1795 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
gives a series of lectures on politics and religion. - Charles Lamb spends six weeks in a mental asylum.
- William Henry IrelandWilliam Henry IrelandWilliam Henry Ireland was an English forger of would-be Shakespearean documents and plays. He is less well-known as a poet, writer of gothic novels and histories...
first displays his Shakespearean forgeriesIreland Shakespeare ForgeriesThe Ireland Shakespeare forgeries were a cause célèbre in 1790s London, when author and engraver Samuel Ireland announced the discovery of a treasure-trove of Shakespearean manuscripts by his son William Henry Ireland. Among them were the manuscripts of four plays, two of them previously unknown...
to the public. They will inspire a major controversy when published on 24 December (dated 17961796 in literature-Events:*Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes his periodical The Watchman*Samuel Ireland publishes a collection of Shakespearean forgeries in his Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare. Amid a growing controversy, Edmond Malone exposes the forgeries...
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New books
- Jane AustenJane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
- Lady SusanLady SusanLady Susan is a short epistolary novel by Jane Austen, possibly written in 1794 but not published until 1871.-Synopsis:This epistolary novel, an early complete work that the author never submitted for publication, describes the schemes of the main character—the widowed Lady Susan—as she seeks a new...
(unpublished) - Richard CumberlandRichard Cumberland (dramatist)Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...
- Henry - William GiffordWilliam GiffordWilliam Gifford was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satirist and controversialist.-Life:Gifford was born in Ashburton, Devonshire to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. His father, a glazier and house painter, had run away as a youth with vagabond Bampfylde Moore Carew, and he...
- The Maeviad - Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
- Wilhelm Meister's ApprenticeshipWilhelm Meister's ApprenticeshipWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is the second novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1795-96. While his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, featured a hero driven to suicide by despair, the eponymous hero of this novel undergoes a journey of self-realization...
(Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre) - Marquis de SadeMarquis de SadeDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
- Aline and ValcourAline and ValcourAline et Valcour; ou, Le Roman philosophique is an epistolary novel by the Marquis de Sade. It contrasts a brutal African kingdom with a utopian socialist South Pacific island paradise known as Tamoé and led by the philosopher-king Zamé.... - Thomas SpenceThomas SpenceThomas Spence was an English Radical and advocate of the common ownership of land.-Life:Spence was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England and was the son of a Scottish net and shoe maker....
- SpensoniaSpensoniaSpensonia is a fictional Utopian country created by the English author and political reformer Thomas Spence. Spence laid out his ideas about Spensonia in a series of literary works published in the late 18th century:...
New drama
- Richard CumberlandRichard Cumberland (dramatist)Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...
- First LoveFirst Love (play)First Love is a 1795 sentimental comedy play by the British playwright Richard Cumberland. It was first performed at the Drury Lane Theatre in May 1795. Frederick Mowbray becomes the protector of Sabrina Rosny after her abandoment by Lord Sensitive.... - Marquis de SadeMarquis de SadeDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
- Philosophy in the BedroomPhilosophy in the BedroomPhilosophy in the Bedroom is a 1795 erotic book by the Marquis de Sade written in the form of a dramatic dialogue. Though initially considered a work of pornography, the book has come to be considered a socio-political drama...
(La Philosophie Dans le Boudoir)
Births
- May 26 - Thomas Noon TalfourdThomas Noon TalfourdSir Thomas Noon Talfourd, SL , was an English judge and author.The son of a well-to-do brewer, he was born at Reading, Berkshire ....
- June 13 - Thomas ArnoldThomas ArnoldDr Thomas Arnold was a British educator and historian. Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement...
- September 7 - John William Polidori
- October 31 - John KeatsJohn KeatsJohn Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
- December 4 - Thomas CarlyleThomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
Deaths
- February 11 - Carl Michael BellmanCarl Michael Bellmanwas a Swedish poet and composer. Bellman is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition and remains a very important influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature in general, to this day....
, poet - February 22 - Alexander GerardAlexander GerardAlexander Gerard , philosophical writer, son of Rev. Gilbert Gerard, was educated at Aberdeen, where he became Professor, first of Natural Philosophy at Marischal College in 1750, and afterwards between 1760–1771 of Divinity, taking up the post of Professor of Divinity at King's College in 1771. As...
- May 19 - James BoswellJames BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
- October 8 - Andrew KippisAndrew KippisAndrew Kippis was an English nonconformist clergyman and biographer.The son of Robert Kippis, a silk-hosier, he was born at Nottingham. Having gone to school at Sleaford in Lincolnshire he passed at the age of sixteen to the Dissenting academy at Northampton, of which Dr Philip Doddridge was then...
, biographer - October 10 - Francesco Antonio ZaccariaFrancesco Antonio ZaccariaFrancesco Antonio Zaccaria was an Italian theologian, historian, and prolific writer.He joined the Austrian province of the Society of Jesus, in 18 October 1731. Zaccaria taught grammar and rhetoric at Gorz, and was ordained priest at Rome in 1740...
, theologian and historian