Early years: from Portsmouth to Chatham, 1812-1822
Early years: London, 1822-1827
"The Copperfield days", 1828-1835
Editing Bentley's Magazine, 1836-1837
Periodicals into novels, 1837-1839
The Master Humphrey experiment, 1840-1841
America brought to book, 1842
"The turning-point of his career" : England, Italy, England, 1842-1845
An interlude: "daily nooses" and the noose itself, 1846
Dombey and other dealings, 1846-1848
From Dombey to Copperfield, 1848-1849
Interweaving and conducting: writing David Copperfield and beginning Household Words, 1849-1850
The year of the guild, 1850-1851
Writing Bleak House, 1852-1853
Writing "For These Times", 1853-1854
Writing Little Dorrit among other things, 1855-1857
Drama and denouement: performing The Frozen Deep and finishing Little Dorrit, 1857
Writing off a marriage, 1857-1858
Stories into scripts: the public readings, 1858
Serials, series and stories: writing for All the Year Round, 1859-1861
Christmas numbers, public readings, and "uncommericial" travels, 1861-1863
Back to the "big brushes" : writing Our Mutual Friend, 1864-1865
Last Christmas numbers, 1865-1867
Writing, and reading, for America, 1867-1868
Disappearances and deaths, 1868-1870
Charles Dicken's explanations.