Rahul Sharma (Editor)

1794 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1794.

Contents

Events

  • March 12 – The rebuilt Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, designed by Henry Holland, opens to the public.
  • May 12 – William Godwin's novel Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams is published in London as an attack on tyrannical government, although its controversial original preface and ending are suppressed. The work also contains elements of detective fiction.
  • May 14 – Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter by American speculator Gilbert Imlay, Fanny, is born in Le Havre.
  • June – English poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey first meet, in Oxford while Coleridge is en route for a tour of Wales. Meeting again in Bristol in August (following Robespierre's execution in July) they collaborate on the "historic drama" The Fall of Robespierre, published in October and Southey's first published poetry; he also writes the radical play Wat Tyler this summer.
  • Autumn–December – English playwright Thomas Holcroft is indicted for treason as a member of the Society for Constitutional Information and held in Newgate Prison, London, but released without charge.
  • November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College) in Pennsylvania.
  • Ludwig Tieck graduates and begins a literary career.

    • Fiction

  • Xavier de Maistre – Voyage autour de ma chambre
  • Giorgio Ferrich – Fabulae ab Illyricis adagiis disumptae
  • 'Ludwig Flammenberg' (Carl Friedrich Kahlert) translated & adapted by Peter Teuthold – The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest
  • William Godwin – Caleb Williams
  • Ann Radcliffe – The Mysteries of Udolpho
  • Mary Robinson – The Widow; or, A Picture of Modern Times
  • Susanna Rowson – Charlotte Temple (first American edition)
  • Thomas Spence – A Description of Spensonia

    • Children

  • Elizabeth Pinchard – The Two Cousins

    • Drama

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey – The Fall of Robespierre
  • Richard Cumberland
  • The Jew
  • The Box-Lobby Challenge
  • François Juste Marie Raynouard – Caton d'Utique
  • Mary Robinson – Nobody: A Comedy in Two Acts

    • Poetry

  • William Blake – Songs of Experience
  • Isabella Kelly – Collection of Poems and Fables

    • Non-fiction

  • Elizabeth Dawbarn (anonymously) – Dialogue between Clara Neville and Louisa Mills, on Loyalty
  • Edward Gibbon – Memoirs of My Life and Writings
  • Sake Dean Mahomet – The Travel of Dean Mahomet
  • Thomas James Mathias – The Pursuits of Literature
  • Thomas Paine – The Age of Reason
  • William Paley – View of the Evidences of Christianity
  • Uvedale Price – Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared with the Sublime and The Beautiful
  • Walter Whiter – Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare

    • Births

  • January 11 – Jean Philibert Damiron, French philosopher (died 1862)
  • May 17 – Anna Brownell Jameson, Irish-born essayist and editor (died 1860)
  • May 24 – William Whewell, English polymath (died 1866)
  • August 16 – Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné, Swiss historian of the Reformation (died 1872)
  • Unknown date – Emma Roberts, English travel writer and poet (died 1840)

    • Deaths

  • January 16 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (born 1737)
  • March 24 – Jacques Hébert, French radical journalist (guillotined, born 1757)
  • April 5 – Susanna Blamire, English dialect poet and songwriter (born 1747)
  • April 13 – Nicolas Chamfort, French wit (suicide, born 1741)
  • April 15 – Fabre d'Églantine, French dramatist and poet (guillotined, born 1750)
  • April 27 – Sir William Jones, English philologist (born 1746)
  • June 3 – Girolamo Tiraboschi, Italian literary critic (born 1731)
  • June 8 – Gottfried August Bürger, German poet (born 1747)
  • July 24
  • André Chénier, French poet (guillotined, born 1762)
  • Jean-Antoine Roucher, French poet (guillotined, born 1745)
  • August 14 – George Colman the Elder, English dramatist and essayist (born 1732)
  • November – Rudolf Erich Raspe, German writer (born 1736)

    • In literature

  • Victorien Sardou's play Thermidor (1891) is set in this year.

    • References

    1794 in literature Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA