1740 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
... 1730 ^. 1731 ^. 1732 ^. 1733 ^. 1734 ^. 1735 ^. 1736 ... 1737 1738 1739 -1740- 1741 1742 1743 ... 1744 ^. 1745 ^. 1746 ^. 1747 ^. 1748 ^. 1749 ^. 1750 ... In poetry: 1737 1738 1739 -1740- 1741 1742 1743
Art ^. Archaeology ^. Architecture ^. Literature ^. Music ^. Philosophy ^. Science +...

The year 1740 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

November 6 - Samuel Richardson's epistolary novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is published in London in 2 volumes,^[1] rapidly becoming a best-seller with many imitations, translations and adaptations.
John Cleland returns to Britain from government service in India.
Thomas Witherby establishes his stationery business in London, specializing in printing and publishing for the marine insurance industry. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, as Witherby Seamanship, it will claim to be the oldest independent publisher in the English speaking world.

Johann Jakob Bodmer - Von dem Wunderbaren in der Poesie
Colley Cibber - An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber, Comedian
John Dyer - The Ruins of Rome
Richard Glover - Admiral Hosier's Ghost
David Hume - An Abstract of . . . A Treatise of Human Nature
William Law
- An Earnest and Serious Answer to Dr. Trapp's Discourse
- An Appeal to all that Doubt, or Disbelieve the Truths of the Gospel
William Oldys - The Life of Sir Walter Raleigh
Thomas Pellow - The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow in South-Barbary
Christopher Pitt - The Aeneid of Virgil
William Pulteney - An Epistle from L--- to Lord C-------d (supposedly from Thomas Coke to Lord Chesterfield)
Samuel Richardson - Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke - The Idea of a Patriot King (published after the intervention or interference of Alexander Pope)
Pu Songling (died 1715) - Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (possible date of first publication)
William Stukeley - Stonehenge: A temple restor'd to the British Druids
Emanuel Swedenborg - Economy of the Animal Kingdom (Dynamics of the Soul's Domain) (1740-41)
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve - La jeune américaine, et les contes marins (introduces the tale Beauty and the Beast)
William Warburton - A Vindication of Mr. Pope's Essay on Man
George Whitefield - A Short Account of God's Dealings with the Reverend George Whitefield

February 15 – Juan Andrés, Spanish historian (died 1817)
June 2 – Marquis de Sade, French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer (died 1814)
June 6 – Louis-Sébastien Mercier, French dramatist and writer (died j1814)
August 18 – Giovanni Cristofano Amaduzzi, Italian philologist (died 1782)
September 2 – Johann Georg Jacobi, German poet (died 1814)
September 12 – Johann Heinrich Jung (Heinrich Stilling), German novelist and autobiographer (died 1817)
September 17 – John Cartwright, English political reformer and naval officer (died 1824)
October 29 – James Boswell, Scottish diarist, writer and autobiographer (died 1795)
November 4 – Augustus Montague Toplady, English poet, theologian and hymnist (died 1778)
November 21 – Charlotte Baden, Danish feminist and letter-writer (died 1824)
Unknown date – Jean-Louis de Lolme, Swiss writer in French and English (died 1806)
Probable year of birth – Charlotte Brooke, Irish writer (died 1793)

↑ Sale, William M. (1950). Samuel Richardson: Master Printer. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.