1866 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1866 in literature involved some significant new books.
Events
- Ludwig AnzengruberLudwig AnzengruberLudwig Anzengruber was an Austrian dramatist, novelist and poet. He was born and died in Vienna.- Origins:...
returns to Vienna after working as a travelling actor. - Luigi CapuanaLuigi CapuanaLuigi Capuana was an Italian author and journalist and one of the most important members of the Verist movement. He was a contemporary of Giovanni Verga, both having been born in the province of Catania within a year of each other. He was also one of the first authors influenced by the works of...
becomes theatre critic for Italian newspaper The Nation. - Two new American magazines for children, The Little Corporal and Children's Hour, publish their first issues.
New books
- 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...
- Cradock Nowell - Bankim Chandra ChattopadhyayBankim Chandra ChattopadhyayBankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was a famous Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Freedom Movement...
-KapalkundalaKapalkundalaKapalkundala is a Bengali romance novel by Indian writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Published in 1866, it is a story of a forest-dwelling girl named Kapalkundala, who fell in love and got married to Nabakumar, a young gentleman from Saptagram, but eventually found that she is unable to adjust... - 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...
- ArmadaleArmadale (novel)Armadale is a mystery novel by Wilkie Collins.-Plot summary:The novel has a convoluted plot about two distant cousins both named Allan Armadale. The father of one had murdered the father of the other... - John Esten CookeJohn Esten CookeJohn Esten Cooke was an American novelist and poet. He was the brother of poet Philip Pendleton Cooke.-Early life:Born in Winchester, Virginia, he was noted for writing about that state...
- Surry of Eagle's-Nest - 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...
- Lettres de mon moulinLettres de mon moulinLetters from My Windmill is a collection of short stories by Alphonse Daudet first published in its entirety in 1869... - 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....
- Crime and PunishmentCrime and PunishmentCrime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoyevsky's full-length novels following his...
- The Gambler
- Crime and Punishment
- Alexandre Dumas, filsAlexandre Dumas, filsAlexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
- L'Affaire Clemenceau - 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...
- Felix Holt, the RadicalFelix Holt, the RadicalFelix Holt, the Radical is a social novel written by George Eliot about political disputes in a small English town at the time of the First Reform Act of 1832.In January 1868, Eliot penned an article entitled "Address to Working Men, by Felix Holt"... - John William De ForestJohn William De ForestJohn William De Forest was an American soldier and writer of realistic fiction, best known for his Civil War novel Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty.-Early life and career:...
- Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to LoyaltyMiss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to LoyaltyMiss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty is an American Civil War novel by veteran John William DeForest. In contrast to much of the Civil War fiction that had gone before it, Miss Ravenel's Conversion portrayed war not in the chivalric, idealized manner of Walter Scott, but as a... - Émile GaboriauÉmile GaboriauÉmile Gaboriau , was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.- Life :Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime...
- The Lerouge Affair - 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 Travailleurs de la Mer ("The Toilers of the Sea") - 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...
- Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood - Margaret Oliphant - Miss MarjoribanksMiss MarjoribanksMiss Marjoribanks is an 1866 novel by Margaret Oliphant. It follows the exploits of its heroine, Lucilla Marjoribanks, as she schemes to improve the social life of the provincial English town of Carlingford....
- OuidaOuidaOuida was the pseudonym of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé .-Biography:...
- Chandos - 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...
- Nina Balatka (published anonymously initially - Trollope was interested in discovering whether his books sold on their own merits or as a consequence of the author's name and reputation) - José Milla y VidaurreJosé Milla y VidaurreJosé Milla y Vidaurre was one of the most outstanding Guatemalan writers in the 19th century. He was also known by the name Pepe Milla and the pseudonym Salomé Jil....
- La Hija del Adelantado
New drama
- Dion BoucicaultDion BoucicaultDionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...
- Rip van Winkle or The Sleep of Twenty Years - Alexandre Dumas, filsAlexandre Dumas, filsAlexandre Dumas, fils was a French author and dramatist. He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, also a writer and playwright.-Biography:...
- Heloise Paranquet - Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
- BrandBrand (play)Brand is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It is a verse tragedy, written in 1865 and first performed in Stockholm on 24 March 1867. Brand was an intellectual play that provoked much original thought....
Poetry
- Algernon Charles SwinburneAlgernon Charles SwinburneAlgernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...
- Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs)Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs)Dolores is a poem by A. C. Swinburne first published in his 1866 Poems and Ballads. The poem, in 440 lines, regards the figure of the titular "Dolores, Our Lady of Pain", thus named at the close of many of its stanzas.... - 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:...
- Poèmes saturniensPoèmes saturniensPoèmes saturniens is the first collection of poetry by Paul Verlaine, first published in 1866.Verlaine was linked with the Parnassien movement in French poetry. He published his first poem in their journal, Revue du Progrès moral, littéraire, scientifique et artistique, in August 1863...
Non-fiction
- William Wells BrownWilliam Wells BrownWilliam Wells Brown was a prominent African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian. Born into slavery in the Southern United States, Brown escaped to the North in 1834, where he worked for abolitionist causes and was a prolific writer...
- The Negro in the American Rebellion - Friedrich Albert LangeFriedrich Albert LangeFriedrich Albert Lange , was a German philosopher and sociologist.-Biography:Lange was born in Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, Johann Peter Lange. He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich and Bonn, where he distinguished himself in gymnastics as much as academically...
- Geschichte des MaterialismusGeschichte des MaterialismusGeschichte des Materialismus und Kritik seiner Bedeutung in der Gegenwart is a philosophical work by Friedrich Albert Lange, originally written in German and published in October 1865 . Lange vastly extended the second edition published in two volumes in 1873–75... - Charles Haddon Spurgeon - The Wordless Book
Births
- January 29 - Romain RollandRomain RollandRomain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
, Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winning author, (+ 1944) - February 24 - Cyril Arthur PearsonCyril Arthur PearsonSir Cyril Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet, GBE was a British newspaper magnate and publisher, most noted for founding the Daily Express.-Family and Early life:...
, publisher (+ 1921) - July 28 - Beatrix PotterBeatrix PotterHelen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
, Children's authorChildren's literatureChildren's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
(+ 1943) - May 2 - Paul KretschmerPaul KretschmerPaul Kretschmer was a German linguist who studied the earliest history and interrelations of the Indo-European languages and showed how they were influenced by non-Indo-European languages, such as Etruscan....
, linguist (+ 1956) - September 7 - Tristan BernardTristan BernardTristan Bernard was a French playwright, novelist, journalist and lawyer.-Life:Born Paul Bernard into a Jewish family in Besançon, Doubs, Franche-Comté, France, he was the son of an architect...
, writer (+ 1947) - August 31 - Elizabeth von ArnimElizabeth von ArnimElizabeth von Arnim , born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian-born British novelist. By marriage she became Gräfin von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell...
, novelist (+ 1941) - September 21 - H. G. WellsH. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and romantic novelist (+ 1946) - November 21 - Dusé Mohamed AliDusé Mohamed AliDusé Mohamed Ali , , was an African nationalist. He was also an actor, historian, journalist, editor, lecturer, traveller, publisher, a founder of the Comet Press Ltd. and The Comet newspaper .-Early life:He was born in Alexandria, Egypt...
, political activist, journalist and dramatist (+ 1945) - date unknown - Dora Sigerson ShorterDora Sigerson ShorterDora Sigerson was an Irish poet, who after her marriage in 1895 wrote under the name Dora Sigerson Shorter.She was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of George Sigerson, a surgeon and writer, and Hester also a writer. She was a major figure of the Irish Literary Revival, publishing many...
, poet (+ 1918)
Deaths
- January 23 - Thomas Love PeacockThomas Love PeacockThomas Love Peacock was an English satirist and author.Peacock was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work...
, satirist - February 2 - Francois Xavier Garneau, poet and historian
- March 6 - William WhewellWilliam WhewellWilliam Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.-Life and career:Whewell was born in Lancaster...
, philosopher and theologian - March 29 - John KebleJohn KebleJohn Keble was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford.-Early life:...
, poet - June 16 - Joseph MéryJoseph MéryJoseph Méry was a French writer.Méry was born at Marseille. An ardent romanticist, he collaborated with Auguste Barthélemy in many of his satires and wrote a great number of stories, now forgotten...
, satirist and librettist - August 1 - Luigi Carlo FariniLuigi Carlo FariniLuigi Carlo Farini was an Italian statesman and historian.-Biography:Farini was born at Russi, in what is now the province of Ravenna....
, historian - August 12 - Philip Stanhope WorsleyPhilip Stanhope WorsleyPhilip Stanhope Worsley was an English poet.The son of the Rev. Charles Worsley, he was educated at Highgate School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize in 1857 with a poem on The Temple of Janus...
, poet - September 10 - Charles MaclarenCharles MaclarenCharles Maclaren was a Scottish editor born in Ormiston, Haddingtonshire, the son of a farmer and cattle-dealer. He was almost entirely self-educated, and when a young man became a clerk in Edinburgh. In 1817, with others, he established The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh and at first acted as...
, first editor of The ScotsmanThe ScotsmanThe Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s.... - September 14 - Léon GozlanLéon GozlanLéon Gozlan , was a French Jewish novelist and playwright. He was born in Marseille....
, novelist and dramatist - September 19 - Christian Hermann WeisseChristian Hermann WeisseChristian Hermann Weisse , was a German Protestant religious philosopher.- Philosophy :He was born at Leipzig, and studied at the university there, at first adhering to the Hegelian school of philosophy. In the course of time, his ideas changed, and became close to those of Schelling in his later...
, philosopher