1742 in literature
Encyclopedia
The year 1742 in literature involved some significant events and new books.
Events
- December 2 - The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.
- The Stockholm Gazette begins publication.
- Pierre de MarivauxPierre de MarivauxPierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux , commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French novelist and dramatist....
is elected to the Académie françaiseAcadémie françaiseL'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
.
New books
- Claude Prosper Jolyot de CrébillonClaude Prosper Jolyot de CrébillonClaude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon was a French novelist.Born in Paris, he was the son of a famous tragedian, Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon. He received a Jesuit education at the elite Lycée Louis-le-Grand...
- Le Sopha, conte moral - Henry FieldingHenry FieldingHenry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
- Joseph AndrewsJoseph AndrewsJoseph Andrews, or The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first published full-length novel of the English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, and indeed among the first novels in the English language... - Eliza HaywoodEliza HaywoodEliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...
- The Virtuous Villager (prose fiction)
New drama
- Charlotte CharkeCharlotte CharkeCharlotte Charke was an English actress, playwright, novelist, autobiographer, and noted transvestite. She acted on the stage from the age of 17, mainly in breeches roles, and took to wearing male clothing off the stage...
- Tit for Tat - Charles JennensCharles JennensCharles Jennens was an English landowner and patron of the arts, who assembled the text for five of Handel's oratorios: Saul, Israel in Egypt, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Messiah, and Belshazzar...
- Messiah (libretto and music for Handel's piece)
Poetry
- William CollinsWilliam Collins (poet)William Collins was an English poet. Second in influence only to Thomas Gray, he was an important poet of the middle decades of the 18th century...
- Persian Eclogues - Thomas CookeThomas Cooke (author)Thomas Cooke , often called "Hesiod" Cooke, was a very active English translator and author who ran afoul of Alexander Pope and was mentioned as one of the "dunces" in Pope's Dunciad. His father was an inn keeper, and Cooke arrived in London in 1722 and began working as a writer for the Whig causes...
- Original Poems - James HammondJames HammondJames Hammond was an eighteenth-century British poet included in Doctor Johnson's Lives of the Poets....
- Love Elegies - James MerrickJames MerrickJames Merrick was an English poet and scholar; M.A. Trinity College, Oxford, 1742: fellow, 1745: ordained, but lived in college. It is said that "[h]e entered into holy orders, but never could engage in parochial duty, from being subject to excessive pains in his head"...
- The Destruction of Troy - William ShenstoneWilliam ShenstoneWilliam Shenstone was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.-Life:...
- The School-Mistress - William SomervileWilliam SomervileWilliam Somervile or Somerville was an English poet.-Ancestry:The name Somervile is derived from a town near Caen in Normandy subsequently named Somervile....
- Field Sports - Charles Hanbury WilliamsCharles Hanbury WilliamsSir Charles Hanbury Williams, KB , diplomat, writer and satirist, son of John Hanbury, a Welsh ironmaster, assumed the name of Williams on succeeding to the estate of his godfather Charles Williams, in 1720....
- The Country Girl: An ode - Edward YoungEdward YoungEdward Young was an English poet, best remembered for Night Thoughts.-Early life:He was the son of Edward Young, later Dean of Salisbury, and was born at his father's rectory at Upham, near Winchester, where he was baptized on 3 July 1683. He was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated...
- Night ThoughtsNight Thoughts (poem)The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, better known simply as Night-Thoughts, is a long poem by Edward Young published in nine parts between 1742 and 1745.The poem is written in blank verse...
Non-fiction
- Colley CibberColley CibberColley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
- A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (in re Pope'sAlexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
satirizing of Cibber) - Philip DoddridgePhilip DoddridgePhilip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...
- Evidences of Christianity - David HumeDavid HumeDavid Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
- Essays Moral and Political vol. ii - Colin MaclaurinColin MaclaurinColin Maclaurin was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. The Maclaurin series, a special case of the Taylor series, are named after him....
- Treatise on Fluxions - John OldmixonJohn OldmixonJohn Oldmixon was an English historian.He was a son of John Oldmixon of Oldmixon, Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. His first writings were poetry and dramas, among them being Amores Britannici; Epistles historical and gallant ; and a tragedy, The Governor of Cyprus...
- Memoirs of the Press, Historical and Political - Horace Walpole and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams - The Lessons for the Day (satire on William Pulteney, Bolingbroke, and the "Patriot WhigsPatriot WhigsThe Patriot Whigs and, later Patriot Party, was a group within the Whig party in Great Britain from 1725 to 1803. The group was formed in opposition to the ministry of Robert Walpole in the House of Commons in 1725, when William Pulteney and seventeen other Whigs joined with the Tory party in...
"). - William WarburtonWilliam WarburtonWilliam Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...
- A Critical and Philosophical Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man - John WesleyJohn WesleyJohn Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
- The Character of a MethodistMethodismMethodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
- The Principles of a Methodist
- The Character of a Methodist
- George WhitefieldGeorge WhitefieldGeorge Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
- Nine Sermons
Births
- January 1 - Isaac ReedIsaac ReedIsaac Reed was an English Shakespearean editor.-Life:The son of a baker, he was born in London. He was articled to a solicitor, and eventually set up as a conveyancer at Staple Inn, where he had a large practice.-Works:...
, Shakespearean editor (died 1807) - June 25 - Johann SchweighauserJohann SchweighäuserJohann Schweighäuser , was a German classical scholar.-Biography:He was born at Strasbourg. From an early age his favourite subjects were philosophy and Oriental languages; Greek and Latin he took up later, and although he owes his reputation to his...
, German classical scholar (died 1830) - September 14 - James WilsonJames WilsonJames Wilson was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Wilson was elected twice to the Continental Congress, and was a major force in drafting the United States Constitution...
, publisher (died 1798) - October 6 - Johan Herman WesselJohan Herman Wesselthumb|Johan Herman WesselJohan Herman Wessel was a Norwegian-Danish poet. Some of his satirical poems are still popular.-Biography:...
, Norwegian author (died 1785)
Deaths
- March 23 - Jean-Baptiste DubosJean-Baptiste DubosJean-Baptiste Dubos , also referred to as l'Abbé Du Bos, was a French author.-Life:He was born in Beauvais. After studying theology, he gave it up in favour of public law and politics. He was employed by M...
, French author (born 1670) - April 27 - Nicholas AmhurstNicholas AmhurstNicholas Amhurst was an English poet and political writer.Amhurst was born at Marden, Kent. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and at St John's College, Oxford. In 1719 he was expelled from the university, ostensibly for his irregularities of conduct, but in reality because of his whig...
, poet and political writer (born 1697) - July 9 - John OldmixonJohn OldmixonJohn Oldmixon was an English historian.He was a son of John Oldmixon of Oldmixon, Weston-super-Mare in Somerset. His first writings were poetry and dramas, among them being Amores Britannici; Epistles historical and gallant ; and a tragedy, The Governor of Cyprus...
, English historian (born 1673) - July 14 - Richard BentleyRichard BentleyRichard Bentley was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge....
, English scholar and critic (born 1662) - July 19 - William SomervileWilliam SomervileWilliam Somervile or Somerville was an English poet.-Ancestry:The name Somervile is derived from a town near Caen in Normandy subsequently named Somervile....
, English poet (born 1675) - November 24 - Andrew BradfordAndrew BradfordAndrew Bradford was an early American printer in colonial Philadelphia. He published the first newspaper in Pennsylvania in 1729....
, American publisher (born 1686)