1872 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1872 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- Paul VerlainePaul VerlainePaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
abandons his family to go to LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with Arthur RimbaudArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
. - The Federation of Madrid expels all signatories of a subversive article in La Emancipación (including Paul LafarguePaul LafarguePaul Lafargue was a French revolutionary Marxist socialist journalist, literary critic, political writer and activist; he was Karl Marx's son-in-law, having married his second daughter Laura. His best known work is The Right to Be Lazy...
). - George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonaldGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
goes on a lecture tour of the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. - Rose la ToucheRose la ToucheRose La Touche was the pupil, cherished student, "pet," and ideal from which John Ruskin based Sesame and Lilies .- Introduction to John Ruskin :...
rejects John RuskinJohn RuskinJohn Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
for the last time. - Lafcadio HearnLafcadio HearnPatrick Lafcadio Hearn , known also by the Japanese name , was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things...
becomes a reporter on the Cincinnati Daily Enquirer. - December 3 - George SmithGeorge Smith (assyriologist)George Smith , was a pioneering English Assyriologist who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest-known written work of literature.-Early life and early career:...
presents the first translation of the Epic of GilgameshEpic of GilgameshEpic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literature. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the protagonist of the story, Gilgamesh king of Uruk, which were fashioned into a longer Akkadian epic much...
to a meeting of the Society of Biblical ArchaeologySociety of Biblical ArchaeologyThe Society of Biblical Archaeology was founded in London in 1870 to further Biblical archaeology. It published a series of Proceedings in which some important papers read before the Society were preserved....
in London.
New books
- Machado de Assis - RessurreiçãoRessurreiçãoRessurreição is a novel written by the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It was first published in 1872. The author explained in this book that his idea when he wrote the book was put on action this thinking of Shakespeare:...
- R. D. BlackmoreR. D. BlackmoreRichard Doddridge Blackmore , referred to most commonly as R. D. Blackmore, was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century. Over the course of his career, Blackmore achieved a close following around the world...
- The Maid of Sker - 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:...
- To the Bitter End - Rhoda BroughtonRhoda BroughtonRhoda Broughton was a novelist.-Life:Rhoda Broughton was born in Denbigh in North Wales on 29 November 1840. She was the daughter of the Rev. Delves Broughton youngest son of the Rev. Sir Henry Delves-Broughton, 8th baronet. She developed a taste for literature, especially poetry, as a young girl...
- Good-bye, Sweetheart!
- Poor Pretty Bobby
- Samuel Butler -ErewhonErewhonErewhon: or, Over the Range is a novel by Samuel Butler, published anonymously in 1872. The title is also the name of a country, supposedly discovered by the protagonist. In the novel, it is not revealed in which part of the world Erewhon is, but it is clear that it is a fictional country...
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton - The Parisians
- 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...
- Poor Miss FinchPoor Miss FinchPoor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins is a 19th-century novel about a young blind woman who falls in love with a man, but confuses him with his brother.-Plot summary:Miss Finch, daughter of a clergyman, has been blind since her first year... - Mary Coolidge - What Katy DidWhat Katy DidWhat Katy Did is a children's book written by Susan Coolidge, the pen name of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, which was published in 1872. It follows the adventures of a twelve-year-old American girl, Katy Carr, and her family who live in the fictional lakeside Ohio town of Burnet in the 1860s...
- 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...
- Tartarin de TarasconTartarin de TarasconTartarin of Tarascon is an 1872 novel written by the French author Alphonse Daudet.-Synopsis:It tells the burlesque adventures of Tartarin, a local hero of Tarascon, a small town in southern France, whose invented adventures and reputation as a swashbuckler finally force him to travel to a very... - 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 Possessed - Alexandre Dumas, pèreAlexandre Dumas, pèreAlexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
- Création et Rédemption - Thomas HardyThomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
- Under the Greenwood TreeUnder the Greenwood TreeUnder the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published anonymously in 1872. It was Hardy's second published novel, the last to be printed without his name, and the first of his great series of Wessex novels... - Mór JókaiMór JókaiMór Jókai , born Móric Jókay de Ásva , outside Hungary also known as Maurus Jokai, was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist.-Early life:...
- The Dark Diamonds
- The Man with the Golden TouchThe Man with the Golden TouchThe Man with the Golden Touch is an 1872 novel by Hungarian novelist Mór Jókai. As Jókai states in the afterword of the novel, The Man with the Golden Touch was based on a true story he had heard from his grand-aunt as a child.-Part I – The St...
- 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....
-- CarmillaCarmillaCarmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla...
- In a Glass DarklyIn a Glass DarklyIn a Glass Darkly is a collection of five short stories by Sheridan Le Fanu, first published in 1872, the year before his death. The second and third are revised versions of previously published stories, and the fourth and fifth are long enough to be called novellas.The title is taken from 1...
- Carmilla
- Margaret Oliphant - At His Gates
- Bayard TaylorBayard TaylorBayard Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author.-Life and work:...
- Beauty and The Beast, and Tales of Home - 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...
- The Golden Lion of Granpere - Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
- The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South AfricaThe Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South AfricaThe Adventures of Three Russians and Three Englishmen in South Africa is a novel by Jules Verne published in 1872.-Plot introduction:Three Russian and three English scientists depart to South Africa to measure the meridian...
- The Fur CountryThe Fur CountryThe Fur Country is an adventure novel by Jules Verne in The Extraordinary Voyages series, first published in 1873. The novel was serialized in Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation from September 1872 to December 1873. The two-volume first original French edition and the first illustrated...
- The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa
- Emile ZolaÉmile ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
- La CuréeLa CuréeLa Curée is the second novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. It deals with property speculation and the lives of the extremely wealthy Nouveau riche of the Second French Empire, against the backdrop of Baron Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris in the 1850s and...
New drama
- Prosper MériméeProsper MériméeProsper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
- La Chambre bleue (published posthumously) - August StrindbergAugust StrindbergJohan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
- Master OlofMaster OlofMaster Olof is a historical drama in five acts by the Swedish playwright August Strindberg. The story is about the reformer Olaus Petri's struggle against the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century... - 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...
- A Month in the CountryA Month in the Country (play)A Month in the Country is a comedy in five acts by Ivan Turgenev. It was written in France between 1848 and 1850 and was first published in 1855...
(first performed)
Non-fiction
- Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
- The Birth of TragedyThe Birth of TragedyThe Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music is a 19th-century work of dramatic theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was reissued in 1886 as The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism ...
(Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik) - Henry WilsonHenry WilsonHenry Wilson was the 18th Vice President of the United States and a Senator from Massachusetts...
- History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in AmericaHistory of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in AmericaThe History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America is a historically significant book about the American Civil War by Vice President Henry Wilson, who had been a Senator from Massachusetts during the war....
, vols. 1 & 2
Births
- January 31 - Zane GreyZane GreyZane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
, Western novelist (+ 1939) - May 31 - Heath Robinson, British cartoonist/illustrator (+ 1944)
- June 27 - Paul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 "Ode to Ethiopia", one poem in the collection Lyrics of Lowly Life....
(+ 1906) - August 24 - Max BeerbohmMax BeerbohmSir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...
(+ 1956)
Deaths
- January 21 - Franz GrillparzerFranz GrillparzerFranz Seraphicus Grillparzer was an Austrian writer who is chiefly known for his dramas. He also wrote the oration for Ludwig van Beethoven's funeral.-Biography:...
, poet and dramatist - March 4- Johannes Carsten HauchJohannes Carsten HauchJohannes Carsten Hauch was a Danish poet.-Biography:Hauch was born of Danish parents residing at Frederikshald in Norway. In 1802 he lost his mother, and in 1803 returned with his father to Denmark. In 1807 he fought as a volunteer against the English invasion. He entered the university of...
, poet - March 10 - Giuseppe MazziniGiuseppe MazziniGiuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
, philosopher - April 1 - Frederick Maurice, theologian
- April 20 - Ljudevit GajLjudevit GajLjudevit Gaj was a Croatian linguist, politician, journalist and writer. He was one of the central figures of the Croatian national reformation, also known as the Illyrian Movement.-Origin:...
, linguist and journalist - May 13 - Moritz HartmannMoritz HartmannMoritz Hartmann was a German poet and author.- Biography :Hartmann was born of Jewish parentage at Duschnik in Bohemia....
, poet - June 1 - Charles LeverCharles LeverCharles James Lever was an Irish novelist.-Biography:Lever was born in Dublin, the second son of James Lever, an architect and builder, and was educated in private schools. His escapades at Trinity College, Dublin , where he took the degree in medicine in 1831, are drawn on for the plots of some...
, novelist - August 8 - Heinrich AbekenHeinrich AbekenHeinrich Abeken , German theologian and Prussian Privy Legation Councillor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, was born and raised in the city of Osnabrück as a son of a merchant, he was incited to a higher education by the example of his uncle Bernhard Rudolf Abeken...
, theologian - October 21 - Jean-Henri Merle d'AubignéJean-Henri Merle d'AubignéJean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné was a Swiss Protestant minister and historian of the Reformation.He was born at Eaux Vives, a neighbourhood of Geneva. A street in the area is named after him. The ancestors of his father Robert Merle d'Aubigné , were French Protestant refugees...
, historian - November 16 - William GilhamWilliam GilhamWilliam Henry Gilham was an American soldier, teacher, chemist, and author. A member of the faculty at Virginia Military Institute, in 1860, he wrote a military manual which was still in modern use 145 years later...
, military writer - December 23 - Théophile GautierThéophile GautierPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
, poet, novelist