1842 in literature

The year 1842 in literature involved some significant literary events and new works.

Events

• January 3 – Charles Dickens sets sail for the United States of America.^[1]
• February 14 – Washington Irving is one of the hosts at a public dinner for Charles Dickens in New York.^[2]
• March – The Book of Abraham by Joseph Smith, "a translation of some ancient records ... purporting to be the writings of Abraham, while he was in Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus",^[3] is published in two installments in the Mormon periodical Times and Seasons.
• c. March 7 – Charles Dickens meets Edgar Allan Poe in Philadelphia.^[4]
• March 28 – The Teatr Skarbkowski in Lviv (Ukraine) opens with the performance of a play by Franz Grillparzer.
• June 7 – Charles Dickens leaves New York to return to Britain.^[1]
• June 19 – Eugène Sue's fictional The Mysteries of Paris (Les Mystères de Paris) begins serialization in the newspaper Journal des débats.
• Fanny Burney's diary and letters are posthumously published.

New books

• Honoré de Balzac – The Black Sheep
• Edward Bulwer – Zanoni
• James Fenimore Cooper – The Two Admirals
• Nikolai Gogol
  • Dead Souls
  • The Overcoat
• Catherine Gore – The Ambassador's Wife
• Victor Hugo – Le Rhin
• Samuel Lover – Handy Andy
• Frederick Marryat – Percival Keene
• George Sand – Consuelo
• Albert Smith – The Adventures of Mr Ledbury

New drama

• Nikolai Gogol – Marriage
• Isabel Hill – Brian the Probationer^[5]
• Johann Nestroy – Einen Jux will er sich machen
• Eugène Scribe
  • Une Chaine
  • Le Verre d'eau

Poetry

• Aloysius Bertrand - Gaspard de la Nuit
• Robert Browning – Dramatic Lyrics including "My Last Duchess" and "The Pied Piper of Hamelin"
• Thomas Babington Macaulay – Lays of Ancient Rome
• Alfred Tennyson – Poems including "Locksley Hall", "Morte d'Arthur", "Ulysses", "The Lady of Shalott" (2nd version), "Godiva", "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" and "The Two Voices"

Non-fiction

• Charles Dickens – American Notes
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – The Transcendentalist
• Udney Hay Jacob – Peace Maker
• George Sand – Un hiver à Majorque ("A Winter in Majorca")
• Henry David Thoreau – A Walk to Wachusett

Births

• February 4 – Arrigo Boito, Italian poet (died 1918)
• February 25 – Karl May, German popular novelist (died 1912)
• March 18 – Stéphane Mallarmé, French Symbolist poet (died 1898)
• March 25 – Antonio Fogazzaro, Italian novelist (died 1911)
• June 24 – Ambrose Bierce, American writer (presumed died 1914)
• July 7 – William Hastie, Scottish scholar (died 1903)

Deaths

• March 23 – Stendhal, French novelist (stroke, born 1783)^[6]
• May 23 – José de Espronceda, Spanish poet (diphtheria, born 1808)
• June 5 – Thomas Henry Lister, English novelist and Registrar General (born 1800)
• June 17 – Frances Jacson, English novelist (born 1754)
• July 28 – Clemens Brentano, German poet and novelist (born 1778)
• October 23 – Wilhelm Gesenius, German Biblical commentator (born 1786)
• November 6 – William Hone, English satirist and bookseller (born 1780)
• December 7 – Thomas Hamilton, Scottish novelist and philosopher (born 1789)

Awards

References