1834 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1834.

Events

• April – W. Harrison Ainsworth's first novel, the historical romance Rookwood, is published (anonymously) in London by Richard Bentley with illustrations by George Cruikshank. Romanticising the highwayman Dick Turpin, its success enables the author to give up the legal profession for writing.^[1] Bentley also publishes Edward Bulwer-Lytton's (anonymous) popular novel The Last Days of Pompeii this year.
• June 10 – British philosopher and writer Thomas Carlyle moves to Cheyne Row (Carlyle's House) in London.
• August – Charles Dickens first uses the pen name "Boz".
• November 24 – George Sand begins her journal to Alfred de Musset.
• Carl Jonas Love Almqvist's fourth novel in the "Törnrosens bok" series, The Queen's Tiara (Drottningens juvelsmycke), is published anonymously. Set around the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792, it is the first original historical novel written in Sweden, and features the bisexual character Tintomara.

New books

Fiction

• W. Harrison Ainsworth – Rookwood
• Carl Jonas Love Almqvist – The Queen's Tiara
• Honoré de Balzac
  • The Quest of the Absolute
  • La Fille aux yeux d'or (The Girl with Eyes of Gold)
  • Le Père Goriot
• Edward Bulwer – The Last Days of Pompeii
• Selina Davenport – Personation
• Benjamin Disraeli – The Infernal Marriage
• Catherine Gore – The Hamiltons
• Barbara Hofland – The Captives in India
• Harriet Martineau – Illustrations of Political Economy (nine volumes, in fictional form)
• Frederick Maurice – Eustace Conway
• Aleksandr Pushkin – The Queen of Spades (Russian: Пиковая дама – Pikovaya dama)
• Agnes C. Hall (as Rosalia St. Clair) – The Pauper Boy

Children

• Frederick Marryat
  • Jacob Faithful
  • Peter Simple

Drama

• John Baldwin Buckstone – Isabelle; or, A Woman's Life
• Alfred de Musset – Lorenzaccio
• Franz Grillparzer – Der Traum, ein Leben (The Dream, a Life)
• Juliusz Słowacki
  • Balladyna
  • Kordian
• Henry Taylor – Philip van Artevelde

Poetry

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Poetical Works (last edition read in proof by author)
• Adam Mickiewicz – Pan Tadeusz

Non-fiction

• George Bancroft – History of the United States, volume 1
• Davy Crockett – A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, written by himself
• Henry Hallam, ed. – Remains in Verse and Prose of Arthur Henry Hallam
• Søren Kierkegaard writing as 'A' – "Another Defense Of Woman's Great Abilities" ("Ogsaa et Forsvar for Qvindens hoie Anlæg", article in Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, December 17)
• Richard Monckton Milnes – Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, Chiefly Poetical
• Lancelot Edward Threlkeld – An Australian Grammar

Births

• January 1 – Ludovic Halévy, French playwright and author (died 1908)
• February 9 – Felix Dahn, German writer (died 1912)
• March 6 – George du Maurier, English cartoonist and novelist (died 1896)
• March 24 – William Morris, English poet and designer (died 1896)
• April 5 – Frank R. Stockton, American short story writer (died 1902)
• April 21 – Henry Spencer Ashbee, English bibliophile (died 1900)
• July 9 – Jan Neruda, Czech writer (died 1891)
• September 15 – Heinrich von Treitschke, German historian (died 1896)

Deaths

• February 12 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher (born 1768)
• July 25 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English Romantic poet and critic (born 1772)
• December 27 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (erysipelas, born 1775)
• September 16 – William Blackwood, Scottish publisher (born 1776)
• December 23 – Thomas Malthus, English political economist (born 1766)

Awards

References