| 1812 | Born in Portsmouth. |
| 1815–22 | Family moves to London, Chatham, and back to London. |
| 1824 | Sent to work in blacking warehouse; father imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea prison. |
| 1825 | Leaves blacking warehouse and goes back to school. |
| 1827 | Starts work as a solicitor’s clerk. |
| 1829 | Works at Doctors’ Commons as a shorthand reporter. |
| 1830 | Falls in love with Maria Beadnell. |
| 1831 | Reporter for The Mirror of Parliament. |
| 1832 | Parliamentary reporter on The True Sun. |
| 1833 | First story, ‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’, published in Monthly Magazine. |
| 1833–6 | Sketches by Boz, published individually in magazines and newspapers, first collected 1836. |
| 1834 | Reporter for The Morning Chronicle; moves into own lodgings; meets Catherine Hogarth. |
| 1836 | Marries Catherine Hogarth; leaves The Morning Chronicle; meets John Forster. |
| 1836–7 | The Pickwick Papers, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1837 | Editorship of monthly Bentley’s Miscellany; birth of first child, Charley; moves to 48 Doughty Street; sudden death of Mary Hogarth. |
| 1837–9 | Oliver Twist, twenty-four monthly instalments in Bentley’s Miscellany. |
| 1838 | Visits Yorkshire schools with Hablot K. Browne (Phiz); birth of second child, Mary (Mamie). |
| 1838–9 | Nicholas Nickleby, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1839 | Resigns editorship of Bentley’s; birth of third child, Katey; moves to Devonshire Terrace, Regent’s Park. |
| 1840 | Editorship of weekly magazine, Master Humphrey’s Clock. |
| 1840–1 | The Old Curiosity Shop, forty weekly instalments in Master Humphrey’s Clock. |
| 1841 | Barnaby Rudge, forty-two weekly instalments in Master Humphrey’s Clock; Master Humphrey’s Clock concluded; birth of fourth child, Walter. |
| 1842 | Visits America with Catherine; American Notes, two volumes. |
| 1843 | A Christmas Carol, one volume (December). |
| 1843–4 | Martin Chuzzlewit, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1844 | Birth of fifth child, Francis; takes family to Italy; The Chimes, one volume (December). |
| 1845 | Birth of sixth child, Alfred; The Cricket on the Hearth, one volume (December). |
| 1846 | Edits The Daily News, 21 January to 9 February; takes family to Switzerland, then Paris. |
| 1846 | Pictures from Italy, partially as ‘Travelling Letters’ in The Daily News, 1846, one volume; The Battle of Life, one volume (December). |
| 1846–8 | Dombey and Son, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1847 | Birth of seventh child, Sydney; helps establish Urania Cottage in Shepherd’s Bush. |
| 1848 | The Haunted Man, one volume (December). |
| 1849 | Birth of eighth child, Henry (Harry). |
| 1849–50 | David Copperfield, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1850 | Editorship of weekly journal Household Words; birth of ninth child, Dora. |
| 1851 | Dora dies, aged 8 months; moves to Tavistock House. |
| 1851–3 | A Child’s History of England, thirty-nine weekly instalments in Household Words. |
| 1852 | Birth of tenth child, Edward (Plorn). |
| 1852–3 | Bleak House, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1853 | First public readings, A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth in Birmingham. |
| 1854 | Hard Times, twenty weekly instalments in Household Words. |
| 1855–7 | Little Dorrit, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1856 | Buys Gad’s Hill Place, Kent. |
| 1857 | Meets Ellen Ternan. |
| 1858 | Separates from Catherine; first provincial reading tours. |
| 1859 | Final number of Household Words; begins editing weekly journal All the Year Round. |
| 1859 | A Tale of Two Cities, thirty-one weekly instalments in All the Year Round. |
| 1860–1 | Great Expectations, thirty-six weekly instalments in All the Year Round. |
| 1860–9 | The Uncommercial Traveller, ‘Occasional Papers’ for All the Year Round, first series collected in one volume in 1860. |
| 1863 | Death of son Walter in India. |
| 1864–5 | Our Mutual Friend, nineteen monthly numbers.* |
| 1865 | Railway accident in Staplehurst, Kent. |
| 1867 | Reading tour of America. |
| 1868 | American tour cut short due to ill health; farewell reading tour of UK. |
| 1870 | The Mystery of Edwin Drood, six of twelve projected monthly numbers. |
| 1870 | Dies of cerebral haemorrhage at Gad’s Hill. |
* Comprising twenty instalments, the last number incorporating two instalments.