1861 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1861 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- October 20 - Poet and dramatist Apollo KorzeniowskiApollo KorzeniowskiApollo Korzeniowski was a Polish poet, playwright, clandestine political activist, and father of Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad.-Life:...
is arrested for his political activities and placed in the infamous Tenth Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel. - Sheridan Le FanuSheridan Le FanuJoseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era....
becomes editor of the Dublin University MagazineDublin University MagazineThe Dublin University Magazine was an independent literary cultural and political magazine published in Dublin from 1833 to 1882. It started out as a magazine of political commentary but increasingly became devoted to literature.-Early days:...
. - Gottfried KellerGottfried KellerGottfried Keller , a Swiss writer of German-language literature, was best known for his novel Green Henry .- Life and work :...
becomes municipal secretary of his home town of Zurich. - John Edward TaylorJohn Edward TaylorJohn Edward Taylor was the founder of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, later to become The Guardian.-Biography:...
the younger becomes editor of the Manchester Guardian. - The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce becomes The Times of IndiaThe Times of IndiaThe Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
. - Frederick James FurnivallFrederick James FurnivallFrederick James Furnivall , one of the co-creators of the Oxford English Dictionary , was an English philologist...
becomes editor of the Oxford English DictionaryOxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
.
New books
- Mary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth BraddonMary Elizabeth Braddon was a British Victorian era popular novelist. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel Lady Audley's Secret.-Life:...
- The Black Band
- The Octoroon
- Frances BrowneFrances BrowneFrances Browne was an Irish poet and novelist, best remembered for her collection of short stories for children: Granny's Wonderful Chair.-Early life:...
- My Share of the World - Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
- Great ExpectationsGreat ExpectationsGreat Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times.... - Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor DostoevskyFyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....
- The Insulted and HumiliatedThe Insulted and HumiliatedHumiliated and Insulted is a novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, first published in 1861 in the monthly magazine Vremya.-Plot introduction:... - George EliotGeorge EliotMary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
- Silas MarnerSilas MarnerSilas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is a dramatic novel by George Eliot. Her third novel, it was first published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a reclusive weaver, in its strong realism it represents one of Eliot's most sophisticated treatments of her attitude to religion.-Plot summary:The... - Harriet Ann JacobsHarriet Ann JacobsHarriet Ann Jacobs was an American writer, who escaped from slavery and became an abolitionist speaker and reformer...
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave GirlIncidents in the Life of a Slave GirlIncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is a book that was published in 1861 by Harriet Jacobs, using the pen name "Linda Brent". While on one level it chronicles the experiences of Harriet Jacobs as a slave, and the various humiliations she had to endure in that unhappy state, it also deals with... - George SandGeorge SandAmantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
- ConsueloConsuelo (novel)Consuelo is a novel by George Sand, first published serially in 1842-1843 in La Revue indépendante, a periodical founded in 1841 by Sand, Pierre Leroux and Louis Viardot. According to the Nuttall Encyclopædia, it is "[Sand's] masterpiece; the impersonation of the triumph of moral purity over... - Walter Chalmers SmithWalter Chalmers SmithWalter Chalmers Smith , was a hymnist, poet and minister of the Free Church of Scotland and is chiefly remembered for his hymn "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise".-Life:...
- The Bishop's Walk - William Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace ThackerayWilliam Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
- The Adventures of PhilipThe Adventures of PhilipThe Adventures of Philip on his Way Through the World: Shewing Who Robbed Him, Who Helped Him, and Who Passed Him By is a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray... - Anthony TrollopeAnthony TrollopeAnthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
- Orley FarmOrley Farm (novel)Orley Farm is a novel written in the realist mode by Anthony Trollope , and illustrated by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais . It was first published in monthly shilling parts by the London publisher Chapman and Hall... - George J. Whyte-Melville - Market Harborough
- Mrs Henry WoodEllen Wood (author)Ellen Wood , was an English novelist, better known as "Mrs. Henry Wood". She is best known for her 1861 novel East Lynne.-Life:...
- East LynneEast LynneEast Lynne is an English sensation novel of 1861 by Ellen Wood. East Lynne was a Victorian bestseller. It is remembered chiefly for its elaborate and implausible plot, centering on infidelity and double identities... - 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 Young Step-Mother
Poetry
- Charles BaudelaireCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
- Les fleurs du mal, 2nd edition - KalevipoegKalevipoegKalevipoeg is an epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald held to be the Estonian national epic.- Origins : There existed an oral tradition within Ancient Estonia of legends explaining the origin of the world...
(EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n national epic)
Non-fiction
- Isabella Beeton - Mrs Beeton's Book of Household ManagementMrs Beeton's Book of Household ManagementMrs Beeton's Book of Household Management was a guide to all aspects of running a household in Victorian Britain, edited by Isabella Beeton. It was originally entitled "Beeton's Book of Household Management", in line with the other guide-books published by Beeton.Previously published as a part...
- Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
- The Chemical History of a CandleThe Chemical History of a CandleThe Chemical History of a Candle was the title of a series of six lectures on the chemistry and physics of flames given by Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution... - Karl MarxKarl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
& Friedrich EngelsFriedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
- Writings on the U.S. Civil War
Births
- March 1 - Henry HarlandHenry HarlandHenry Harland was an American novelist and editor.Harland was born in New York City and attended City College but pretended to be Russian-born. His literary career falls into two distinct sections...
, novelist and editor (d. 1905) - April 15 - Bliss CarmanBliss CarmanBliss Carman FRSC was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years....
, poet (d. 1929) - May 7 - Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature...
, poet and novelist (d. 1941) - September 20 - Herbert PutnamHerbert PutnamHerbert Putnam was an American lawyer, publisher, and librarian. He was the eighth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1899 to 1939.-Biography:...
, Librarian of Congress (d. 1955) - October 16 - J. B. BuryJ. B. BuryJohn Bagnell Bury , known as J. B. Bury, was an Irish historian, classical scholar, Byzantinist and philologist.-Biography:...
, historian (d. 1927) - May 13 - Margaret Marshall SaundersMargaret Marshall SaundersMargaret Marshall Saunders CBE was a Canadian author.Saunders was born in the village of Milton, Nova Scotia, though she spent most of her childhood in Berwick, Nova Scotia where her father was a Baptist minister. Saunders is most famous for her novel Beautiful Joe...
, author (d. 1947) - date unknown - Sir John Edward LloydJohn Edward LloydSir John Edward Lloyd , was a Welsh historian, the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, 2 vols...
, historian (d. 1947)
Deaths
- January 28 - Henri MurgerHenri MurgerLouis-Henri Murger, also known as Henri Murger and Henry Murger was a French novelist and poet....
, novelist and poet - January 29, Catherine GoreCatherine GoreCatherine Grace Frances Gore was a British novelist and dramatist, daughter of a wine merchant at Retford, where she was born. She is amongst the well-known of the silver fork writers - authors of the Victorian era depicting the gentility and etiquette of high society.-Biography:Gore was born in...
, author - February 20 - Eugène ScribeEugène ScribeAugustin Eugène Scribe , was a French dramatist and librettist. He is best known for the perfection of the so-called "well-made play" . This dramatic formula was a mainstay of popular theater for over 100 years.-Biography:...
, dramatist - April 1 - Lady Charlotte BuryCharlotte BuryLady Charlotte Susan Maria Bury was an English novelist, who is chiefly remembered in connection with a Diary illustrative of the Times of George IV .-Life:...
, novelist - May 23 - Edward CardwellEdward CardwellEdward Cardwell was an English theologian also noted for his contributions to the study of English church history. In addition to his scholarly work, he filled various administrative positions in the University of Oxford....
, theologian - June 7 - Patrick BrontëPatrick BrontëThe Reverend Patrick Brontë was an Irish Anglican curate and writer, who spent most of his adult life in England and was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, and of Branwell Brontë, his only son....
, father of the Brontë sisters - June 29 - 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...
, poet - July 6 - Sir Francis PalgraveFrancis PalgraveSir Francis Palgrave FRS, born Francis Ephraim Cohen, was an English historian.- Early life :He was born in London, the son of Meyer Cohen, a Jewish stockbroker by his wife Rachel Levien Cohen . He was initially articled as a clerk to a London solicitor's firm, and remained there as chief clerk...
, historian - November 13 - Arthur Hugh CloughArthur Hugh CloughArthur Hugh Clough was an English poet, an educationalist, and the devoted assistant to ground-breaking nurse Florence Nightingale...
, poet - November 30
- Alexander GilchristAlexander GilchristAlexander Gilchrist was the biographer of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography is still a standard reference work on the poet....
, biographer - Theodor MundtTheodor Mundtthumb|200px|Theodor MundtTheodor Mundt was a German critic and novelist. He was a member of the Young Germany group of German writers.-Biography:Born at Potsdam, Mundt studied philology and philosophy at Berlin...
, novelist and critic
- Alexander Gilchrist