1866 - 1867: Crime and Punishment to Peer Gynt

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Dostoevsky. Russian. 1866. Novel. Crime and Punishment. Rationalizes murder. Conscience works on him. Lacks qualities of amoral superman. Detective waits for the confession he knows is coming. Astute psychological observation and analysis by Dostoevsky.

John Henry Newman. British. 1866. Poetry. “A Dream of Gerontius.” Gerontius makes his last journey to God, carried by his guardian angel through the world of good and evil spirits.

Pierre Loti. French. 1866. Novel. An Iceland Fisherman. Loneliness, bitter struggle between fishermen and the sea off the shores of Iceland.

John Greenleaf Whittier. American. 1866. Poem. Snow Bound. A winter idyll. Memory of being snowed in on his father’s Massachusetts farm.

Henrik Ibsen. Norwegian. 1867. Poetic Drama. Peer Gynt. Boastful, capricious, irresponsible Peer has no personality, no true self. Saved by someone in whose mind he existed as a real personality.

1865 - 1866: Rhoda Fleming to Letters from my Windmill.

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

George Meredith. British. 1865. Novel. Rhoda Fleming. Sister defends guilty sister who has been seduced and deserted.

Henrik Ibsen. Norwegian. 1866. Play. Rosmersholm. Rosmer’s lover Rebecca implies that she encouraged Rosmer’s insane wife to commit suicide. Rosmer and Rebecca, because of their past sins, can not live together so they both agree to commit suicide together.

Herman Melville. American. 1866. Poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War. 72 poems. Elegiac, not vengeful. Deplores human suffering. Does not celebrate the martial spirit.

George Eliot. British. 1866. Novel. Felix Holt the Radical. Ardent young man of strong social convictions lives among lower classes; accused of murder. Set against man who acts like a radical but isn’t. Esther must choose between them.

Alphonse Daudet. French. 1866. Stories. Letters from My Windmill. Depicts country life in Provence with skill and sympathy.

1865: "O Captain! My Captain!" to "Commemoration Ode."

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Walt Whitman. American. 1865. Poetry. “O Captain! My Captain!” Commemorates the death of Abraham Lincoln.

Mark Twain. American. 1865. Story. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” Dose of quail shot keeps Smiley’s frog, Dan’l Webster, from out jumping the stranger’s frog.

Lewis Carroll. British. 1865. Story. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Everything happens with fantastic illogicality. White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, Mock Turtle, the Mad Hatter, etc.

Mary Mapes Dodge. American. 1865. Story. “Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates.” Hero is Dutch boy. Interesting picture of life in Holland. Children’s story.

James Russell Lowell. American. 1865. Poetry. “Commemoration Ode.” In honor of the Harvard students who had died in the Civil War. Added lines in honor of Lincoln.

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.

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.

1862 - 1863: Salambo to "Boston Hymn."

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Gustave Flaubert. French. 1862. Novel. Salambo. Set in ancient Carthage. Traveled to Tunisia before writing. Precise, accurate documentation.

George Eliot. British. 1863. Novel. Romola. After marriage to a hedonistic man, Romola, a Florentine woman, comes under the influence of Savonarola and finds peace.

Longfellow. American. 1863. Poetry. Tales of a Wayside Inn. Structure modeled on the Canterbury Tales and the Decameron. Tales reflect Longfellow’s interest in the Middle Ages.

Charles Kingsley. British. 1863. Fantasy. The Water-Babies, a Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby. Adventures of a chimney sweep who falls into the river and is transformed into a miniature merman.

Emerson. American. 1863. Poetry. “Boston Hymn.” Celebrates freedom, denouncing kings and aristocrats. Fervent.

1862: House of the Dead to Fathers and Sons

Chronology of World, British and American Literature

Dostoevsky. Russian. 1861/62. Novel. Nonfiction. The House of the Dead. Life in the Siberian prison. Based on Dostoevsky’s personal experience.

Victor Hugo. French. 1862. Novel. Les Miserables. Peasant steals loaf of bread, escapes from prison, becomes respected citizen fearful of being caught. Battle of Waterloo and flight through the Paris sewers are famous scenes.

George Meredith. British. 1862. Poetry. Modern Love. 50 poems. 16 lines each. Thoughts of married couple who perceive that their love is dying.

Julia Ward Howe. American. 1862. Song. “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” New words for popular Union Army song, “John Brown’s Body.”

Ivan Turgenev. Russian. 1862. Novel. Fathers and Sons. Portrays conflicts between older aristocratic generation, new democratic intelligentsia. Russia in the 1860s.