Dickens, Charles Contents
Dickens, Charles Timeline
| Year | Historical | Literary | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1812 |
War with America begins (until 1814) Further Luddite unrest Prime Minister Spencer Percival assassinated Napoleon begins invasion of Russia Wellington defeats French at Salamanca Battle of Borodino Napoleon enters Moscow but begins a retreat one month later |
Birth of Robert Browning, poet The Brothers Grimm publish their Tales Shelley publishes Declaration of Rights |
Charles Dickens born in Portsmouth |
| 1813 |
Toleration Act for Unitarians Leigh Hunt imprisoned for libelling Prince Regent Wellington enters France Napoleon defeated at Battle of Leipzig Prussian army begins invasion of France |
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| 1814 |
Robert Stephenson builds steam locomotive Napoleon abdicates and is banished to Elba End of war with America Congress of Vienna Allies enter Paris British burn Washington in USA |
Scott's Waverley | |
| 1815 |
Napoleon returns from Elba and is defeated at Waterloo Corn Law passed Leigh Hunt released from prison on Feb. 3 Napoleon returns to France and enters Paris Napoleon finally defeated by Wellington at the battle of Waterloo Napoleon banished to St Helena John Nash begins the Brighton Pavilion |
Scott's Guy Mannering | |
| 1816 |
Riots in East Anglia and the manufacturing districts of the north of England Economic depression William Cobbett's Political Register Shelley marries Mary Godwin |
Scott's The Antiquary | Dickens family lives in London (- 1817) |
| 1817 |
Prince Regent's coach attacked: further repressive measures by Government. Further social unrest Manchester 'Blanketeers' march to London |
Scott's Rob Roy Hazlitt's Characters of Shakespeare's Plays Southey's Wat Tyler |
Dickens family live in Chatham, Kent (- 1822) |
| 1818 |
Proposals for Parliamentary reform are twice defeated in the House of Commons Percy and Mary Shelley depart from England for the final time |
Peacock's Nightmare Abbey Scott's Heart of Midlothian |
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| 1819 |
Peterloo massacres in Manchester and passing of Six Acts placing restrictions on the press and public assemblies Poor Relief Act passed Factory Act passed Queen Victoria born Birth of Albert (later Prince Consort) |
Scott's Ivanhoe; The Bride of Lammermoor Leigh Hunt: Hero and Leander J.H. Reynolds: Benjamin the Waggoner; Peter Bell (both parodies of Wordsworth) |
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| 1820 |
Death of George III and accession of George IV Royal Astronomical Society founded |
Lamb's Essays of Elia Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer |
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| 1821 |
Another reform bill defeated in Commons Greek War of Independence |
Scott's Kenilworth Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater |
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| 1822 |
Colony for freed slaves founded in Liberia |
Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater | |
| 1823 |
Scott's Quentin Durward Hazlitt's Liber Amoris |
Dickens family moves to London | |
| 1824 | Combination Acts repealed, thus giving trade unions right to exist | Scott's Redgauntlet |
Dickens' father imprisoned for debt; Dickens works in blacking factory Dickens attends Wellington House Academy (- 1827) |
| 1825 | Stockton - Darlington Railway opens | Hazlitt's The Spirit of the Age | |
| 1826 |
Power looms destroyed by unemployed weavers Further attempts at Parliamentary reform defeated |
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| 1827 | Works as solicitor's clerk (- 1828) | ||
| 1828 |
Test and Corporation Acts repealed Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister |
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| 1829 |
Catholic Emancipation Act Robert Peel creates metropolitan police force |
Carlyle's Signs of the Times | Works as shorthand reporter (- 1831) |
| 1830 |
Death of George IV and accession of William IV Earl Grey's Whig reforming government 'Captain Swing' rural riots Opening of Manchester - Liverpool Railway July Revolution in France Greek independence from Ottoman Empire secured |
Cobbett's Rural Rides Charles Lyell (Dante Gabriel?s Godfather), Principles of Geology |
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| 1831 |
Wellington resigns as Prime Minister in opposition to Parliamentary reform National Union of the Working Class founded Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction Cholera outbreak in England |
Mill's The Spirit of the Age | |
| 1832 |
Parliamentary Reform Act passed Passage of the Great Reform Act Morse invents the telegraph |
Chambers' Edinburgh Journal and Penny Magazine (-1837) begin | |
| 1833 |
First Tracts for the Times published Factory Act limits children's working hours and includes provision for education Abolition of Slavey Act |
Carlyle's Sartor Resartus (-1834) | 1833-34: First stories in Monthly Magazine |
| 1834 |
New Poor Law British Empire abolishes slavery |
1834-1836: Reporter on Morning Chronicle | |
| 1836 |
Dickens' Sketches by Boz, volumes 1 and 2 Dickens' Pickwick Papers in monthly parts Dickens marries Catherine Hogarth |
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| 1837 |
Death of William IV and accession of Queen Victoria Brunel, Great Western Railway |
Carlyle's The French Revolution Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits |
1837-1839: Dickens Editor of Bentley's Miscellany Death of Dickens' sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth 1837-1838: Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist in monthly parts |
| 1838 |
Anti-Corn Law League founded Chartist petitions published London to Birmingham railway opens People's Charter issued |
Letitia Landon dies, Gold Coast | 1838-1839: Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby in monthly parts |
| 1839 | First Factory Inspector's report |
Carlyle's Chartism Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle Ellis' The Women of England:Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits |
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| 1840 |
Penny post begins Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert, who becomes Prince Consort. |
1840-1841: Dickens' Master Humphrey's Clock (weekly) includes The Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop |
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| 1841 |
The Tories come to power. Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime Minister Punch begins |
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| 1842 |
Jowett becomes tutor at Balliol College, Oxford Chartist riots. Report on Sanitary Conditions of Labouring Population Mudie's Lending Library opens Illustrated London News begins |
Dickens spends January-June in North America. Dickens' American Notes | |
| 1843 | Theatre Regulation Act |
Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present Ruskin's Modern Painters (vol. 1) |
1843-1844: Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit in monthly parts. Dickens' A Christmas Carol |
| 1844 |
Co-operative Society founded in Rochdale Factory Act (women and children) Expansion of railways across Britain |
Disraeli's Coningsby, or The New Generation published |
1844-1845: Dickens lives in Italy Dickens' The Chimes |
| 1845 |
John Henry Newman converts to Catholicism Financial speculation in Railways Onset of the Irish potato famine The first Anglican sisterhood, Park Village, is founded in the Christ Church parish |
Disraeli's Sybil, or The Two Nations published E. A. Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination |
First performances by Dickens' amateur theatrical company; others follow in 1846-48 and 1850-52. Dickens' The Cricket on the Hearth 1845-46: Dickens edits and writes for Daily News Dicken's Dombey and Son (-1848) |
| 1846 |
Repeal of Corn Laws Famine in Ireland Whigs come to Power |
1846-47: Lives in Switzerland and Paris Dickens' The Battle of Life |
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| 1847 |
Railway reaches Dorchester Ten Hours' Factory Act |
Disraeli's Tancred | Collaborates with Miss Coutts on opening of a home for homeless women |
| 1848 |
Chartist demonstrations in London following by the collapse of the Chartist movement Democratic Revolutions in Europe. Cholera epidemic Public Health Act Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founded |
Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto Newman's Loss and Gain |
Dickens' The Haunted Man |
| 1849 | Bedford College for Women founded | Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke | Dickens' David Copperfield in monthly parts |
| 1850 |
Roman Catholic hierarchy established Public Libraries Act |
Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter |
Dickens founds and edits weekly magazine, Household Words; contributes regular articles |
| 1851 |
Great Exhibition in London Taylor Mill's The Enfranchisement of Women |
Ruskin's Stones of Venice Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe |
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| 1852 | 1852-53: Dickens' Bleak House in monthly parts | ||
| 1853 |
Cholera epidemic Crimean War |
Yonge's Heir of Redclyffe | |
| 1854 | Onset of Crimean War | Dickens' Hard Times in weekly instalments | |
| 1855 |
Daily Telegraph Repeal of stamp duty on newspapers |
Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South | 1855-57: Dickens' Little Dorrit in monthly parts |
| 1856 | Crimean War ends | Dickens, Little Dorrit | Dickens buys Gad's Hill Place, Kent |
| 1857 |
Railway extended to Weymouth Indian Mutiny Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act |
Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary Hughes' Tom Brown's School days Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh |
Dickens meets Ellen Ternan, a young actress and begins relationship |
| 1858 |
Ballantyne's Coral Island English Woman's Journal begins George Eliot, Scenes of Clerical Life |
Dickens seperates from his wife. Begins public readings from his works | |
| 1859 |
Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species published Rise of movement for Home Rule in Ireland |
Smiles' Self Help published Mill's On Liberty |
Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities in both weekly and monthly parts Dickens founds All the Year Round and closes Household Words |
| 1860 | Cornhill Magazine begins |
1860-61: Dickens' Great Expectations in weekly parts Dickens' The Uncommercial Traveller. Dickens moves permanently from London to Gad's Hill |
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| 1861 |
Death of Prince Consort American Civil War begins |
Dickens, Great Expectations Beeton's Book of Household Management Wood's East Lynne |
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| 1862 | Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret | ||
| 1863 | The Oxford Declaration published | Kingsley's The Water Babies | |
| 1864 | John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua | 1864-65: Dickens' Our Mutual Friend in monthly parts | |
| 1865 |
American Civil War ends Women's Suffrage Campaign Transatlantic cable laid Joseph Lister establishes antiseptic surgery Completion of St. Pancras' railway station Slavery is abolished in the USA |
Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism | |
| 1866 |
Cholera epidemic Former slaves granted citizenship and equal rights in America Ku Klux Klan founded |
Swinburne's Poems and Ballads (dedicated to Rossetti) published | |
| 1867 |
Second Reform Act Fenian Rising in Ireland |
Marx's Das Kapital published George Eliot's Felix Holt, the Radical |
Public reading tour in USA |
| 1868 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister | Dickens suffers a breakdown in health during British reading tour | |
| 1869 |
Opening of Suez Canal Mill's The Subjection of Women |
Arnold's Culture and Anarchy Blackmore's Lorna Doone |
Farewell season of public readings in London |
| 1870 |
Education Act: free education in new board schools First Married Women's Property Act |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poems |
Charles Dickens dies at Gad's Hill, aged 58 Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished) in monthly parts Death of Dickens |
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