During the first months of 1839, Charles Dickens was concurrently writing Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. The final part of Oliver Twist appeared in April and Nicholas Nickleby was completed by September. In October, Dickens’s third child, Kate Macready, is born at Doughty Street, and with an increasing family size, the Dickens family move from Doughty Street, to a larger house at Devonshire Terrace, near London’s Regents Park, in December. In current affairs, a petition signed by over one million people from the Chartist movement was presented to the Houses of Parliament in June, which voted not to hear the petitioners. Disturbances from Chartist sympathisers broke out in a number of areas during the year including Newcastle (July), Bolton (August) and most notably in Newport (November), when around 22 demonstrators were killed when troops opened fire on them.
April.
Oliver Twist completed.
The final part of Charles Dickens’s second novel, Oliver Twist: or the Parish Boy’s Progress, more commonly referred to as Oliver Twist, is published in Bentley’s Miscellany. It had been serialised in monthly parts in this magazine since February 1837.
September.
Nicholas Nickleby completed.
The final part of Charles Dickens’s third novel, Nicholas Nickleby is published. It had been serialised in monthly parts since March 1838.
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