1864 - 1865: Our Mutual Friend to Atalanta in Calydon.

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Charles Dickens. British. 1864. Novel. Our Mutual Friend. Will receive an inheritance if he marries a woman he has never met. Under an assumed name, he falls in love with and marries her. “Dust, deceit and death fill the novel.”

Tennyson. British. 1864. Poetry. Enoch Arden. Seaman wrecked on a desert island returns home to find his wife married to another. Dies of a broken heart.

Robert Browning. British. 1864. Poetry. Prospice. Written after his wife’s death. Optimistic and courageous attitude toward death.

Tolstoy. Russian. 1864/69. Novel. War and Peace. Accurate portrait of the entire Russian nation. Covers the years 1805 – 1820, centering on the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in 1812. 500 characters. Every social level. Main characters progress from youthful uncertainty to the more mature understanding of life. Alternate chapters: Narratives of the characters’ lives and essays on the war.

Charles Algernon Swinburne. British. 1965. Play. Atalanta in Calydon. Based on the Greek legend of Atalanta and the Calydonian boar hunt. She is a swift runner who will marry only someone swifter than she. She is delayed when her suitor drops golden apples which she stops to pick up. Hymn to Artemis.