1844 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1844 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- The first volumes of the Patrologia LatinaPatrologia LatinaThe Patrologia Latina is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques-Paul Migne between 1844 and 1855, with indices published between 1862 and 1865....
, a 217 volume collection of works in Latin, are published in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by Jacques Paul MigneJacques Paul MigneJacques Paul Migne was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely-distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a universal library for the Catholic priesthood.He was born at Saint-Flour, Cantal and studied...
. The initial volumes include the writings of TertullianTertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
and CyprianCyprianCyprian was bishop of Carthage and an important Early Christian writer, many of whose Latin works are extant. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education...
, among other authors.
New books
- 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...
- Os contrabandistasOs contrabandistasOs contrabandistas is the first novel written by the Brazilian writer José de Alencar in 1844. However, this book has never been published because it was burned by a friend of the author....
(unpublished, lost) - Honoré de BalzacHonoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
- Les Paysans - 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...
- The ChimesThe ChimesThe Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In, a short novel by Charles Dickens, was written and published in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol and one year before The Cricket on the Hearth... - Benjamin Disraeli - ConingsbyConingsby (novel)Coningsby, or The New Generation, is an English political novel by Benjamin Disraeli published in 1844.-Background:The book is set against a background of the real political events of the 1830s in England that followed the enactment of the Reform Bill of 1832...
- 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...
- The Count of Monte CristoThe Count of Monte CristoThe Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
- The Three MusketeersThe Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...
(Les Trois Mousquetaires)
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Heinrich HoffmannHeinrich Hoffmann (author)Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.- Early life and education:...
- StruwwelpeterStruwwelpeterDer Struwwelpeter is a popular German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the... - 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...
- Tom Burke of Ours - Joaquim Manuel de MacedoJoaquim Manuel de MacedoJoaquim Manuel de Macedo was a Brazilian novelist, doctor, teacher, poet, playwright and journalist, famous for the romance A Moreninha.He is the patron of the 20th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.-Life:...
- A MoreninhaA MoreninhaA Moreninha is the first urban novel in Brazilian literature. This novel was written by Joaquim Manuel de Macedo, and it was first published in 1844.-External links:... - Frederick MarryatFrederick MarryatCaptain Frederick Marryat was an English Royal Navy officer, novelist, and a contemporary and acquaintance of Charles Dickens, noted today as an early pioneer of the sea story...
- Settlers in CanadaSettlers in CanadaSettlers in Canada is a children's novel written by Frederick Marryat. It was published in 1844 and was his twenty-first book. It is set in the wilderness of Upper Canada in the 1790s. Marryat had himself visited Canada in 1837.-Plot summary:... - G. W. M. Reynolds - The Mysteries of LondonThe Mysteries of LondonThe Mysteries of London is a penny dreadful or city mysteries novel begun by George W. M. Reynolds in 1844. Reynolds wrote the first two series of this long-running narrative of life in the seedy underbelly of mid-nineteenth-century London. Thomas Miller wrote the third series and Edward L...
- Eugène SueEugène SueJoseph Marie Eugène Sue was a French novelist.He was born in Paris, the son of a distinguished surgeon in Napoleon's army, and is said to have had the Empress Joséphine for godmother. Sue himself acted as surgeon both in the Spanish campaign undertaken by France in 1823 and at the Battle of Navarino...
- Le Juif ErrantLe Juif Errant-Publication:Le Juif errant was a serially published novel, which attained great popularity in Paris, and beyond. According to historian John McGreevy, the novel was intensely and deliberately "anti-Catholic." Its publication, and that of its predecessor Les Mystères de Paris, greatly increased... - Charlotte Elizabeth TonnaCharlotte Elizabeth TonnaCharlotte Elizabeth Tonna was an English evangelical Protestant writer and novelist who wrote as Charlotte Elizabeth.- Life :...
- The Wrongs of Women - 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 Luck of Barry LyndonThe Luck of Barry LyndonThe Luck of Barry Lyndon is a picaresque novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in serial form in 1844, about a member of the Irish gentry trying to become a member of the English aristocracy...
New drama
- Christian Friedrich HebbelChristian Friedrich HebbelChristian Friedrich Hebbel , was a German poet and dramatist.-Biography:Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Ditmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums...
- Maria Magdalene - José Zorilla - Don Juan Tenorio
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...
- Poems - 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...
- Neue Gedichte - James Russell LowellJames Russell LowellJames Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
- Poems - Coventry PatmoreCoventry PatmoreCoventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and critic best known for The Angel in the House, his narrative poem about an ideal happy marriage.-Youth:...
- Poems
Non-fiction
- Robert Chambers(published anonymously) -Vestiges of the Natural History of CreationVestiges of the Natural History of CreationVestiges of the Natural History of Creation is a unique work of speculative natural history published anonymously in England in 1844. It brought together various ideas of stellar evolution with the progressive transmutation of species in an accessible narrative which tied together numerous...
- 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...
- Condition of the Working Classes in England - Søren KierkegaardSøren KierkegaardSøren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Christian philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel...
- The Concept of Anxiety - 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...
- On the Jewish QuestionOn the Jewish QuestionOn the Jewish Question is a work by Karl Marx, written in 1843, and first published in Paris in 1844 under the German title Zur Judenfrage in the Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher. It was one of Marx's first attempts to deal with categories that would later be called the materialist conception of... - John Stuart MillJohn Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
- Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political EconomyEssays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political EconomyEssays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy is a treatise on political economics by John Stuart Mill. Walras' law, a principle in general equilibrium theory named in honour of Léon Walras, was first expressed by Mill in this treatise.... - Arthur Penrhyn StanleyArthur Penrhyn StanleyArthur Penrhyn Stanley was an English churchman, Dean of Westminster, known as Dean Stanley. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he was the author of works on Church History.-Life and times:...
- Life of ArnoldThomas ArnoldDr Thomas Arnold was a British educator and historian. Arnold was an early supporter of the Broad Church Anglican movement... - 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...
- The Ego and Its OwnThe Ego and Its OwnThe Ego and Its Own is a philosophical work by German philosopher Max Stirner . This work was first published in 1845, although with a stated publication date of "1844" to confuse the Prussian censors.-Content:... - William Henry Fox Talbot - The Pencil of NatureThe Pencil of NatureThe Pencil of Nature, published in six installments between 1844 and 1846, was the "first photographically illustrated book to be commercially published" or "the first commercially published book illustrated with photographs"...
(first book illustrated with photographs)
Births
- March 30 - 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:...
, lyric poet (d. 1896) - April 2 - George Haven PutnamGeorge Haven PutnamGeorge Haven Putnam, A.M., Litt.D. was an American soldier, publisher, and author. He married classical scholar Emily James Smith Putnam...
, American author, publisher (d. 1930) - April 16 - Anatole FranceAnatole FranceAnatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
, writer (d. 1924) - April 28 - Thomas Jones (Tudno), Welsh-language poet (d. 1895)
- July 28 - Gerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley HopkinsGerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
, poet (d. 1889) - August 29 - Edward CarpenterEdward CarpenterEdward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist....
, Socialist poet (d. 1929) - September 9 - Maurice ThompsonMaurice ThompsonJames Maurice Thompson was an American novelist.-Biography:Raised on a Georgia plantation, Thompson first pursued a career as a lawyer. In 1871 he opened a law practice with his brother, William Henry Thompson...
, novelist (d. 1901) - October 15 - Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich NietzscheFriedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, German philosopher (d. 1900) - October 23 - Robert BridgesRobert BridgesRobert Seymour Bridges, OM, was a British poet, and poet laureate from 1913 to 1930.-Personal and professional life:...
, poet (d. 1930) - October 27 - Klas Pontus ArnoldsonKlas Pontus ArnoldsonKlas Pontus Arnoldson was a Swedish author, journalist, politician, and committed pacifist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1908. He was a founding member and the first chairman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society.-External links:* * at Find-A-Grave...
, Swedish writer and pacifist (d. 1916)
Deaths
- January 27 - Charles NodierCharles NodierJean Charles Emmanuel Nodier , was a French author who introduced a younger generation of Romanticists to the conte fantastique, gothic literature, vampire tales, and the importance of dreams as part of literary creation, and whose career as a librarian is often underestimated by literary...
, writer (b. 1780) - February 11 - Tamenaga Shunsui, Japanese novelist (b. 1790)
- June 11 - Urban JarnikUrban JarnikUrban Jarnik was a Carinthian Slovene priest, historian, poet, author and ethnographer.He was born in the lower Gailtal in the Duchy of Carinthia. He served as a parish priest in several villages and towns throughout southern Carinthia, including Klagenfurt and Moosburg, which at the time still...
, Slovene poet and historian (b. 1784) - June 15 - Thomas Campbell, poet (b. 1777)
- July 11 - Evgeny BaratynskyEvgeny BaratynskyYevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky was lauded by Alexander Pushkin as the finest Russian elegiac poet. After a long period when his reputation was on the wane, Baratynsky was rediscovered by Anna Akhmatova and Joseph Brodsky as a supreme poet of thought.- Life :Of noble ancestry, Baratynsky was...
, poet and philosopher (b. 1800) - August 14 - Henry Cary, author and translator (b. 1772)
- September 18 - John SterlingJohn Sterling (author)John Sterling , was a British author.He was born at Kames Castle on the Isle of Bute. He belonged to a family of Scottish origin which had settled in Ireland during the Cromwellian period...
, novelist and poet (b. 1806) - October 25 - William MillerWilliam Miller (British publisher)William Richard Beckford Miller was one of the leading English publishers of the early 19th century.-Origins and early life:William Miller was born at Bungay, Suffolk, on 25 March 1769, the son of Thomas Miller , a bookseller and antiquarian, and Sally Kingsbury of Waveney House, Bungay...
, publisher (b. 1769) - November 21 - Ivan KrylovIvan KrylovIvan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...
, fable-writer (b. 1769)