1844 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1844.

Events

*February 5 – The first three of many theatrical adaptations of ''A Christmas Carol'' open in London.
*March–July – Alexandre Dumas père's historical adventure story '' The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires)'' is serialised in the Paris newspaper '' Le Siècle''.
* August 28 – Alexandre Dumas père's near-recent historical adventure story ''The Count of Monte Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo)'' begins serialization in the Paris newspaper '' Journal des débats'', and continues through to January 1846). Book publication also begins this year.
*October – George W. M. Reynolds begins publication of the bestselling " penny dreadful" city mysteries series '' The Mysteries of London''.
*Autumn – Margaret Fuller joins Horace Greeley's '' New-York Tribune'' as literary critic, becoming the first full-time female book reviewer in American journalism.
* December 2 – Emily Brontë writes the poem "A Death-Scene".
*''unknown date'' – The first volumes of ''Patrologia Latina'', a 217-volume collection of works in Latin, are published in Paris by Jacques Paul Migne. These include the writings of Tertullian and Cyprian, among other authors.

New books

Fiction

*José de Alencar – ''Os contrabandistas'' (unpublished, lost)
* Honoré de Balzac – ''Les Paysans''
* Charles Dickens
**'' The Chimes''
**'' Martin Chuzzlewit'' (serial publication ends)
*Benjamin Disraeli – '' Coningsby''
*Alexandre Dumas
**''The Count of Monte Cristo''
**'' The Three Musketeers''
* Charles Lever – ''Tom Burke of Ours''
*Joaquim Manuel de Macedo – ''A Moreninha''
* Edgar Allan Poe – short stories
**"The Angel of the Odd"
**"The Premature Burial"
*G. W. M. Reynolds – '' The Mysteries of London''
* Eugène Sue – '' The Wandering Jew (Le Juif Errant)''
* William Makepeace Thackeray – '' The Luck of Barry Lyndon''
* Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna – ''The Wrongs of Women''
* Charlotte Mary Yonge – ''Abbeychurch, or, Self Control and Self Conceit''

Children and young people

*Heinrich Hoffmann – '' Struwwelpeter''
* Frederick Marryat – '' Settlers in Canada''
* Elizabeth Missing Sewell – ''Amy Herbert''
*Hans Christian Andersen – '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samling'') comprising " The Fir-Tree" ("Grantræet") and " The Snow Queen" ("Snedronningen")

Drama

* Émile Augier – ''La Ciguë''
* Gustav Freytag – ''Die Brautfahrt, oder Kunz von der Rosen''
* Christian Friedrich Hebbel – ''Maria Magdalene''
*William H. Smith – ''The Drunkard''
* José Zorilla – ''Don Juan Tenorio''

Poetry

*Elizabeth Barrett Browning – ''Poems''
*Lydia Maria Child – " Over the River and Through the Wood"
*Heinrich Heine – ''Neue Gedichte''
* James Russell Lowell – ''Poems''
* Coventry Patmore – ''Poems''

Non-fiction

* Robert Chambers (anonymously) – '' Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation''
* Friedrich Engels – '' The Condition of the Working Class in England (Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England)''
* Joseph Ennemoser – ''Geschichte der Magie'' (History of Magic)
*Søren Kierkegaard (as Vigilius Haufniensis) – '' The Concept of Anxiety (Begrebet Angest)''
* Karl Marx – " On the Jewish Question" ("''Zur Judenfrage''")
*John Stuart Mill – '' Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy''
* William Smith (editor) – '' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology''
* Arthur Penrhyn Stanley – ''Life of Arnold''
* Max Stirner – '' The Ego and Its Own (Der Einzige und sein Eigentum)''
*Henry Fox Talbot – ''The Pencil of Nature'' (first book illustrated with photographs from a camera)

Births

*January 2 – Emeline Harriet Howe, American writer and social activist (died 1934)
*January 8 – Sarah Carmichael Harrell, American educator, reformer, and writer (died 1929)
*January 14 – Susan F. Ferree, American writer and activist (died 1910)
*February 25 – Alice Diehl (née Mangold), English novelist and concert pianist (died 1912)
* March 30 – Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (died 1896)
* April 2 – George Haven Putnam, American author, publisher (died 1930)
* April 16 – Anatole France, French writer (died 1924)
* April 12 – Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis, American poet, writer, and editor (died 1909)
* May 9 – Sarah Newcomb Merrick, American teacher, writer, and physician (unknown year of death)
*July 8 – Janet Milne Rae, Scottish novelist (died 1933)
* July 21 – Matilda Maranda Crawford, American-Canadian writer and poet (died 1920)
* July 22 – William Archibald Spooner, English academic and instigator of spoonerisms (died 1930)
* July 28 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (died 1889)
* August 29 – Edward Carpenter, English socialist poet and philosopher (died 1929)
* September 9 – Maurice Thompson, American novelist (died 1901)
* October 1 – H. Maria George Colby, American author of novelettes and juvenile literature (died 1910)
* October 6 – Margret Holmes Bates, American novelist and poet (died 1927)
*October 15 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (died 1900)
* October 22 or 23 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (died 1923)
* October 23
** Robert Bridges, English poet (died 1930)
** Laura Rosamond White, American author, poet, editor (died 1922)
* October 25 – Joseph Marmette, Canadian novelist and historian (died 1895)
* October 27 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist (died 1916)
*November 21 – Ada Cambridge, English/Australian writer and poet (died 1926)
* December 13 – Catharine H. T. Avery, American author, editor, and educator (died 1911)
* December 27 – Lisa Anne Fletcher, American poet and correspondent (died 1905)
*''unknown dates''
**Mrs. Lovett Cameron (Caroline "Emily" Sharp), English romantic novelist (died 1921)
** Evelyn Whitaker, English children's writer (died 1929)

Deaths

*January 4 – Maria Hack, English educational writer (born 1777)
*January 27 – Charles Nodier, French novelist (born 1780)
*February 11 – Tamenaga Shunsui, Japanese novelist (born 1790)
* February 12 – Jan Nepomuk Štěpánek, Czech dramatist (born 1783)
* May 2 – William Thomas Beckford, English novelist and travel writer (born 1760)
* June 11 – Urban Jarnik, Slovene poet and historian (born 1784)
* June 15 – Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (born 1777)
* July 11 – Evgeny Baratynsky, Russian poet and philosopher (born 1800)
*August 14 – Henry Cary, Gibraltar-born Irish author and translator (born 1772)
* September 18 – John Sterling, Scottish novelist and poet (born 1806)
* October 28 – Sándor Kisfaludy, Hungarian poet and dramatist (born 1772)
* November 4 – Barbara Hofland, English children's and schoolbook author (born 1770)
*November 21 – Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist (born 1769)
* December 27 – Ioan Caragea, Greek Prince of Wallachia, translator and theatrical promoter (born 1754)

Awards

* Chancellor's Gold Medal – Edward Bickersteth, "The Tower of London"
* Newdigate Prize – Evgeny Baratynsky

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 19th century in literature