1851 in literature
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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1851.
Events
- January 1 â The Caucasian Georgian theatre company gives its first performance, under the direction of Giorgi Eristavi.
- June 5 â Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin begins serialization in the American abolitionist weekly The National Era.
- June â While waiting to cross the English Channel on his honeymoon, Matthew Arnold probably begins to compose the poem "Dover Beach".[1]
- September 29 â Marian Evans, the future George Eliot, takes up an appointment as (assistant) editor of the Westminster Review, published by John Chapman. In this capacity she will meet G. H. Lewes.
- November 14 â Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is published in full, in a single volume, for the first time, by Harper & Brothers in New York, having been previously issued on October 18 as The Whale in an abridged three-volume edition by Richard Bentley in London.
- December 2 â The French coup d'état of 1851 prompts Victor Hugo to be a leader of an unsuccessful insurrection against it. He is forced into exile, initially to Brussels.
- December 24 â A fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys 35,000 books, about twoâthirds of the collection.
- unknown dates
- Akabi's Story (Akabi Hikayesi), by Vartan Pasha, is published - an early example of a novel in the Turkish language printed in the Armenian alphabet
- Hovhannes Hisarian publishes Khosrov yev Makruhi (Khosrov and Makruhi), the first romantic novel in the Armenian language, written in the vernacular Ashkharhabar dialect.
- Stephanos Th. Xenos publishes his "Istanbul novel" The Devil in Turkey; Or Scenes in Constantinople in English translated from his Greek manuscript, in London.[2]
- Philosopher Auguste Comte includes a list of 150 books which a well-educated person should have read in his Catéchisme positiviste .
- Albertus Willem Sijthoff establishes a publishing business at Leiden.[3]
New books
Fiction
- Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly â Une Vieille Maîtresse (An Old Mistress)
- George Borrow â Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy and the Priest (novelized memoir of Romany life)
- Mathilde Fibiger â Clara Raphael, Tolv Breve (Clara Raphael, Twelve Letters)
- Elizabeth Gaskell â Cranford (serialization begins)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne â The House of the Seven Gables
- Gottfried Keller â Der Grüne Heinrich
- Sheridan Le Fanu
- Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery
- The Watcher
- Herman Melville â Moby-Dick
- John Ruskin â The King of the Golden River
- Jules Verne â A Drama in Mexico (Un drame au Mexique) short story[4]
- Harriet Ward â Jasper Lyle: A Tale of Kafirland [sic]
Children and young people
- W. H. G. Kingston â Peter the Whaler
Drama
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton â Not So Bad as We Seem, or, Many Sides to a Character: A Comedy in Five Acts
- Ferdinand Dugué â Salvator Rosa
- Franz Grillparzer â The Jewess of Toledo (Die Jüdin von Toledo, written)
- Eugène Marin Labiche with Marc Michel â Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie (An Italian Straw Hat)
- Maria Ann Lovell â Ingomar the Barbarian
- Alexey Pisemsky â The Hypochondriac (published)
- Eugène Scribe â Bataille de Dames[5]
Poetry
- Matthew Arnold â "Dover Beach" (probably completed; not published until 1867)
- Heinrich Heine â Romanzero
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow â The Golden Legend
Non-fiction
- Hans Christian Andersen â In Sweden
- Gilbert Abbott à Beckett â The Comic History of Rome
- Edward Creasy â The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
- Catherine Dickens (as Lady Maria Clutterbuck) â What Shall We Have for Dinner?
- Josiah Henson â The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Henry Mayhew â London Labour and the London Poor (collected in book form)
- Francisco de Paula Mellado â Enciclopedia moderna
- John Henry Newman â Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England.
- Ferencz Aurelius Pulszky â A magyar jakobinusok (The Jacobins in Hungary)
- John Ruskin â The Stones of Venice, vol 1
- Herbert Spencer â Social Statics
Births
- February 21 â Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Austrian writer and traveler (died 1918)
- April 13 â Helen M. Winslow, American editor, author and publisher (died 1938)
- May 27 â Henry Festing Jones, English biographer, editor and lawyer (died 1928)[6]
- June â Jessie Fothergill, English novelist (died 1891)[7]
- June 11 â Mary Augusta Ward (Mrs. Humphry Ward), Tasmanian-born English novelist (died 1920)
- June 29 â Jane Dieulafoy, French archeologist, novelist and journalist (died 1916)
- August 23 â Alois Jirásek, Czech novelist and playwright (died 1930)
- September 14 â H. E. Beunke, Dutch writer (died 1925)
- September 16 â Emilia Pardo Bazán, Galician Spanish novelist (died 1921)
- December 10 â Melvil Dewey, born Melville Dewey, American librarian (died 1931)
Deaths
- February 1 â Mary Shelley, English novelist and essayist (born 1797)[8]
- February 23 â Joanna Baillie, Scottish poet and dramatist (born 1762)[9]
- February 24 â Sake Dean Mahomed, author of first book in English by an Indian (born 1759)[10]
- May 23 â Richard Lalor Sheil, Irish dramatist and journalist (born 1791)
- July 17 â Esther Copley, English children's writer and tractarian (born 1786)
- August 1 â Harriet Lee, English novelist (born 1757)
- August 10 â Heinrich Paulus, German theologian (born 1761)
- September 14 â James Fenimore Cooper, American historical novelist (born 1789)[11]
- September 22 â Sarah Elizabeth Utterson, English translator and short story writer (born 1781)
- December 19 â Henry Luttrell, English politician, wit and society poet (born c. 1765)
- unknown date â Vanchinbalyn Gularans, Mongolian poet (unknown year of birth)