|
1750
|
|
|
1751
|
|
|
1752
|
|
|
1753
|
|
|
1754
|
|
|
1755
|
|
|
1756
|
|
|
1757
|
b. William Blake
|
|
1758
|
|
|
1759
|
b. Robert Burns
|
George III crowned. There was little rejoicing.
|
1760
|
|
|
1761
|
|
|
1762
|
|
|
1763
|
|
|
1764
|
Horace Walpole, Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story
|
James
Watt's perfection of the steam engine--big catalyst that encouraged the Industrial
Revolution, wherein machines replace human workers to a great extent.
|
1765
|
|
|
1766
|
|
|
1767
|
|
|
1768
|
|
|
1769
|
|
|
1770
|
|
|
1771
|
b. Sir Walter Scott
|
|
1772
|
b. Samuel Taylor Coleridge ("STC")
|
|
1773
|
|
|
1774
|
|
|
1775
|
b. Jane Austen
|
|
1776
|
|
|
1777
|
|
|
1778
|
|
|
1779
|
|
|
1780
|
|
|
1781
|
|
|
1782
|
|
|
1783
|
Blake: Poetical Sketches
|
|
1784
|
|
|
1785
|
|
|
1786
|
Burns: Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, Kilmarnock ed.
|
|
1787
|
|
|
1788
|
Blake: All Religions are One [with There is No Natural Religion]--against
Deism, which preached knowledge of God through sensible evidence in the natural
world as opposed to the Bible. Blake describes the senses as a prison,
limiting human understanding which ought to go beyond mere sense-able evidence.
b. George Gordon, Lord Byron
|
Storming of Bastille, July 14: Start of the Revolutionary Period in France.
|
1789
|
Blake: Songs of Innocence; Book of Thel
|
|
1790
|
|
|
1791
|
W. in France with Annette Vallon
|
"September Massacres" of the imprisoned nobility in France.
|
1792
|
Annette births a baby, Caroline; W. back to England
|
King Louis XVI executed with his family.
England joins alliance against France.
Beginning of Reign of Terror under Robespierre.
|
1793
|
Wm. Godwin, Inquiry Concerning Political Justice foretelling peaceful evolution of society wherein property is equally distributed and government withers away.
Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, stressing contraries as necessary; using irony too.
|
Reign of Terror ended already! Good expediency.
|
1794
|
Anne Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho
William Godwin: Caleb Williams, a Novel of Purpose (didactic) combined with a Gothic plot
Blake: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
STC meets Robt. Southey; plan to go to PA to establish a Pantisocracy
(a kind of communistic community) but the plan never comes to pass.
|
|
1795
|
STC
marries Sara Fricker, an aftermath of the Pantisocracy scheme (in which,
in order to multiply the species, all men had to be married) but not really
out of love. However, they are out of love. Isn't it ironic?
|
|
1796
|
W. marries Mary Hutchinson.
|
|
1797
|
Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk
|
Considered the first year of the Romantic Period.
|
1798
|
Wm. Hazlitt goes to hear STC preach as a Unitarian
STC nearly accepts a post as a Unitarian minister, rejecting the Trinity,
but gets an annuity from the 2 sons of the pottery guy Wedgwood of 150 lb.
Anonymous [but really W. and STC] Lyrical Ballads 1st Ed.
W. goes to Germany with STC; STC studies Kant there, which affected his philosophical thinking.
|
|
1799
|
W. back from Germany
W. moved to Grasmere, in the Lake District
STC falls in love with Sara Hutchinson, Mary H. Wordsworth's sister.
|
|
1800
|
STC also moved to the Lake District, at Greta Hall, Keswick, 13 mi. from W
LB second ed. with first appearance of the Preface and adding "The Ruined Cottage"
STC begins taking much heavier doses of laudanum to help with his rheumatism; gets hooked.
|
|
1801
|
STC
writes that the mind is "not passive" but instead "made in God's image, and
that too in the sublimest sense--the image of the Creator."
|
|
1802
|
Expanded version of the Preface of LB--its 3rd Ed.
Start of the Edinburgh Review, the first modern periodical, with high literary standards and good pay to its writers.
W. comes into his inheritance and marries Mary Hutchinson
|
|
1803
|
|
Napoleon crowned Emperor. . .by himself!
|
1804
|
STC to Malta for health
|
|
1805
|
|
|
1806
|
STC back from Malta, worse than ever, dependent on laudanum.
|
|
1807
|
|
|
1808
|
Probable date of the composition of STC's Lectures on Shakespeare
|
|
1809
|
|
|
1810
|
W and STC quarrel and are alienated.
|
Beginning
of Regency period: George, Prince of Wales, acts as Regent for Loopy
George III, villain of the American Revolution.
Regency is known, for the rich, as a time of lavish display and moral laxity (Norton 4)
|
1811
|
|
|
1812
|
STC: Remorse, a drama, plays for 20 nights at the Drury Lane.
Death of two of W's children
Byron: Childe Harold, cantos 1 and 2
|
|
1813
|
|
|
1814
|
Scott, Waverley--(anonymously)--a "romance" and historical novel. See the introduction for his nods to other genres.
W. publishes "The Ruined Cottage" at last, as part 1 of The Excursion
|
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo.
|
1815
|
|
|
1816
|
|
|
1817
|
STC, Cybelline Leaves. The glosses added to "Mariner"
STC, Bibliographia Literaria
d. Jane Austen
Mary W. Shelley, Frankenstein
|
|
1818
|
Byron begins Don Juan
|
"Peterloo Massacre"
|
1819
|
|
End of Regency period with George III's death.
Beginning of George IV's reign.
|
1820
|
Thos. Love Peacock, "The Four Ages of Poetry"
|
|
1821
|
|
|
1822
|
d. Shelley, by drowning, along with Jane Williams
|
|
1823
|
|
|
1824
|
d. Byron, of fevers, while training Greek solidiers in a war of independence from the Turks.
|
|
1825
|
|
|
1826
|
|
|
1827
|
|
|
1828
|
STC and W reconciled, tour the Rhineland together. Kind of an Abbey Road of walking tours.
|
|
1829
|
|
|
1830
|
|
|
1831
|
|
The
first Reform Bill passed by Parliament: end of the Rotten Boroughs;
vote extended to the upper middle class (i. e. those who had at least 10
pounds of rent coming in to them yearly).
End of the Romantic period.
Beginning of the Victorian Era.
|
1832
|
d. Sir Walter Scott
|
|
1833
|
|
|
1834
|
|
|
1835
|
|
|
1836
|
b. William Schwenck Gilbert
|
End of George IV's reign.
Queen Victoria takes the throne for 61 years (but doesn't finish yet!).
|
1837
|
|
|
1838
|
|
|
1839
|
The Prelude's major effort is finished.
|
|
1840
|
b. Thomas Hardy
|
|
1841
|
Punch humourous periodical first published
|
|
1842
|
|
Repealing
of the licensing act that forbade spoken dialogue ("legitimate theatre")
in any but the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theaters.
|
1843
|
W named Poet Laureate after Southey
|
|
1844
|
|
|
1845
|
|
|
1846
|
|
|
1847
|
|
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
|
1848
|
W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair
|
|
1849
|
|
|
1850
|
d. Wordsworth.
The Prelude published posthumously.
Tennyson made Poet Laureate
Tennyson publishes In Memoriam A.H.H.
|
|
1851
|
|
|
1852
|
|
|
1853
|
|
|
1854
|
|
|
1855
|
|
|
1856
|
b. George Bernard Shaw
|
|
1857
|
b. Joseph Conrad
|
|
1858
|
|
Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species
|
1859
|
|
|
1860
|
|
|
1861
|
|
|
1862
|
|
|
1863
|
|
|
1864
|
|
|
1865
|
b. Yeats
|
|
1866
|
|
|
1867
|
|
|
1868
|
|
|
1869
|
J. S. Mill, The Subjection of Women
|
Education Act passed: Elementary Education and Universal for all children in England.
|
1870
|
|
|
1871
|
|
|
1872
|
|
|
1873
|
|
|
1874
|
|
|
1875
|
|
|
1876
|
|
|
1877
|
W. S. Gilbert, Engaged
|
|
1878
|
|
|
1879
|
|
|
1880
|
|
|
1881
|
W. S. Gilbert, libretto for Patience
|
Married Women's Property Act.
|
1882
|
|
|
1883
|
|
|
1884
|
|
|
1885
|
|
|
1886
|
|
|
1887
|
|
|
1888
|
|
|
1889
|
|
|
1890
|
|
|
1891
|
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles
|
|
1892
|
|
|
1893
|
Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession (Written; perf. 5 yrs later)
|
|
1894
|
|
|
1895
|
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
|
|
1896
|
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
|
|
1897
|
Lady Gregory's manifesto for the Irish Literary Revival
|
|
1898
|
|
Boer War Starts, South Africa.
|
1899
|
|
|
1900
|
|
Death of Queen Victoria.
Beginning of Edwardian period.
|
1901
|
|
Boer War concluded.
|
1902
|
|
|
1903
|
|
|
1904
|
|
|
1905
|
|
|
1906
|
|
|
1907
|
W. S. Gilbert knighted
|
|
1908
|
|
|
1909
|
|
End of Edwardian period.
George V made king.
Start of the Georgian Period.
|
1910
|
|
|
1911
|
d. W. S. Gilbert, saving a young woman from drowning.
|
|
1912
|
Sir Herbert Grierson's edition of Donne. Enthusiasm for 17th Century metaphysical poetry.
|
|
1913
|
|
Start of WWI
|
1914
|
|
|
1915
|
|
|
1916
|
|
|
1917
|
|
The End of WWI
|
1918
|
Lytton Strachey: Eminent Victorians. Ironic debunking of Victorianism.
|
|
1919
|
|
The 1920s were a period of depression and unemployment following WWI.
|
1920
|
|
|
1921
|
TSE's intro to Grierson.
|
End of Georgian period.
|
1922
|
TSE, "The Waste Land," about a garbage dump of the mind.
|
|
1923
|
|
|
1924
|
d. Joseph Conrad
|
|
1925
|
|
|
1926
|
|
|
1927
|
|
|
1928
|
d. Thomas Hardy
|
|
1929
|
I. A. Richards, Practical Criticism
|
The 1930s were a "Red Decade," influenced by
Nazism, Fascism, and general leftist pressure.
|
1930
|
William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity
|
|
1931
|
|
|
1932
|
|
|
1933
|
|
|
1934
|
|
|
1935
|
|
Spanish Civil War begins
|
1936
|
|
|
1937
|
|
|
1938
|
|
Beginning of WWII--Hitler's pact with Russia.
|
1939
|
d. Yeats, at 74 years of age.
|
|
1940
|
DDO born
|
|
1941
|
|
|
1942
|
|
|
1943
|
|
The end of WWII
|
1944
|
SHO born
|
|
1945
|
|
|
1946
|
|
India gains independence
|
1947
|
|
|
1948
|
|
|
1949
|
|
|
1950
|
d. George Bernard Shaw
|
|
1951
|
|
|
1952
|
|
|
1953
|
|
|
1954
|
|
|
1955
|
|
|
1956
|
|
Barthes, Mythologies
|
1957
|
|
|
1958
|
|
|
1959
|
|
|
1960
|
|
South African independence.
|
1961
|
|
|
1962
|
|
|
1963
|
|
|
1964
|
|
|
1965
|
|
Derrida, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences"
|
1966
|
|
Derrida: Speech and Phenomena, Of Grammatology, and Writing and Difference
|
1967
|
|
Barthes, "The Death of the Author"
|
1968
|
|
|
1969
|
|
|
1970
|
CJO born Feb. 2, amid great rejoicing.
|
|
1971
|
Amy Chen born
|
|
1972
|
|
Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
|
1973
|
|
|
1974
|
|
|
1975
|
|
|
1976
|
JSO born
|
|
1977
|
|
|
1978
|
|
|
1979
|
|
|
1980
|
|
|
1981
|
|
|
1982
|
|
|
1983
|
|
|
1984
|
|
|
1985
|
|
|
1986
|
|
|
1987
|
|
|
1988
|
|
|
1989
|
|
|
1990
|
|
|
1991
|
|
|
1992
|
|
|
1993
|
|
|
1994
|
|
|
1995
|
|
|
1996
|
|
|
1997
|
|
|
1998
|
|
|
1999
|
|