Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, pages xcix-xcv).

V.1. The anvil and the iron: 1812-1833: Birth and background -- The happy time -- The challenge of despair -- Ambition's ladder -- First love -- Climb to fame:1833-1837: The career takes shape -- Boz is born -- Catherine -- Pickwick triumphant -- Knight of the joyful countenance -- Troubles and triumphs: 1837-1839: Metamorphosis of a journalist -- Lost love -- Ascent of the rocket -- The break with Bentley -- The will in command -- Deeper cast: 1839-1841: The thieves' den and the world -- Master Humphrey's clock strikes one -- Emergence of a radical -- The neglected and misused -- Triumph in Scotland and the eve of a new departure -- The new World: 1842: The American dream -- Conquest -- with undertones -- Not the republic of my imagination -- Return journey -- Home again: valedictory on America -- Crescendo of restlessness: 1843-1846: Year of disappointment -- Selfishness and the economic man -- Battles and Italian air-castles -- From the bells of Genoa -- ... To the chimes of London -- Last days in Italy -- Birth pangs of the daily news -- V.2.: At grips with himself: 1846-1851: Difficulties with Dombey -- The want of something -- The world of Dombeyism -- A haunted man -- Myself into the shadowy world -- His favorite child -- Household words -- Splendid barnstorming -- Fog over England -- The anatomy of society -- The heaviest blow in my power -- Critique of materialism -- Fire bursts out -- Nobody's fault -- Old hell shaft -- The prison of society -- Breaking point -- The track of a storm -- Surface serene -- The tempest and the ruined garden -- Intimations of mortality -- The great dust-heap -- The bottom of the cup: 1865-1870: Pilgrim of Gad's Hill -- To the loadstone rock -- Last rally -- The dying and undying voice -- The narrow bed.

A scholarly biography of the author.