1818 in literature
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The year 1818 in literature involved some significant literary events and new books.
Events
- January 1 - Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus is first published, anonymously, in London.[1]
- January 8 - Lord Byron, in Venice, sends the final part of Childe Harold to his publisher.[2]
- January 11 - Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" is published in Leigh Hunt's weekly The Examiner (London; p. 24) under the pen name 'Glirastes'; Horace Smith's contribution to the same informal sonnet-writing competition, "On a Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below" is published on February 1 under his initials.
- January - Samuel Taylor Coleridge delivers a series of lectures on poetry, drama and philosophy, beginning with Shakespeare's Hamlet.[3]
- March 12 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary and her stepsister Claire Clairmont leave England for Italy, where they intend to take Claire's illegitimate child Alba to her father, Lord Byron.[4]
- April 11 - John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge go for a walk on Hampstead Heath. In a letter to his brother George, Keats writes that they talked about "a thousand things,... nightingales, poetry, poetical sensation, metaphysics."[5]
- June–August - Keats and his friend Charles Armitage Brown make a walking tour of Scotland (including a visit to Burns Cottage), Ireland and the Lake District.
- July
- Thomas De Quincey begins a 16-month term as editor of the newly established weekly newspaper The Westmorland Gazette, published at Kendal in the English Lake District.
- The Stephenson Blake type foundry begins operation in Sheffield, England.
- July 18 - Walter Scott's historical novel The Heart of Midlothian is published (as Tales of My Landlord, 2nd series, by 'Jedediah Cleishbotham', in 4 volumes); a shipload from the Ballantyne publishing business is sent from Edinburgh to London.[6]
- September 19 - Lord Byron writes to Thomas Moore, telling him he has completed the first Canto of Don Juan.[7]
- November - Fanny Brawne meets John Keats for the first time, at the home of Charles Armitage Brown.[8]
- The National Library of Iceland is established as the Íslands stiftisbókasafn at the instigation of Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn and the Icelandic Literary Society.
- The Old Vic is founded as the Royal Coburg Theatre in South London by James King, Daniel Dunn and John T. Serres.
New books
- Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (posthumous; actually issued in December 1817)
- Thomas Bowdler - The Family Shakspeare (second edition, much expanded from 1807 edition)[9]
- Patrick Brontë - The Maid of Killarney (anonymous)
- Selina Davenport - An Angel's Form and a Devil's Heart
- Susan Edmonstone Ferrier - Marriage
- Franz Grillparzer - Sappho
- Ann Hatton - Secrets in Every Mansion
- Mary Meeke - The Veiled Protectress
- Thomas Love Peacock - Nightmare Abbey (anonymous)
- Anna Maria Porter - The Fast of St. Magdalen: A Romance
- Walter Scott - The Heart of Midlothian
- Mary Shelley - Frankenstein (anonymous)
- Mary Martha Sherwood - The History of the Fairchild Family (vol. 1; anonymous)[1]
- Louisa Stanhope
- The Bandit's Bride
- The Nun of Santa Maria di Tindaro
- Elizabeth Thomas - Woman, or Minor Maxims; a Sketch
New drama
- Franz Grillparzer - Sappho
- Silvio Pellico - Francesca da Rimini
Poetry
- Kristijonas Donelaitis - The Seasons
- John Keats - Endymion[9]
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Ozymandias
- The Revolt of Islam (dated this year but published December 1817)
Non-fiction
- Elizabeth Beverley – Modern Times, a "sermon" prompted by the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales
- Josef Dobrovsky - History of the Czech Language
- John Evelyn (d. 1706) - Diary
- Henry Hallam - The View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages
- William Hazlitt - Lectures on the English Poets
- James Mill - The History of British India
- Charles Mills - History of Mohammedanism
- Collin de Plancy - Dictionnaire Infernal
Births
- May 25 – Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss historian (died 1897)
- July 30 – Emily Brontë, English novelist and poet (died 1848)
- November 9 (October 28 OS) – Ivan Turgenev, Russian novelist and playwright (died 1883)
Deaths
- January 11 – Johann David Wyss, Swiss children's writer (born 1743)
- March 6 – John Gifford, English political writer (born 1758)
- May 14 – Matthew Lewis, English novelist and dramatist (born 1775)
- October 22 – Joachim Heinrich Campe, German linguist and publisher (born 1746)
- November 6 – Malcolm Laing, Scottish historian (born 1762)
- December 8 – Mary Brunton, Scottish novelist (born 1778)
Awards
- Newdigate Prize - T. H. Ormerod[10]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Icons, a portrait of England 1800-1820". Archived from the original on 2007-10-17. Retrieved 2007-09-11.
- ↑ Letter CCCIV.
- ↑ Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Hamlet". Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and Other English Poets. Shakespeare and his Critics. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
- ↑ Gittings, Robert; Manton, Jo (1992). Claire Clairmont and the Shelleys. Oxford University Press. pp. 39–42. ISBN 0-19-818594-4.
- ↑ Motion, Andrew (1997). Keats. London: Faber. pp. 365–66. ISBN 057117227X.
- ↑ Sutherland, John (2014). How to be Well Read. London: Random House. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-847-94640-9.
- ↑ Letter CCCXXII.
- ↑ Walsh, John Evangelist (1999). Darkling, I Listen: The Last Days and Death of John Keats. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312222556.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 249–250. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ↑ The Gentleman's Magazine, 88(1): p. 443.