1855: Hiawatha to Little Dorrit

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Henry W. Longfellow. American. 1855. Narrative Poetry. Hiawatha. Ojibway Indian reared by grandmother. Deeds in revenging mother against father, West Wind. Parodied mercilessly.

Robert Browning. British. 1855. Poetry. “Rabbi Ben Ezra.” Poem on old age. One of the most distinguished Jewish literati in the Middle Ages.

Herman Melville. American. 1855. Satiric Novel. Israel Potter or, Fifty Years of Exile. Time of the Revolutionary War. Meets Ben Franklin, John Paul Jones and Ethan Allen. His personality is a mixture of the faults and virtues of the three heroes. Archetypal American, taken prisoner by the British and exiled for 50 years. Returns home to die. Melville suggests that the only hope for America lies in the pioneering West.

Thackeray. British. 1855. Novel. The Newcomes. Three generations. Love triangle finally resolved happily.

Charles Dickens. British. 1855/57. Novel. Little Dorrit. Father, daughters spend lives in prison for debt. Father becomes wealthy, as insufferable in wealth as he was obsequious in debt. Amy, Little Dorrit, remains unchanged by changes in circumstances. Circumlocution Office. Dickens attacks bureaucratic inefficiency and the practice of imprisonment for debt.

1855: Leaves of Grass to "Fra Lippo Lippi"

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Walt Whitman. American. 1855. Poetry. Leaves of Grass. “The United States are the greatest poem.” Celebrates common people; poet must incarnate spirit and geography of the U.S. Takes his title from the themes of fertility, universality, cyclical life.

Leo Tolstoy. Russian. 1855. Stories. Sevastopol Sketches. Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War; departure from the usual war descriptions. Showed war not as heroic and glorious, but dangerous, tedious, bloody horror. Used stream of consciousness technique. Internal monologue. The “hero” of his stories = “truth.”

Walt Whitman. American. 1855. Poetry. Song of Myself. Encompassing all, gives everything significance; equality and beauty of all things and people. Catalogues. Poet of wickedness as well as grandeur; dissolves into the universe.

John Greenleaf Whittier. American. 1855. Poetry. “The Barefoot Boy.” Joy of a country childhood.

Robert Browning. British. 1855. Poetry. “Fra Lippo Lippi.” Monologue. Painter in Florence gives his autobiography, views on life and art.

1854: Walden to "Maud Muller."

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Henry D. Thoreau. American. 1854. Nonfiction. Walden, or, Life in the Woods. The “mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Lived at Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847. His aim was to “front only the essential facts of life.” He wanted to emancipate himself from slavery to material possessions. He described his observation and habits at Walden Pond; he watched the seasons unfold. He urges that life be simplified so that its meaning may become clear.

Timothy Shay Arthur. American. 1854. Story. “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There.” Melodramatic temperance tale. “Father, dear father, come home with me now.” Little Mary’s song at the saloon door.

William Gilmore Simms. American. 1854. Novel. Woodcraft, or The Sword and the Distaff. Set in Charleston South Carolina, during 1782. Withdrawal of British troops is the chief historical event. Captain Porgy rescues the slaves from the scheming British officers. It was the author’s answer to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Alfred Lord Tennyson. British. 1854. Poetry. “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Famous death charge of the 600 at Balaclava in the Crimea on October 25, 1854. The British charged the Russian lines.

John Greenleaf Whittier. American. 1854. Narrative Poetry. “Maud Muller.” Wealthy judge and a rustic beauty meet. They lament that they married someone else more “suitable.”

1853: "Sohrab and Rustum" to Tanglewood Tales

Chronology of Western, British and American Literature

Matthew Arnold. British. 1853. Poetry. “Sohrab and Rustum.” Father and son meet in individual combat, unaware of their relationship.

Herman Melville. American. 1853. Story. “Bartleby the Scrivener.” Lawyer hires Bartleby to copy, proofread legal documents. He eventually refuses to make any effort or to leave. “I should prefer not to.”

Elizabeth Gaskell. British. 1853. Story. “Cranford.” Peaceful little English village with mainly ladies who practice elegant economy and quaint social decorum.

Matthew Arnold. British. 1853. Poetry. “The Scholar-Gypsy.” Scholar wanders off from Oxford to learn the gypsy traditions.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. American. 1853. Myths. Tanglewood Tales. Six Greek myths. Themes: revenge, effects of time, strange transformations.

1852 - 1853: Blithedale Romance to Villette

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Nathaniel Hawthorne. American. 1852. Novel. The Blithedale Romance. Intellectual woman loses man to cuddly, clingy, pretty girl. Setting is a Utopian farm.

Herman Melville> American. 1852. Novel. Pierre, or the Ambiguities. In the pursuit of truth, author causes the deaths of his mother, fiancée and sister.

Wm. Makepeace Thackeray. British. 1852. Historical Novel. The History of Henry Esmond, Esquire. Tangled plot. Henry Esmond thinks he is illegitimate; actually, he is the lawful heir to the Esmond estate.

Leo Tolstoy. Russian. 1852/54/57. Autobiography. Childhood, Boyhood and Youth. Trilogy. Descriptions of life on provincial estate; among best depictions of nature in Russian literature.

Charlotte Bronte. British 1853. Novel. Villette. English girl teaches at a girls’ boarding school; secret love for a doctor. Recognizes true destiny with embittered headmaster, to whom she becomes engaged.

1852: "Days" to Camille

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Ralph Waldo Emerson. American. 1852. Poetry. “Days.” “He is only rich who owns the day.”

Ivan Turgenev. Russian. 1852. Stories. A Sportsman’s Sketches. Life on typical great feudal estates in Russia; fictional narrator rambles through the countryside. Sympathetic to peasants, explicit condemnation of landowners. Serfdom abolished ten years after publication.

Harriet Beecher Stowe. American. 1852. Novel. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly. Trials, suffering and human dignity of Uncle Tom; setting is Kentucky and Louisiana. Admiration for best Southern gentility; villain is a Vermonter.

Charles Dickens. British. 1852. Novel. Bleak House. Attacks the delays and archaic absurdities of the courts. Litigation uses up all the money.

Alexandre Dumas, fils. French. 1852. Play. Camille. Beautiful courtesan scorns wealthy protector and escapes with her penniless lover. Gives him up at the request of his family. Tragic reunion of lover and the dying Camille.

1850 - 1851: "The Blessed Damosel" to Lavengro

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. British. 1850. Poetry. “The Blessed Damosel.” Longing of lover in heaven for her lover on earth.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. American. 1850. Novel. The Scarlet Letter. Theme: All men are guilty of secret sin; invasion of another’s soul is the unpardonable sin.

Herman Melville. American. 1851. Novel. Moby-Dick, or The Whale. The whale hunted by Ahab at the cost of his dehumanization and sacrifice of his crew. Does the whale = knowledge of reality? Symbolic study of good and evil? Too complex for one definition.

Nathaniel Hawthorne. American. 1851. Novel. The House of the Seven Gables. Curse affects generations of family. Weight of past guilt. Unpardonable sin: violate another’s soul.

George Borrow. British. 1851. Novel. Lavengro: The Scholar, Gypsy, Priest. Philologist wanders with a family of gypsies.