1845 - 1846: "How They Brought the Good News...." to The Double

Chronology of World, British and American Literature.

Robert Browning. British. 1845. Ballad. “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.” Onomatopoeic effects. Describes purely imaginary incident.

James Fenimore Cooper. American. 1845/46. Novel. The Littlepage Manuscripts. New York anti-rent controversy. Crisis in democracy. If contracts could be broken by mob rule, democracy would turn to anarchy. Sided with the landlords. Politics overcomes art in these novels.

Herman Melville. American. 1846. Novel. Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. Sailors jump ship and wander into the Valley of Typee, inhabited by cannibals. Tempted to enjoy a somnolent vegetative existence, an American returns to civilization.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. American. 1846. Stories. Mosses from an Old Manse. Contains “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Birthmark,” and "Rappaccini’s Daughter.”

Dostoevsky. Russian. 1846. Novel. The Double. A double appears in the life of an ineffectual civil servant, Golyadkin. Opposite personality. Golyadkin ends up a madman.