1868 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1868.

Events

January – Émile Zola defends his first major novel, Thérèse Raquin (1867), against charges of pornography and corruption of morals.^[1]
January 4–August 8 – Wilkie Collins' epistolary novel The Moonstone: a Romance is serialised in All the Year Round (U.K.), being published in book format in July by Tinsley Brothers of London.^[2] It is seen as a precursor of full-length mystery fiction (with its introduction of the police detective Sergeant Cuff) and the psychological thriller.^[3]
January 9 – John William De Forest, writing for The Nation, calls for a more specifically American literature;^[4] the essay's title, "The Great American Novel", is the first known use of the term.
April 29 – The Court of King's Bench (England) decides on appeal the legal case Regina v. Hicklin on interpretation of the word "obscene" in the Obscene Publications Act 1857, applying the "Hicklin test": that any part of a publication with a "tendency... to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall"^[5] makes the whole publication obscene, regardless of the author's intentions.^[6]
September – The first volume of Louisa May Alcott's novel for girls Little Women is published by Roberts Brothers of Boston, Massachusetts.
November
- Robert Browning's narrative poem The Ring and the Book begins four-part publication by Smith, Elder & Co. in London. It is a major commercial and critical success.^[7]
- Norman MacLeod, editor of Good Words (U.K.), begins publishing its companion juvenile version, Good Words for the Young. The first issue begins the serial publication of George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind.
December – The Globe Theatre (Newcastle Street) in London opens with the première of the recently bankrupted Henry James Byron's semi-autobiographical comedy Cyril's Success.^[8]
unknown dates
- The first edition of The World Almanac and Book of Facts is published by the New York World.^[9]
- The first substantial translation into English from Dream of the Red Chamber is made by Edward Charles Bowra.
- Tauchnitz publishers of Leipzig begin their Collection of German Authors, a series of cheap, authorized paperback reprints.

New books

Fiction

R. M. Ballantyne – Deep Down
Henry Ward Beecher – Norwood, or Village Life in New England
Mary Elizabeth Braddon – Dead-Sea Fruit
Mortimer Collins – Sweet Anne Page
Wilkie Collins – The Moonstone
Comte de Lautréamont (anonymously as "***") – Les Chants de Maldoror, Chant premier
Fyodor Dostoevsky – The Idiot («Идио́т»)
Émile Gaboriau – Slaves of Paris (Les Esclaves de Paris)
Hermann Goedsche – Biarritz
Bret Harte – The Luck of Roaring Camp
Sheridan Le Fanu – Haunted Lives
George MacDonald – Robert Falconer
Émile Zola – Madeleine Ferat

Children and young people

Louisa May Alcott – Little Women (Vol. 1; Vol. 2 in 1869)
Horatio Alger Jr. – Ragged Dick
Rosa Nouchette Carey – Nellie's Memories
James Greenwood – The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel^[10]
Hesba Stretton – Little Meg's Children
Jules Verne – In Search of the Castaways (Les Enfants du capitaine Grant)

Drama

Samson Bodnărescu – Rienzi
Henry James Byron – Cyril's Success
Aleksandr Ostrovsky – Enough Stupidity in Every Wise Man (Na vsyakogo mudretsa dovolno prostoty)
Hendrik Jan Schimmel – Struensee
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy – Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich

Poetry

William Morris – The Earthly Paradise Volume 1

Non-fiction

Eliza Lynn Linton – "The Girl of the Period"
Edward A. Pollard – The Lost Cause Regained
John Wisden – Cricket and How to Play it
World Almanac (first edition)

Births

January 5 – Edward Garnett, English writer, critic and literary editor (died 1937)
February 23 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian and Pan-Africanist (died 1963)
March 28 – Maxim Gorky, Russian novelist and dramatist (died 1936)
April 1 – Edmond Rostand, French poet and novelist (died 1918)
May 6 – Gaston Leroux, French journalist and novelist (died 1927)
May 7 – Stanisław Przybyszewski, Polish novelist, dramatist and poet (died 1927)
July 10 – Afevork Ghevre Jesus, Ethiopian novelist and linguist (died 1947)
August 6 – Paul Claudel, French poet, dramatist and diplomat (died 1955)^[11]
August 23 – Edgar Lee Masters, American poet, biographer, dramatist and lawyer (died 1950)
September 14 – Théodore Botrel, French poet and dramatist (died 1925)
October 18 – Ernst Didring, Swedish novelist (died 1931)
November 5 – Kassian Bogatyrets, Rusyn priest, politician and historian (died 1960)
November 30 – Angela Brazil, English writer of schoolgirl fiction (died 1947)^[12]
c. December 12 – Stephen Hudson (born Sydney Schiff), English novelist, translator and arts patron (died 1944)
December 19 – Eleanor H. Porter, American novelist (died 1920)
December 25 – Ahmed Shawqi, Egyptian poet (died 1932)
December 28 – Bucura Dumbravă, Romanian novelist and spiritualist (died 1926)

Deaths

January 6 – Scarlat Vârnav, Romanian journalist, educationist and librarian (digestive illness, year of birth unknown)
January 24 – John David Macbride, English Arabist and academic (born 1778)
March 8 – Jón Thoroddsen elder, Icelandic poet and novelist (born 1818 or 1819)
June 6 – Daniel Pierce Thompson, American novelist and lawyer (born 1795)
June 15 – Robert Vaughan, English historian and religious writer (born 1795)
June 18 – Charles Harpur, Australian poet (tuberculosis, born 1813)
July 30 – Mihály Tompa, Hungarian lyric poet (born 1819)
August 24 – Constantin Negruzzi (Costache Negruzzi), Romanian poet, novelist and playwright (born 1808)
August 25 – Jacob van Lennep, Dutch poet and novelist (born 1802)
September 24 – Henry Hart Milman, English historian (born 1791)^[13]
November 30 – August Blanche, Swedish journalist, novelist and statesman (heart attack; born 1811)

Awards

Newdigate Prize – John Alexander Stewart^[14]

References

^ Ferragus (23 January 1868). "La littérature putride". Le Figaro. Paris.
^ Allingham, Philip V. (2007-06-08). "Wilkie Collins The Moonstone in Serial and Triple-Decker Publication". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
^ T. S. Eliot calls it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins".David, Deirdre (2001). The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780521646192.
^ DeForest, John (9 January 1868). "The Great American Novel". The Nation. New York. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
^ Regina v. Hicklin#Decision – via Wikisource.
^ Ducat, Craig R. (2008-02-29). Constitutional Interpretation: Rights of the individual. Cengage Learning. p. 540. ISBN 978-0-495-50324-8. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
^ Browning, Robert (2004). Karlin, Daniel (ed.). Selected Poems. Penguin. p. 11.
^ Thornbury, Walter (1897). Chapter 4. Old and New London. 3. pp. 32–35. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
^ "The World Almanac". Retrieved 2013-02-12.
^ Jarndyce Catalogue CCXXIV, A Summer Miscellany (London, 2017), No. 201.
^ Paul Claudel (1964). The Correspondence, 1899-1926, Between Paul Claudel and André Gide. Beacon Press. p. 242.
^ Sue Sims; Hilary Clare (2000). The Encyclopaedia of School Stories: The encyclopaedia of girls' school stories. Ashgate. p. 66.
^ George Edward Cokayne (1 January 1900). Complete baronetage: Volume V. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 335.
^ University of Oxford (1900). Oxford University Calendar. J.H. Parker, and H. Slatter. p. 59.

[1] Ferragus (23 January 1868). "La littérature putride". Le Figaro. Paris.

[2] Allingham, Philip V. (2007-06-08). "Wilkie Collins The Moonstone in Serial and Triple-Decker Publication". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 2013-10-15.

[3] T. S. Eliot calls it "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels in a genre invented by Collins".David, Deirdre (2001). The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge University Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780521646192.

[4] DeForest, John (9 January 1868). "The Great American Novel". The Nation. New York. Retrieved 2010-10-11.

[5] Regina v. Hicklin#Decision – via Wikisource.

[6] Ducat, Craig R. (2008-02-29). Constitutional Interpretation: Rights of the individual. Cengage Learning. p. 540. ISBN 978-0-495-50324-8. Retrieved 2011-09-30.

[7] Browning, Robert (2004). Karlin, Daniel (ed.). Selected Poems. Penguin. p. 11.

[8] Thornbury, Walter (1897). Chapter 4. Old and New London. 3. pp. 32–35. Retrieved 2013-10-15.

[9] "The World Almanac". Retrieved 2013-02-12.

[10] Jarndyce Catalogue CCXXIV, A Summer Miscellany (London, 2017), No. 201.

[11] Paul Claudel (1964). The Correspondence, 1899-1926, Between Paul Claudel and André Gide. Beacon Press. p. 242.

[12] Sue Sims; Hilary Clare (2000). The Encyclopaedia of School Stories: The encyclopaedia of girls' school stories. Ashgate. p. 66.

[13] George Edward Cokayne (1 January 1900). Complete baronetage: Volume V. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 335.

[14] University of Oxford (1900). Oxford University Calendar. J.H. Parker, and H. Slatter. p. 59.

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