) to John and Elizabeth Dickens.

1817 Family moves to Chatham , near Rochester in Kent .

1821 Dickens begins education at William Giles's School. Writes the tragedy, Misnar, the Sultan of India .

1822 John Dickens transferred to London (summer). Family moves to Camden Town.

1824 John Dickens imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea Prison (February 20- May 28). The young Charles Dickens is sent to work at Warren 's Blacking Factory (late January/early February-June).

1825 Attends Wellington House Academy .

1827 Family evicted for non-payment of rates (March). Dickens leaves school and becomes a clerk at Ellis & Blackmore, solicitors.

1828 - 29 Learns shorthand and works as a freelance reporter at Doctors' Commons.

1830 Falls in love with Maria Beadnell.

1831 - 34 Works as a parliamentary reporter.

1832 Considers a career in acting but fails, on account of illness, to keep his appointment for an audition at Covent Garden Theatre.

1833 Publishes first story, "A Dinner at Poplar Walk," in The Monthly Magazine.

1834 Becomes reporter for The Morning Chronicle. Meets Catherine Hogarth (August). Publishes stories in various periodicals.

1836 Collects previously published stories into his first book, Sketches by Boz (First Series, 8 February). Marries Catherine Hogarth (2 April). Serialization of Pickwick Papers (April 1836-November 1837). The Strange Gentleman produced at the St. James's Theater (29 September) followed by The Village Coquettes (22 December). Sketches by Boz , Second Series published (17 December). Resigns from The Morning Chronicle to assume editorship of Bentley's Miscellany.

1837 First number of Bentley's Miscellany (1 January). The first of his ten children