1856 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1856 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- Arthur SchopenhauerArthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
adds a chapter on "The Metaphysics of Sexual Love" to the third edition of his The World as Will and Representation. - Lewis CarrollLewis CarrollCharles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
takes up photography as a hobby. - William Henry Smith first makes the claim that the author of Shakespeare's plays was Sir Francis Bacon.
- Richard Francis BurtonRichard Francis BurtonCaptain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his...
serves in the army in the Crimean WarCrimean WarThe Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
and becomes engaged to Isabel Arundel. - Alphonse DaudetAlphonse DaudetAlphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
begins his teaching career. - On March 5, the second Royal Opera HouseRoyal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
at Covent GardenCovent GardenCovent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
is destroyed by fire (as the first was in 1808).
New books
- AnonymousAnonymityAnonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
- Tit for TatTit for Tat (1856 novel)Tit for Tat is an 1856 novel written anonymously by "A Lady of New Orleans".- Overview :Tit for Tat is one of several examples of plantation literature that emerged in the Southern United States in response to the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which had been criticised in... - José de AlencarJosé de AlencarJosé Martiniano de Alencar was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is one of the most famous writers of the first generation of Brazilian Romanticism, writing historical, regionalist and Indianist romances — being the most famous The Guarani...
- Cinco minutosCinco minutosFive Minutes is the debut novel by Brazilian writer José de Alencar. It was initially published under feuilleton form at the journal Diário do Rio de Janeiro, in 1856.-Plot and setting:... - R. M. Ballantyne -The Young Fur-Traders
- Fredrika BremerFredrika BremerFredrika Bremer was a Swedish writer and a feminist activist. She had a large influence on the social development in Sweden, especially in feminist issues.-Background:...
- Hertha - William M. Burwell - White Acre vs. Black AcreWhite Acre vs. Black AcreWhite Acre vs. Black Acre is an 1856 plantation fiction novel written by William M. Burwell.- Overview :White Acre vs. Black Acre is one of several pro-slavery novels published in the Southern United States in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1852.Burwell's...
- Wilkie CollinsWilkie CollinsWilliam Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and over 100 non-fiction pieces...
- The Dead Secret - Mrs. CraikDinah CraikDinah Maria Craik was an English novelist and poet. She was born at Stoke-on-Trent and brought up in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.After the death of her mother in 1845, Dinah Maria Mulock settled in London about 1846...
- John Halifax, GentlemanJohn Halifax, GentlemanJohn Halifax, Gentleman is a novel by Dinah Craik, first published in 1856. The novel was adapted for television by the BBC in 1974.-Plot summary:... - Caroline Lee HentzCaroline Lee HentzCaroline Lee Whiting Hentz was an American novelist and author, most noted for her opposition to the abolitionist movement and her widely-read rebuttal to the popular anti-slavery book, Uncle Tom's Cabin...
- Ernest Linwood - Geraldine JewsburyGeraldine JewsburyGeraldine Endsor Jewsbury was an English novelist and woman of letters.-Life and family:Jewsbury was born in Measham, then in Derbyshire, now in Leicestershire. She was the daughter of Thomas Jewsbury , a cotton manufacturer and merchant, and his wife Maria, née Smith,...
- The Sorrows of Gentility - Gottfried KellerGottfried KellerGottfried Keller , a Swiss writer of German-language literature, was best known for his novel Green Henry .- Life and work :...
- Die Leute von Seldwyla - Herman MelvilleHerman MelvilleHerman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
- The Piazza TalesThe Piazza TalesThe Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories by Herman Melville, which he published with Dix & Edwards in 1856 in the United States. A British edition followed shortly afterward. Except for the title story, "The Piazza," all of the stories had appeared in Putnam's Monthly over the years...
- I and My Chimney
- The Piazza Tales
- Eduard MörikeEduard MörikeEduard Friedrich Mörike was a German Romantic poet.-Biography:Mörike was born in Ludwigsburg. His father was Karl Friedrich Mörike , a district medical councilor; his mother was Charlotte Bayer...
- Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag - Charles ReadeCharles ReadeCharles Reade was an English novelist and dramatist, best known for The Cloister and the Hearth.-Life:Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring; William Winwood Reade the influential historian , was his nephew. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford,...
- It Is Never Too Late to MendIt Is Never Too Late to Mend (novel)It Is Never Too Late to Mend is an 1856 novel by the British writer Charles Reade. It was later turned into a play... - Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
- Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal SwampDred: A Tale of the Great Dismal SwampDred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp is the second novel from American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was first published in two volumes by Phillips, Sampson and Company in 1856. Although it enjoyed better initial sales than her previous, and more famous, novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, it was... - Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
- YouthYouth (Tolstoy novel)Youth is the third novel in Leo Tolstoy's autobiographical trilogy, following Childhood and Boyhood. It was first published in the popular Russian literary magazine Sovremennik.... - Ivan TurgenevIvan TurgenevIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
- RudinRudinRudin is the first novel by Ivan Turgenev, a famous Russian writer best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons. Turgenev started to work on it in 1855, and it was first published in the literary magazine "Sovremennik" in 1856; several changes were made by Turgenev in subsequent... - Charlotte Mary YongeCharlotte Mary YongeCharlotte Mary Yonge , was an English novelist, known for her huge output, now mostly out of print.- Life :Charlotte Mary Yonge was born in Otterbourne, Hampshire, England, on 11 August 1823 to William Yonge and Fanny Yonge, née Bargus. She was educated at home by her father, studying Latin, Greek,...
- The Daisy Chain
Poetry
- Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
- Aurora LeighAurora LeighAurora Leigh is an eponymous epic novel/poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poem is written in blank verse and encompasses nine books . It is a first person narration, from the point of view of Aurora; its other heroine, Marian Erle, is an abused self-taught child of itinerant parents... - Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
- Les Contemplations
Non-fiction
- Lord DufferinFrederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and AvaFrederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, KP, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC was a British public servant and prominent member of Victorian society...
-Letters From High LatitudesLetters From High LatitudesLetters From High Latitudes is a travel book written by Lord Dufferin in 1856, recounting the young lord's journey to Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen in the schooner Foam.... - J. A. Froude - History of England
- Washington IrvingWashington IrvingWashington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
- The Life of George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, Volume 3 - Hermann Lotze - Mikrokosmos
- William RidleyWilliam Ridley (Presbyterian missionary)William Ridley was an English Presbyterian missionary who studied Australian Aboriginal languages, particularly Gamilaraay....
- gurre kamilaroiGurre kamilaroigurre kamilaroi or Kamilaroi Sayings was a manual of Biblical instruction for the Kamilaroi people in their own language, produced by William Ridley and published in Sydney in 1856.... - Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de TocquevilleAlexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...
- L'Ancien régime et la révolutionThe Old Regime and the RevolutionL'Ancien Régime et la Révolution is a work by the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville translated in English as either The Old Regime and the Revolution or The Old Regime and the French Revolution... - Henry MorleyHenry MorleyHenry Forster Morley was a writer on English literature and one of the earliest Professors of English Literature.-Life:...
- Cornelius Agrippa: The Life of Henry Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Doctor and Knight, Commonly known as a Magician.
Births
- January 9 - Lizette Woodworth ReeseLizette Woodworth ReeseLizette Woodworth Reese was an American poet.Born in the Waverly section of Baltimore, Maryland, she was a school teacher from 1873 to 1918. During the 1920s, she became a prominent literary figure, receiving critical praise and recognition, in particular from H. L. Mencken, himself from Baltimore...
, poet (d. 1935) - February 14 - Frank HarrisFrank HarrisFrank Harris was a Irish-born, naturalized-American author, editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day...
, journalist, publisher and memoirist (d. 1931) - April 5 - Booker T. WashingtonBooker T. WashingtonBooker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
(d. 1915) - May 15 - L. Frank BaumL. Frank BaumLyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
, Wizard of Oz author (d. 1919) - July 25 - Charles MajorCharles MajorCharles Major was an American lawyer and novelist.Born to an upper-middle class Indianapolis family, Major developed an interest in both law and English history at an early age and attended the University of Michigan from 1872 through 1875, being admitted to the Indiana bar association in 1877...
(d. 1913) - July 26 - George Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, dramatist (d. 1950) - date unknown - Maria CederschiöldMaria CederschiöldMaria Cederschiöld, , was a Swedish journalist and feminist.Cederschiöld studied in Uppsala and graduated in 1874. After having worked as a teacher, she became a reporter at Aftonbladet in 1884. She wrote foreign news articles and reviewed literature as a critic. In 1909-1921, she was chief editor...
, journalist
Deaths
- January - James Baillie FraserJames Baillie FraserJames Baillie Fraser was a Scottish traveller and author.He was born at Reelig in the county of Inverness. He was the eldest of the four sons of Edward Satchel Fraser of Reelick, all of whom travelled in the East and had successful careers.In early life James went to the West Indies and from there...
, travel writer - February 17 - Heinrich HeineHeinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
, poet - June 11 - Friedrich Heinrich von der HagenFriedrich Heinrich von der HagenFriedrich Heinrich von der Hagen was a German philologist, chiefly distinguished for his researches in Old German literature.He was born at Angermünde-Schmiedeberg in the Uckermark region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg...
, philologist - June 26 - Max StirnerMax StirnerJohann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist anarchism...
, philosopher - June 27 - Joseph Meyer, publisher
- July 21 - Emil AarestrupEmil AarestrupCarl Ludwig Emil Aarestrup was a Danish erotic poet.-Life:Aarestrup was born in Copenhagen, and died in Odense. He graduated in 1827 majoring in medicine. That same year, he married Caroline Aagard and they settled down in Nysted, on the Danish island of Lolland where he lived for most of his life...
, poet - July 29 - Karel Havlíček BorovskýKarel Havlícek BorovskýKarel Havlíček Borovský was a Czech writer, poet, critic, politician, journalist, and publisher. He lived and studied at the Gymnasium in Německý Brod , and his house on the main square is today the Havlíček Museum...
, poet, critic and publisher - August 24 - William BucklandWilliam BucklandThe Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus...
, antiquarian - August 30 - Gilbert Abbott à BeckettGilbert Abbott à BeckettGilbert Abbott à Beckett was an English humorist.He was born in London, the son of a lawyer, and belonged to a family claiming descent from Thomas Becket...
, humorous writer - October 13 - Robert ChristieRobert ChristieRobert Christie was a lawyer, journalist, historian and political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East....
, historian and journalist - November 10 - Johann Kaspar Zeuss, historian
- date unknown - Pyotr ChaadaevPyotr ChaadaevPyotr or Petr Yakovlevich Chaadayev was a Russian philosopher born in Moscow.Chaadayev wrote eight "Philosophical Letters" about Russia in French between 1826-1831, which circulated in Russia as manuscript for many years...
, philosopher - date unknown - Josef Kajetán TylJosef Kajetán TylJosef Kajetán Tyl was a significant Czech dramatist, writer and actor. He was a notable figure of the Czech National Revival movement and is best known as the author of the current national anthem of the Czech Republic titled Kde domov můj.-Life:Josef Kajetán Tyl was the first-born son of Jiří...
, dramatist and author of the Czech national anthem