1791 in literature
Encyclopedia
Events
- Chinese writer and publisher Gao EGao E (writer)Gao E was a Chinese scholar and editor. He was a Qing Dynasty scholar who attained the level of juren in 1788 and jinshi in 1795. He was a Han Chinese who belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner. In 1801 he became a Fellow of the Hanlin Academy...
and his partner Cheng Weiyan claim to have discovered Cao XueqinCao XueqinCao Xueqin was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature...
's lost novel Dream of the Red ChamberDream of the Red ChamberDream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of... - Samuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor ColeridgeSamuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
begins his course at Jesus College, CambridgeJesus College, CambridgeJesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
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New books
- Elizabeth InchbaldElizabeth InchbaldElizabeth Inchbald was an English novelist, actress, and dramatist.- Life :Born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, Elizabeth was the eighth of the nine children of John Simpson , a farmer, and his wife Mary, née Rushbrook. The family, like several others in the...
- A Simple StoryA Simple Story (novel)A Simple Story is a romance novel by English author and actress, Elizabeth Inchbald. Published in early 1791 as an early example of a "novel of passion", it was very successful and became widely read in England and abroad. It went into a second edition in March 1791. It is still popular today.The... - Ann RadcliffeAnn RadcliffeAnne Radcliffe was an English author, and considered the pioneer of the gothic novel . Her style is romantic in its vivid descriptions of landscapes, and long travel scenes, yet the Gothic element is obvious through her use of the supernatural...
- The Romance of the ForestThe Romance of the ForestThe Romance of the Forest is a Gothic novel by Ann Radcliffe that was first published in 1791. It combines an air of mystery and suspense with an examination of the tension between hedonism and morality. The novel was her first major, popular success, going through four editions in its first three... - Susanna RowsonSusanna RowsonSusanna Rowson, née Haswell was a British-American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, stage actress and educator....
- Charlotte, a Tale of TruthCharlotte TempleCharlotte Temple is a novel by Susanna Rowson. It was first published in England in 1791 under the title Charlotte, A Tale of Truth. The first American edition was published in 1794 and the novel became a bestseller. It has gone through over 200 American editions.Charlotte Temple is the name of... - Marquis de SadeMarquis de SadeDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
- Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertuThe Misfortunes of VirtueJustine is a classic novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade. There is no standard edition of this text in hardcover, having passed into the public domain... - Charlotte Turner SmithCharlotte Turner SmithCharlotte Turner Smith was an English Romantic poet and novelist. She initiated a revival of the English sonnet, helped establish the conventions of Gothic fiction, and wrote political novels of sensibility....
- CelestinaCelestina (novel)Celestina is an eighteenth-century English novel and poet Charlotte Turner Smith’s third novel. Published in 1791 by Thomas Cadell, the novel tells the story of an adopted orphan who discovers the secret of her parentage and marries the man she loves...
Non-fiction
- James BoswellJames BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
- Life of JohnsonLife of JohnsonThe Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. is a biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson written by James Boswell. It is regarded as an important stage in the development of the modern genre of biography; many have claimed it as the greatest biography written in English... - Olympe de GougesOlympe de GougesOlympe de Gouges , born Marie Gouze, was a French playwright and political activist whose feminist and abolitionist writings reached a large audience....
- Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female CitizenDeclaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female CitizenThe Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen , also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was written in 1791 by French activist and playwright Olympe de Gouges... - Thomas PaineThomas PaineThomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
- The Rights of Man
Births
- January 15 - 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:...
, Austrian dramatist (d. 1872) - March 15 - Charles KnightCharles Knight (publisher)Charles Knight was an English publisher and author.-Early life:The son of a bookseller and printer at Windsor, he was apprenticed to his father...
, publisher and author (d. 1873) - July 5 - Samuel BaileySamuel BaileySamuel Bailey was a British philosopher and writer. He was called the "Bentham of Hallamshire".-Life:Samuel Bailey was born at Sheffield on 5 July 1791, the son of Joseph Bailey and Mary Eadon. His father was among the first of those Sheffield merchants who went to the United States to establish...
, English philosopher and author (d. 1870) - August 17 - Richard Lalor SheilRichard Lalor SheilRichard Lalor Sheil , Irish politician, writer and orator, was born at Drumdowney, Slieverue, County Kilkenny, Ireland...
, Irish politician, author and orator (d. 1851) - September 21 - István SzéchenyiIstván SzéchenyiSzéchenyi committed suicide by a shot to his head on April 8, 1860. All Hungary mourned his death. The Academy was in official mourning, along with the most prominent persons of the leading political and cultural associations...
, Hungarian politician and writer (d. 1860) - October 26 - Charles SpragueCharles Sprague (poet)Charles Sprague was an early American poet. He worked for 45 years for the State and Globe Banks and was often referred to as the "Banker Poet of Boston". His odes and prologues won several competitive prizes and were collected and published in 1841 as The Writings of Charles Sprague.-Personal...
, early American poet (d. 1875)
Deaths
- January 11 - William Williams PantycelynWilliam Williams PantycelynWilliam Williams Pantycelyn , also known as Williams Pantycelyn and Pantycelyn, is generally acknowledged as Wales' most famous hymn writer. He was also one of the key leaders of the 18th century Welsh Methodist revival, along with Daniel Rowland and Howell Harris. As a poet and prose writer he is...
, hymn-writer and poet (b. 1717) - March 2 - 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...
, preacher and writer (b. 1703) - April 2 - Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de MirabeauHonoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de MirabeauHonoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau was a French revolutionary, as well as a writer, diplomat, freemason, journalist and French politician at the same time. He was a popular orator and statesman. During the French Revolution, he was a moderate, favoring a constitutional monarchy built on...
, French revolutionary and writer (b. 1749) - April 19 - Richard PriceRichard PriceRichard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
, philosopher (b. 1723) - June 12 - Francis GroseFrancis GroseFrancis Grose was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He was born at his father's house in Broad Street, St-Peter-le-Poer, London, son of a Swiss immigrant and jeweller, Francis Jacob Grose , and his wife, Anne , daughter of Thomas Bennett of Greenford in Middlesex...
, antiquary and lexicographer (b. c. 1730) - June 30 - Jean-Baptiste DescampsJean-Baptiste DescampsJean-Baptiste Descamps was a French writer and painter of village scenes.Descamps was born in Dunkirk, but lived principally at Paris, till an accidental circumstance fixed him at Rouen, in 1740...
, French writer and painter (b. 1714) - July 2 - Søren AbildgaardSøren AbildgaardSøren Pedersen Abildgaard was a Danish naturalist, writer and illustrator. He was born in Flekkefjord in Norway and died in Copenhagen in Denmark....
, Danish naturalist and writer (b. 1718) - November 22 - Johann SilberschlagJohann SilberschlagJohann Esaias Silberschlag was a German Lutheran theologian and natural scientist from Aschersleben, Principality of Halberstadt....
, German theologian (b. 1721)