1842 - 1843: "Pied Piper of Hamelin" to The Cry of the Children

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Robert Browning. British. 1842. Poetry. “Pied Piper of Hamelin.” Piper lures rats to drowning. When not paid, he lures children, who vanish.

Dickens. British. 1842. Travel. American Notes. Travel sketches. Gave great offense in U.S. Harsh, patronizing observations.

Edgar Allan Poe. American. 1843. Story. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Buries dismembered victim. While police search, hears beating of dead man’s heart. In a frenzy, he confesses to the killing; ticking was the dead man’s watch.

Dickens. British. 1843. Story. “A Christmas Carol.” Conversion of Scrooge by visions of Christmases past, present and to come. Becomes benevolent, loving.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. British. 1843. Poetry. The Cry of the Children. Intense sympathy for victims of child labor in English mines and factories.

1842: "The Pit and the Pendulum" to "Locksley Hall"

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Edgar Allan Poe. American. 1842. Story. “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Condemned by the Inquisition, the narrator narrowly escapes death.

George Sand. British. 1842. Novel. Consuelo. Gypsy girl raised in the streets of Venice becomes successful opera singer.

Tennyson. British. 1842. Poetry. “Break, Break, Break.” Inspired by the death of his friend Arthur Hallam.

Eugene Sue. French. 1842. Romance. The Mysteries of Paris. Kaleidoscope of life in Paris.

Tennyson. British. 1842. Poetry. “Locksley Hall.” Last look at youthful home where his lover married rich clown because of social, parental pressure.

1841: Emerson's Essays to Lays of Ancient Rome

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Emerson. American. 1841/44. Essays. Essays, First and Second Series. First: “Self-reliance”; “Compensation”; “The Over-Soul.” Second: “Poet”; “Manners”; “Gifts”; “Nature”; “Politics.”

Robert Browning. British. 1842. Poetry. “My Last Duchess.” Renaissance Duke suggests that his wife died because she did not appreciate the honor of marrying him.

Nikolay Gogol. Russian. 1842. Story. “The Overcoat.” Major development in Russian realism. Poor copyist loves his new overcoat. He is robbed, dies heartbroken. Outbreak of overcoat robberies follows his death. His ghost?

Nikolay Gogol. Russian. 1842. Novel. Dead Souls. Archswindler Pavel Chichikov. “Buys” serfs who have died since last census. Was Gogol a realist or fantasist?

Thomas Babington Macaulay. British. 1842. Ballads. Lays of Ancient Rome. Chief ballads are “Horatius,” “The Battle of Lake Regillus,” and “Virginia.”

1841: "The Wreck of the Hesperus" to "Self-Reliance"

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Longfellow. American. 1841. Poetry. “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” Inspired by a newspaper account of an actual wreck at sea.

Edgar Allan Poe. American. 1841. Story. “Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Mother, daughter brutally murdered in crime that baffles police. Poe’s detective is C. Auguste Dupuin.

James F. Cooper. American. 1841. Novel. The Deerslayer. Natty Bumppo’s youth. Lake Otsego. Delaware Indians. Fight Hurons. Resists romance. Chingachgook enters.

Robert Browning. British. 1841. Verse Drama. Pippa Passes. Pippa’s song alters the destiny of those who hear her.

Emerson. American. 1841. Essay. “Self-Reliance.” Some of the best-known epigrammatic sentences: trust your own judgment.

1840 - 1841: The Pathfinder to "Compensation."

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

James F. Cooper. American. 1840. Novel. The Pathfinder, Or the Inland Sea. Lake Ontario. French and Indian Wars. Natty Bumppo disappointed in love.

Ralph W. Emerson. American. 1841. Essay. “The Oversoul.” Concept of primal mind, cosmic unity of which all men partake. Keystone of Emerson’s philosophic thought.

Balzac. French. 1841. Novels. La Comedie Humaine (The Human Comedy). The name Balzac gave to the whole body of his work. France seen from a variety of perspectives. 2000 characters. Areas of study: manners (Parisian, country, political, military); philosophy and marriage.

Dickens. British. 1841. Novel. Barnaby Rudge. Anti-Catholic Gordon Riots, 1780. Cause: Government ignores the needs of the poor. Barnaby’s father is a murderer.

Emerson. American. 1841. Essay. “Compensation.” Every evil is balanced by a good. No need for an afterlife.

1840: Two Years Before the Mast to Poe's Tales....

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. American. 1840. Narrative. Two Years Before the Mast. Brutality of a ship’s captain and the sailors’ lack of redress. Aroused public opinion and led to legal action; influenced Melville and Conrad.

Robert Browning. British. 1840. Poetry. Sordello. Southern Europe in the 13^th century; poet’s dilemma: action or song. Tennyson: Poem is obscure. Only understood first and last lines and they are not true.

Dickens. British. 1840. Novel. The Old Curiosity Shop. The adventures of Little Nell who accompanies her grandfather, an obsessive gambler, after he has lost the Curiosity Shop because of gambling.

Mikhail Lermontov. Russian. 1840. Novel. A Hero of Our Time. Young aristocrat in the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, in the 1830s. Serve the state or remain inactive? Aimless willfulness is threat to all he touches. Character of the superfluous man. Psychological analysis.

Edgar Allan Poe. American. 1840. Stories. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. First book of tales. Based tales on the terror of the soul, not German Gothicism.

1839: "The Village Blacksmith" to The Green Mountain Boys

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

HW Longfellow. American. 1839. Poetry. “The Village Blacksmith.” Describes a New England smithy.

Stendahl. French. 1839. Historical Novel. The Charterhouse of Parma. Post-Napoleonic era. Remarkable analysis of romanticism. From Waterloo to Carthusian monastery.

Ralph Waldo Emerson. American. 1839. Poetry. “Each and All.” Seashore walk. Expression of faith in the oneness of the universe. All parts interdependent.

Edgar Allan Poe. American. 1839. Story. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Sister, supposedly dead, reappears in bloody shroud. Brother, sister fall dead together. House splits.

Daniel Pierce Thompson. American. 1839. Novel. The Green Mountain Boys. Vivid picture of Revolutionary times in Vermont. Central character is Ethan Allen.