1863 - 1864: "Barbara Frietchie" to Notes from the Underground.

Chronology of World, British and American Literature.

John Greenleaf Whittier. American. 1863. Poetry. “Barbara Frietchie.” Fictional encounter between Barbara Frietchie, 96, and Stonewall Jackson. Displayed the Union flag. He orders that she not be harmed.

Abraham Lincoln. American. 1863. Emancipation Proclamation. Freed the slaves in the South, but not in the border states nor in territory under U.S. military occupation.

Abraham Lincoln. American. 1863. Speech. “Gettysburg Address.” November 19. Dedication of a national cemetery. Moving, eloquent statement of the American creed.

Leo Tolstoy. Russian. 1863. Novel. The Cossacks. Tried of life in civilized society, hero attempts to find happiness among wild, free Cossacks of the Caucasus.

Dostoevsky. Russian. 1864. Story. Notes from the Underground. Complex psychological portrait of the narrator; polemic against positivist philosophy, rationality of man and the possibility of social betterment through material progress. Narrator embodies the irrationality he insists is the essence of man. Starting point of Dostoevsky’s literary maturity.