1855 In Literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1855.

Events

*January – Samuel Orchart Beeton's weekly '' The Boys' Own Magazine'', "an illustrated journal of fact, fiction, history and adventure", begins publication in London.
*January 5 – Anthony Trollope's novel ''The Warden'', the first of his ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'', is published in London by Longman as he begins to write the second, '' Barchester Towers''.
*February 25 – The comedy ''De Scholtschäin'', by Edmond de la Fontaine writing as Dicks, becomes the first play to be performed in the language of Luxembourg.
*June 29 – ''The Daily Telegraph'' newspaper begins publication in London.
*July 4 – Walt Whitman's first edition of his book of poems titled ''Leaves of Grass'' is published in Brooklyn, New York.
*September 27 – Alfred Tennyson reads from his new book '' Maud and other poems'' at a social gathering in the home of Robert and Elizabeth Browning in London. Dante Gabriel Rossetti makes a sketch of him doing so.
*October – Victor Hugo moves to Hauteville House, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, accompanied by his mistress, Juliette Drouet.
*December
**Charles Dickens publishes the first instalment of ''Little Dorrit'', which continues to appear into 1857.
**Thomas Babington Macaulay's best-selling ''History of England'' in four volumes is completed.
*''unknown dates''
**Alexander Afanasyev begins publication of his collection of ''Narodnye russkie skazki'' ational Russian Tales
**John Camden Hotten opens a bookselling business in London, which is the origin of the publisher Chatto & Windus.
** Faris al-Shidyaq publishes the metafiction ''Sâq 'ala al-sâq'' (Leg over Leg), the first modern Arabic novel, in Paris.
**The first Luxembourg novel in French, ''Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste'', is published shortly after the death of its author, Félix Thyes (born 1830).
** Belarusian writer Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich publishes «Гапон» (''Hapon'') in the Russian Empire, the first poem written wholly in modern Belarusian.

New books

Fiction

*Gheorghe Asachi – ''Ziua din urmă a municipiului Iașenilor'' (The Last Day of Iași Municipality)
*Cuthbert Bede (pseudonym) – '' The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green'' (other volumes, 1856 and 1857)
*Gustav Freytag – ''Debit and Credit (Soll und Haben)''
*Elizabeth Gaskell – ''North and South''
* James Grant – ''The Yellow Frigate'' (also entitled ''The Three Sisters'')
* Mary Virginia Hawes – ''The Hidden Path''
*Caroline Lee Hentz – ''Robert Graham''
*Paul Heyse – "L'Arrabbiata" (The Fury, short story)
*Washington Irving – '' Wolfert's Roost''
*Gottfried Keller – '' Green Henry (Der grüne Heinrich)''
*Charles Kingsley – ''Westward Ho!''
*Herman Melville
**''Israel Potter''
**'' The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids''
**''Benito Cereno''
*Gérard de Nerval – ''Aurelia''
*Giovanni Ruffini – '' Doctor Antonio''
* Ann Sophia Stephens – ''The Old Homestead''
*William Makepeace Thackeray – ''The Newcomes''
*Félix Thyes – ''Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste''
*Anthony Trollope – ''The Warden'' (first in the Chronicles of Barchester series of six books)

Children

*Božena Němcová – '' The Grandmother''

Drama

*Émile Augier – ''Le Mariage d'Olympe''
*Dicks
**''De Scholtschäin''
**''D'Mumm Sèiss''
*Léon Gozlan – ''Le Gâteau des reines''
*Henrik Ibsen – ''The Feast at Solhaug''
*Andreas Munch – ''En Aften paa Giske''
*Watts Phillips – ''Joseph Chavigny''
*Ivan Turgenev – '' A Month in the Country''

Poetry

*Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – ''The Song of Hiawatha''
*Walt Whitman – ''Leaves of Grass''

Non-fiction

*David Brewster – ''Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton''
*John Brown – ''Slave Life in Georgia''
*Washington Irving – ''The Life of George Washington, Volumes 1 and 2''
*George Sand – ''Histoire de ma vie'' (The Story of My Life)
* William Smith – ''Latin–English Dictionary based upon the works of Forcellini and Freund''
*Leo Tolstoy – ''Sevastopol Sketches (Севастопольские рассказы, Sevastopolskiye rasskazy)''
*Alfred Russel Wallace – ''On the Law Which has Regulated the Introduction of Species''

Births

*February 21 – Elizabeth Robins Pennell, American biographer and critic based in London (died 1936)
*April 4 – Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, Indian dramatist (died 1897)
*April 27 – Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, Irish novelist (died 1897)
*May 1 – Marie Corelli (Mary Mackay), English novelist (died 1924)
*May 21 – Emile Verhaeren, Belgian Symbolist poet writing in French (died 1916)
*May 24 – Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, English dramatist (died 1934)
*July 7 – Ludwig Ganghofer, German novelist (died 1920)
*July 19 – Alexander Ertel, Russian novelist and short story writer (died 1908)
*August 7 – Stanley J. Weyman, English novelist (died 1928)
*September 12 – William Sharp, Scottish poet and biographer (died 1905)
*September 22 – Alice Zimmern, English writer, translator and suffragist (died 1939)
*October 26 – Jessie Wilson Manning, American author and lecturer (died 1947)
*October 30 – Pyotr Gnedich, Russian writer and poet (died 1925)
*November 4 – William Ritchie Sorley, Scottish philosopher (died 1935)
*December 15 – Maurice Bouchor, French poet and sculptor (died 1929)
*December 28 – Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, Uruguayan poet (died 1931)
*''unknown date''
**Solomon Cleaver, Canadian story teller, novelist and pastor (died 1939)
**Florence Huntley, American journalist, editor, humorist, and occult author (died 1912)

Deaths

*January 3 – János Majláth, Hungarian poet and historian (born 1786)
*January 10 – Mary Russell Mitford, English dramatist and novelist (born 1787)
*January 25 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English poet and diarist (born 1771)
*January 26 – Gérard de Nerval (Gérard Labrunie), French poet and essayist (suicide, born 1808)
*February 4 – Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke, German theologian (born 1791)
*March 31 – Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (born 1816)
*June 29 – Delphine de Girardin, French poet and novelist (born 1804)
*July 12 – Karl Spindler, German novelist, (born 1796)
*September 4 – Emma Tatham, English poet (born 1829)
*September 27 – John Adamson, English antiquary and scholar of Portuguese (born 1787)
*November 11 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (born 1813)
*November 19 – Mihály Vörösmarty, Hungarian poet and dramatist (born 1800)
*November 26 – Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's national poet (cholera, born 1798)
*December 3 – Robert Montgomery, English poet (born 1807)
*''unknown date'' – Sunthorn Phu, Thai poet (born 1786)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1855 In Literature

Years of the 19th century in literature