Literature timeline
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Dante Alighieri Dies
About 1320 Dante made his final home in Ravenna, where he died on the night of September 13-14, 1321. His body was brought to the church of San... Read more
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'The Prince' is Published
In 1512, Pope Julius II attacked Florence, because of events going on in Pisa. After the war, Soderini was removed from office and the prominent... Read more
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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra is Born
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 29 September 1547 – 23 April 1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus Don Quixote, often... Read more
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'Don Quixote' is Published
The heroism of Don Quixote is by no means constant: he is perfectly capable of flight, abandoning poor Sancho to be beaten up by an entire village.... Read more
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'Gulliver's Travels' is Published
Gulliver's Travels is a misanthropic anatomy of human nature; a sardonic looking-glass. It asks its readers to refute it, to deny that it has not... Read more
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'Sense and Sensibility' is Published
From 1799 to 1809, little is known of Austen's life or literary endeavors, other than that upon her father's retirement she moved unhappily from... Read more
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Charles Dickens is born
Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in Portsmouth. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. Charles was the second of their eight... Read more
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'Pride and Prejudice' is Published
Jane Austen began writing the novel which later became Pride and Prejudice in October of 1796 and finished it by August of the following year; she... Read more
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'Frankenstein' is Published
Over the course of time, Frankenstein's monster has usurped the very name of his creator, Victor Frankenstein, the precocious student of natural... Read more
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Rebecca Harding Davis is Born
Rebecca Blaine Harding Davis (1831-1910; born Rebecca Blaine Harding) was an American author and journalist. She is deemed a pioneer of literary... Read more
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'Wuthering Heights' is Published
It is not simply in contrast to its origins that Wuthering Heights strikes us as so unique, so unanticipated. This great novel, though not... Read more
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'Jane Eyre' is Published
Jane Eyre is a wildly emotional romance, with a lonely heroine and a tormented Byronic hero, pathetic orphans, dark secrets, and a mad-woman in the... Read more
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'The Scarlet Letter' is Published
The truth is that the situation selected by Hawthorne has more scope and depth than the one which he passed over. It is with the subjective... Read more
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'Moby Dick' is Published
Its reputation invariably preceding it, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is a novel like no other. Whether readers expect a subtle work of art, a... Read more
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"Walden" is Published
Thoreau was 27 when he took up residence in the cabin by Walden Pond; he had graduated from Harvard 19th in his class, tried teaching, helped his... Read more
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Oscar Wilde Is Born
Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College, Dublin) the second of three children born to... Read more
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The First Edition of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" Is Published
When Walt Whitman published his first edition of Leaves of Grass on or around the fourth day of July in 1855, he believed he was embarking on a... Read more
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'Great Expectations' is Published
The plot of Great Expectations is also noticeable as indicating, better than any of his previous stories, the individuality of Dickens's genius.... Read more
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Walt Whitman Publishes "Beat! Beat! Drums!" During The Civil War
As the American Civil War was beginning, Whitman published his poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" as a patriotic rally call for the North. Whitman's brother... Read more
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"Life in the Iron Mills" is Published
Life in the Iron Mills must be considered a central text in the origins of American realism, American proletarian literature, and American... Read more
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Oscar Wilde Attends the Portora Royal School for Boys
We know something of Oscar Wilde's time at Portora from surviving records and from contemporaries. When Ocsar enrolled at Portora in February 1864,... Read more
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Henry James' First Short Story "A Tragedy of Error" Is Published
A Tragedy of Error is the title of a short story by American writer Henry James, his first, written at the age of 21 and published anonymously in... Read more
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Walt Whitman Publishes "O Captain! My Captain!"
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is... Read more
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'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is Published
Like most nineteenth-century children's books, the pictures for Alice were created by transferring the artist's drawings to woodblocks, But with... Read more
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'Crime and Punishment' is Published
Crime and Punishment was the second of Dostoevsky's most important, mature fictional works. It was first published in the conservative journal The... Read more