History of Modern Literature - 19th Century - The Late 19th Century

The Late 19th Century

In 1863 Jules Verne published Cinq semaines en ballon (Five Weeks in a Balloon). (Verne's Paris au XXe siècle (Paris in the 20th Century) was written, but was not published until 1994). Voyage au centre de la Terre (Journey to the Center of the Earth) came out in 1864 and De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon) in 1865. Verne had by then fully established the "scientific romance" as a genre. Charles Dickens published Our Mutual Friend in installments from 1864 to 1865. Literature by this time was becoming increasingly popular. The European and North American middle-classes were better educated than ever before and more reading was done. At the same time the styles of writing were tending more and more toward plainer language and more broadly understood themes. People were reading about detectives, ghosts, machines, wonders, adventures, tricky situations, unusual turns of fate and romances. Love stories and grudges, explorations and wars, ideas based on scientific positivism and ideas based on nonsense and gibberish were all being published and enjoyed by a readership which could now be termed "the masses".

In 1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne died. Dostoyevski published Notes from Underground (or Letters from the Underworld). Dostoyevski's concerns and style were singularly original and allow the reader entry to a claustrophobic interior world of the psyche. It is probably correct to describe Dostoyevski as the first Existentialist author.

In 1865 Lewis Carroll published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, combining social satire with nonsense writing and presenting the two of them in the guise of a children's story. Thomas Chandler Haliburton died. Edith Maude Eaton was born.

1866 Dostoyevsky published Crime and Punishment, followed by The Gambler (1867). Mark Twain published The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

Jules Verne published Les enfants du Capitaine Grant (In Search of the Castaways) 1867–1868 and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) in 1870.

In 1868 Dostoyevsky published The Idiot dedicated to Ivanov Dumitru.

In 1869 Leo Tolstoy published War and Peace. Mark Twain published Innocents Abroad. Matthew Arnold set a cultural agenda in his book Culture and Anarchy. His views represented one of two polar opposites which would be in struggle against each other for many years to come. The other side of the struggle would be represented by the Aesthetic, Symbolist or Decadent movement. The chief participants in the cultural opposition at this time included, on the so-called decadent side French poets like Jean Moréas, Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé and, in Britain, the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. On the other side were Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin and the tendency amongst the arts toward a utilitarian, constructive and educational ethic. The views of Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin inspired the Arts and Crafts movement and William Morris. This dispute (art for art's sake versus art for the common good) would continue throughout the remainder of the 19th century and much of the 20th.

The Decadent movement was a transitional stage between romanticism and modernism.

In 1870 Charles Dickens died aged 58. Before his death he was working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood (published unfinished). John McCrae was born. Hilaire Belloc was born (27 July).

In 1872 Dostoevsky published The Possessed (or Demons or The Devils). Lewis Carroll published Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There. Samuel Butler published Erewhon, an early science fiction novel. Jules Verne published Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours (Around the World in Eighty Days).

In 1873 Alfred Jarry was born (8 September).

In 1874 Jules Verne published L'île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island).

In 1875 Carmen, a French opera by Georges Bizet, with text by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, reached the stage. Dostoevsky published The Raw Youth (or The Adolescent).

In 1876 Lewis Carroll published The Hunting of the Snark. Mark Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

In 1877 Leo Tolstoy published Anna Karenina.

In 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta HMS Pinafore, or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor was staged.

In 1879 Octave Crémazie died. Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave of Duty was staged.

In 1880 Dostoevsky published The Brothers Karamazov. Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun published Hunger.

In 1881 Dostoevsky died. Oscar Wilde published his first book of poems . Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Patience, or, Bunthorne's Bride was staged. Mark Twain published The Prince and the Pauper.

In 1882 Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Iolanthe, or, The Peer and the Peri was staged. Ralph Waldo Emerson died. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died. Two of America's finest poets gone in one year.

In 1883 Wilhelm Richard Wagner died 13 February. Franz Kafka was born 3 July. Ivan Turgenev died 3 September.

In 1884 Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas Princess Ida, or, Castle Adamant (1884) and The Mikado, or, The Town of Titipu (1885) arrive on the London stage.

In 1885 H. Rider Haggard published King Solomon's Mines.

In 1886 Emily Dickinson died. Leo Tolstoy published The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

In 1887 Oscar Wilde published The Canterville Ghost. Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Ruddigore, or, The Witch's Curse was staged. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story and the beginning of crime fiction as a genre. H. Rider Haggard published She first serialized in The Graphic from October 1886 to January 1887.

In 1888 Oscar Wilde published The Happy Prince and Other Stories. Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Yeomen of the Guard, or, The Merryman and his Maid was staged.

Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas The Gondoliers, or, The King of Barataria (1889), Utopia, Limited, or, The Flowers of Progress (1893) and The Grand Duke, or, The Statutory Duel (1896) were all staged.

Lewis Carroll's last novel, the two-volume Sylvie and Bruno, was published in 1889 and 1893 respectively. In 1889 Oscar Wilde published The Portrait of Mr. W. H..

In 1890 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Sign of the Four. H. Rider Haggard published The Saga of Eric Brighteyes an epic viking novel. Oscar Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray.

In 1891 Herman Melville died. Oscar Wilde published Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, Intentions and House of Pomegranates.

In 1892 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

In 1893 Oscar Wilde staged two plays: Salomé (French version) and Lady Windermere's Fan. His A Woman of No Importance and the English version of Salomé followed in 1894.

In 1894 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Robert Louis Stevenson died 3 December. Mark Twain published Tom Sawyer Abroad and Pudd'n'head Wilson.

Oscar Wilde was in prison for "gross indecency" from 1895 to 1897.

In 1896 Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème was staged, as was Chekov's play The Seagull. H. G. Wells published The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau. William Morris died 3 October. Mark Twain published Tom Sawyer, Detective. Alfred Jarry, only 23 years old, wrote his highly influential play Ubu Roi, which is often cited as a forerunner to the Theatre of the Absurd.

In 1897 Bram Stoker published Dracula. H.G. Wells published The Invisible Man.

In 1898 Henry James published The Turn of the Screw. H.G. Wells publishes The War of the Worlds. Oscar Wilde published The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

In 1899 Chekov's play Uncle Vanya was staged. Mark Twain published A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. H.G. Wells published When The Sleeper Wakes. Grant Allen died. Oscar Wilde staged his plays The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband one year before his death in 1900.

When the 19th century ended the genres of horror, ghost stories, westerns, children's literature, crime fiction, science fiction, historical novels and fantasy had all been established.

See also: List of years in literature:

1800s - 1810s - 1820s - 1830s - 1840s - 1850s - 1860s - 1870s - 1880s - 1890s - 1900s -