-
1982
Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off opens in London's West end 1992
English poet Thom Gunn's The Man with Night Sweats deals openly with AIDS 2000
The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials -
1930
English author W.H. Auden's first collection of poetry is published with the simple title Poems
1933
H.G. Wells publishes The Shape of Things to Come, a novel in which he accurately predicts a renewal of world war
1939
W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood emigrate together to the USA, later becoming US citizens
c. 1955
Kingsley Amis and other young writers in Britain become known as Angry Young Men -
1926
Patrick Abercrombie publishes The Preservation of Rural England, calling for rural planning to prevent the encroachment of towns 1927
Henry Williamson wins a wide readership with Tarka the Otter, a realistic story of the life and death of an otter in Devon 1928
Caribbean-born author Jean Rhys publishes her first novel, Postures, based on her affair with the writer Ford Madox Ford 1929
Richard Hughes publishes his first novel, A High Wind in Jamaica -
1921
Somerset Maugham's short story 'Rain 1922
John Galsworthy publishes his novels about the Forsyte family as a joint collection under the title The Forsyte Saga 1923
The gentleman detective Lord Peter Wimsey makes his first appearance in Dorothy Sayers 1924
EM Forster's novel A Passage to India builds on cultural misconceptions between the British and Indian 1925
English writer Ivy Compton-Burnett finds her characteristic voice in her second novel Pastors and Masters -
1916
Robert Graves publishes his first book of poems, Over the Brazier 1917
Jeeves and Bertie Wooster make their first appearance in P.G. Wodehouse's The Man with Two Left Feet 1918
Lytton Strachey fails to show conventional respect to four famous Victorians in his influential 1919
In The Economic Consequences of the Peace Maynard Keynes publishes a strong 1920
Sapper's patriotic hero makes his first appearance, taking on the villainous Carl Peterson in Bull-dog Drummond -
1914
James Joyce's novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man begins serial publication in a London journal, The Egoist After years of delay James Joyce's Dubliners, a collection of short stories, is published American-born poet Thomas Stearns Eliot crosses the Atlantic to England, making it his home for the rest of his life 1915
Somerset Maugham publishes his semi-autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage The English writer Virginia Woolf publishes her first novel, The Voyage Out -
1912
Ludwig Wittgenstein moves to Cambridge to study philosophy under Bertrand Russell Walter De la Mare establishes his reputation with the title poem of his collection The Listeners 1913
The first issue of the New Statesman is published by Beatrice and Sidney Webb Compton Mackenzie publishes the first volume of his autobiographical novel Sinister Street Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell complete a work of mathematical logic, Principia Mathematica -
1911
D.H. Lawrence's career as a writer is launched with the publication of his first novel, The White Peacock Rupert Brooke publishes Poems, the only collection to appear before his early death in World War I G.K. Chesterton's clerical detective makes his first appearance in The Innocence of Father Brown In a German Pension is New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield's first collection of stories -
1910
In his poem Cargoes John Masefield compares a 'dirty British coaster' with two romantic boats from the past John Buchan publishes Prester John, the first of his adventure stories H.G. Wells publishes The History of Mr Polly, a novel about an escape from drab everyday existence Rudyard Kipling publishes If, which rapidly becomes his most popular poem among the British E.M. Forster publishes Howard's End, his novel about the Schlegel sisters and the Wilcox family -
1908
Rat, Mole and Toad, in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, appeal to a wide readership The Welsh poet W.H. Davies has a success with The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, his account of life on the road and in dosshouses 1909
The heroine of H.G. Wells' novel Ann Veronica is a determined example of the New Woman -
1907
J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World provokes violent reactions at its Dublin premiere Edmund Gosse publishes Father and Son, an account of his difficult relationship with his fundamentalist father, Philip Gosse James Joyce completes the 15 short stories eventually published in 1914 as Dubliners -
1906
The first volume of the inexpensive Everyman's Library is issued by Joseph Dent, a London publisher E. Nesbit publishes The Railway Children, the most successful of her books featuring the Bastable family John Galsworthy publishes The Man of Property, the first of his novels chronicling the family of Soames Forsyte -
Bernard Shaw has two new plays opening in London in the same year, Major Barbara and Man and Superman Sir Percy Blakeney rescues aristocrats from the guillotine in Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel
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c. 1905
The Bloomsbury Group gathers for informal evenings at the family home of Virginia and Vanessa Stephens (later Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell) Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, a letter of recrimination written in Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas, is published posthumously H.G. Wells publishes Kipps: the story of a simple soul, a comic novel about a bumbling draper's assistant -
1904
Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Nostromo, about a revolution in South America and a fatal horde of silver Henry James publishes his last completed novel, The Golden Bowl J.M Barrie's play for children Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up has its premiere in London Under the pseudonym Saki, H.H. Munro publishes Reginald, his first volume of short stories -
1903
Erskine Childers has a best-seller in The Riddle of the Sands, a thriller about a planned German invasion of Britain Henry James publishes The Ambassadors, the second of his three last novels written in rapid succession British philosopher G.E. Moore publishes Principia Ethica, an attempt to apply logic to ethics -
Henry James publishes the first of his three last novels, The Wings of the Dove Joseph Conrad publishes a collection of stories including Heart of Darkness, a sinister tale based partly on his own journey up the Congo
-
1902
Rudyard Kipling publishes his Just So Stories for Little Children The play Cathleen ni Houlihan, by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, fosters Irish nationalism The Tale of Peter Rabbit is published commercially, a year after being first printed by Beatrix Potter at her own expense John Masefield's poem 'Sea Fever' is published in Salt-Water Ballads Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles begins publication in serial form -
1899
E. Nesbit publishes The Story of the Treasure Seekers, introducing the Bastable family who feature in several of her books for children 1900
Joseph Conrad publishes his novel Lord Jim about a life of failure and redemption in the far East 1901
Beatrix Potter publishes at her own expense The Tale of Peter Rabbit Rudyard Kipling's experiences of India are put to good use in his novel Kim -
1898
Henry James moves from London to Lamb House in Rye, Sussex, which remains his home for the rest of his life H.G. Wells publishes his science-fiction novel The War of the Worlds, in which Martians arrive in a rocket to invade earth Henry James publishes The Turn of the Screw in a collection of short stories -
1896
English poet A.E. Housman publishes his first collection, A Shropshire Lad 1897
Somerset Maugham publishes his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, based on the London life he has observed as a medical student English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania -
1894
French-born artist and author George du Maurier publishes his novel Trilby Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book surrounds the child Mowgli with a collection of vivid animal guardians -
1892
Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermere's Fan is a great success with audiences in London's St. James Theatre W.B. Yeats founds the National Literary Society in Dublin, with Douglas Hyde as its first president W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords -
Mr Pooter is the suburban anti-hero of the The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith
-
1891
A Gaelic pressure group, the Highland Association, is founded to preserve the indigenous poetry and music of Scotland Oscar Wilde publishes his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly Thomas Hardy publishes his novel Tess of the Durbervilles, with a dramatic finale at Stonehenge -
1889
23-year-old Irish author William Butler Yeats publishes his first volume of poems, The Wanderings of Oisin The Fabian Society publishes Essays in Socialisman influential volume of essays edited by Bernard Shaw 1890
Scottish anthropologist James Frazer publishes The Golden Bough, a massive compilation of contemporary knowledge about ritual and religious custom 9-year-old Daisy Ashford imagines an adult romance and high society in The Young Visiters -
1886
Robert Louis Stevenson introduces a dual personality in his novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Thomas Hardy publishes his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, which begins with the future mayor, Michael Henchard selling his wife and child at a fair Joseph Conrad becomes naturalized as a British subject and continues his career at sea in the far East 1887
Sherlock Holmes features in Conan Doyle's first novel, A Study in Scarlet -
1884
Oxford University Press publishes the A volume of its New English Dictionary, which will take 37 years to reach Z 1885
Explorer and orientalist Richard Burton begins publication of his multi-volume translation from the Arabic of The Arabian Nights -
1878
21-year-old Joseph Conrad, a Polish subject, goes to sea with the British merchant navy 1879
Henry James's story Daisy Miller, about an American girl abroad, brings him a new readership 1881
The Aesthetic Movement and 'art for art's sake', attitudes personified above all by Whistler and Wilde, are widely mocked and satirized in Britain 1883
Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure story, Treasure Island, features Long John Silver and Ben Gunn -
1876
William Gladstone's pamphlet Bulgarian Horrors, protesting at massacre by the Turks, sells 200,000 copies within a month Henry James moves to London, which remains his home for the next 22 years English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins develops a new verse form that he calls 'sprung rhythm' Lewis Carroll publishes The Hunting of the Snark, a poem about a voyage in search of an elusive mythical creature -
1875
After spending much time in Europe in recent years, Henry James moves there permanently and settles first in Paris Henry James's early novel Roderick Hudson is serialized in the Atlantic Monthly and is published in book form in 1876 -
1869
English author Matthew Arnold publishes Culture and Anarchy, an influential collection of essays about contemporary society 1871
George Eliot publishes Middlemarch, in which Dorothea makes a disastrous marriage to the pedantic Edward Casaubon 1872
Lewis Carroll publishes Through the Looking Glass, a second story of Alice's adventures 1874
English author Thomas Hardy has his first success with his novel Far from the Madding Crowd -
1863
English author Charles Kingsley publishes an improving fantasy for young children, The Water-Babies 1865
Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a development of the story he had told Alice Liddell three years earlier 1866
Algernon Swinburne scandalizes Victorian Britain with his first collection, Poems and Ballads 1867
The first volume of Das Kapital is completed by Marx in London and is published in Hamburg -
1860
Charles Dickens begins serial publication of his novel "Great Expectations" (in book form 1861) George Eliot publishes The Mill on the Floss, her novel about the childhood of Maggie and Tom Tulliver 1861
Mrs Henry Wood publishes her first novel, East Lynne, which becomes the basis of the most popular of all Victorian melodramas 1862
Oxford mathematician Lewis Carroll tells 10-year-old Alice Liddell, on a boat trip, a story about her own adventures in Wonderland -
1859
Charles Darwin puts forward the theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, the result of 20 years' research In On Liberty John Stuart Mill makes the classic liberal case for the priority of the freedom of the individual Samuel Smiles provides an inspiring ideal of Victorian enterprise in Self-Help, a manual for ambitious young men Tennyson publishes the first part of Idylls of the King, a series of linked poems about Britain's mythical king Arthur -
Charles Dickens publishes his French Revolution novel, A Tale of Two Cities Edward FitzGerald publishes The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, romantic translations of the work of the Persian poet
-
1859 february
English author George Eliot wins fame with her first full-length novel, Adam Bede -
1854
Within six weeks of the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea, Tennyson publishes a poem finding heroism in the disaster 1855
Tennyson publishes a long narrative poem, Maud, a section of which ('Come into the garden, Maud') becomes famous as a song English author Anthony Trollope publishes The Warden, the first in his series of six Barsetshire novels 1857
In Tom Brown's Schooldays Thomas Hughes depicts the often brutal aspects of an English public school -
1849
Charles Dickens begins the publication in monthly numbers of David Copperfield, his own favourite among his novels 1850
Alfred Tennyson's elegy for a friend, In Memoriam, captures perfectly the Victorian mood of heightened sensibility 1852
London physician Peter Mark Roget publishes his dictionary of synonyms, the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases -
1847
English author William Makepeace Thackeray begins publication of his novel Vanity Fair in monthly parts (book form 1848)
Charlotte becomes the first of the Brontë sisters to have a novel published — Jane Eyre
Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights follows just two months after her sister Charlotte's Jane Eyre 1848
Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë die within a period of eight months -
1845
Friedrich Engels, after running a textile factory in Manchester, publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England 1846
Edward Lear publishes his Book of Nonsense, consisting of limericks illustrated with his own cartoons After marrying secretly, the English poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett go abroad to live in Florence The three Brontë sisters jointly publish a volume of their poems and sell just two copies -
1842
English poet Robert Browning publishes a vivid narrative poem about the terrible revenge of The Pied Piper of Hamelin English author Thomas Babington Macaulay publishes a collection of stirring ballads, Lays of Ancient Rome 1843
Ebenezer Scrooge mends his ways just in time in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol 1844
In his novel Coningsby Benjamin Disraeli develops the theme of Conservatism uniting 'two nations', the rich and the poor -
1824
12-year-old Charles Dickens works in London in Warren's boot-blacking factory 1832
English author Frances Trollope ruffles transatlantic feathers with her Domestic Manners of the Americans, based on a 3-year stay 1836
24-year-old Charles Dickens begins monthly publication of his first work of fiction, Pickwick Papers (published in book form in 1837) 1837
Charles Dickens' first novel, Oliver Twist, begins monthly publication (in book form, 1838) -
1821
English author Thomas De Quincey publishes his autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater English poet John Keats dies in Rome at the age of twenty-five English radical William Cobbett begins his journeys round England, published in 1830 as Rural Rides English author William Hazlitt publishes Table Talk, a two-volume collection that includes most of his best-known essays -
1820
English poet John Keats publishes Ode to a Nightingale, inspired by the bird's song in his Hampstead garden English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes Ode to the West Wind, written mainly in a wood near Florence -
1819
William Cobbett brings back to England the bones of Thomas Paine, who died in the USA in 1809 Byron begins publication in parts of his longest poem, Don Juan an epic satirical comment on contemporary life Walter Scott publishes Ivanhoe, a tale of love, tournaments and sieges at the time of the crusades -
1818
Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes probably his best-known poem, the sonnet Ozymandias Two of Jane Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, are published in the year after her death Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic tale about giving life to an artificial man -
1813
Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published 1818
Percy Bysshe Shelley publishes probably his best-known poem, the sonnet Ozymandias Two of Jane Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, are published in the year after her death Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, a Gothic tale about giving life to an artificial man -
1810
Walter Scott's poem Lady of the Lake brings tourists in unprecedented numbers to Scotland's Loch Katrine 1811
Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from Oxford university for circulating a pamphlet with the title The Necessity of Atheism English author Jane Austen publishes her first work in print, Sense and Sensibility, at her own expense 1812
The first two cantos are published of Byron's largely autobiographical poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bringing him immediate fame -
1798
English poets Wordsworth and Coleridge jointly publish Lyrical Ballads, a milestone in the Romantic movement Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' is published in Lyrical Ballads 1804
William Blake includes his poem 'Jerusalem' in the Preface to his book Milton 1805
Walter Scott publishes The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long romantic poem that first brings him fame -
1794
William Blake's volume Songs of Innocence and Experience includes his poem 'Tyger! Tyger! burning bright' 1795
Thomas Paine publishes his completed Age of Reason, an attack on conventional Christianity 1797
Samuel Taylor Coleridge says that while writing Kubla Khan he is interrupted by 'a person on business from Porlock' -
1791
Scottish poet Robert Burns publishes Tam o' Shanter, in which a drunken farmer has an alarming encounter with witches
Thomas Paine publishes the first part of The Rights of Man, his reply to Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France 1792
English author Mary Wollstonecraft publishes a passionately feminist work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Thomas Paine moves hurriedly to France, to escape a charge of treason in England for opinions expressed in his Rights of Man -
1789
William Blake publishes Songs of Innocence, a volume of his poems with every page etched and illustrated by himself In his Principles Jeremy Bentham defines 'utility' as that which enhances pleasure and reduces pain 1790
Anglo-Irish politician Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, a blistering attack on recent events across the Channel -
1776
English historian Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Scottish economist Adam Smith analyzes the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations 1777
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane theatre -
1770
17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, later hailed as a significant poet, commits suicide in a London garret 1773
Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is produced in London's Covent Garden theatre. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell undertake a journey together to the western islands of Scotland 1774
Encouraged by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine emigrates to America and settles in Philadelphia -
A Society of Gentlemen in Scotland begins publication of the immensely successful Encyclopaedia Britannica
-
English historian Edward Gibbon, sitting among ruins in Rome, conceives the idea of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire English author Horace Walpole provides an early taste of Gothic thrills in his novel Castle of Otranto
-
James Boswell meets Samuel Johnson for the first time, in the London bookshop of Thomas Davies
-
Fingal, supposedly by the medieval poet Ossian, is a forgery in the spirit of the times by James MacPherson
-
Laurence Sterne publishes the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy, beginning with the scene at the hero's conception
-
James Woodforde, an English country parson with a love of food and wine, begins a detailed diary of everyday life
-
Samuel Johnson publishes his magisterial Dictionary of the English Language
-
English poet Thomas Gray publishes his Elegy written in a Country Church Yard
-
Henry Fielding introduces a character of lasting appeal in the lusty but good-hearted Tom Jones
-
Samuel Richardson's Clarissa begins the correspondence that grows into the longest novel in the English language
-
David Hume publishes his Treatise of Human Nature, in which he applies to the human mind the principles of experimental science.
-
Jonathan Swift sends his hero on a series of bitterly satirical travels in Gulliver's Travels
-
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel.
-
Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock introduces a delicate vein of mock-heroic in English poetry.
-
25-year-old George Berkeley attacks Locke in his Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge.
-
The Tatler launches a new style of journalism in Britain's coffee houses, followed two years later by the Spectator
-
The Augustan Age begins in English literature, claiming comparison with the equivalent flowering under Augustus Caesar
-
John Locke publishes his Essay concerning Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience.
-
Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko makes an early protest against the inhumanity of the African slave trade.
-
Samuel Pepys ends his diary, after only writing it for nine years
-
Paradise Lost is published, earning its author John Milton just £10
-
On the first day of the new year Samuel Pepys gets up late, eats the remains of the turkey and begins his diary
-
Devoted fisherman Izaak Walton publishes the classic work on the subject, The Compleat Angler.
-
The poems of Massachusetts author Anne Bradstreet are published in London under the title The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
-
John Milton's Lycidas is published in memory of a Cambridge friend, Edward King
-
George Herbert's only volume of poems, The Temple, is published posthumously
-
John Donne, England's leading Metaphysical poet, becomes dean of St Paul's
-
John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614 William Shakespeare dies at New Place, his home in Stratford-upon-Avon, and is buried in Holy Trinity Church
-
Shakespeare's last completed play, The Tempest, is performed
-
Shakespeare's sonnets, written ten years previously, are published
-
The satirical voice of the English playwright Ben Jonson is heard to powerful effect in Volpone
-
Ben Jonson writes The Masque of Blackness, the first of his many masques for the court of James I.
-
James I commissions the Authorized version of the Bible, which is completed by forty-seven scholars in seven years William Shakespeare's name appears among the actors in a list of the King's Men
-
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age
-
After tentative beginnings in the three parts of Henry VI, Shakespeare achieves his first masterpiece on stage with Richard III.
-
English poet Edmund Spenser celebrates the Protestant Elizabeth I as The Faerie Queene
-
The 18-year-old William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon
-
Thomas Malory, in gaol somewhere in England, compiles Morte d'Arthur – an English account of the French tales of King Arthur
-
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death
-
Chaucer begins an ambitious scheme for 100 Canterbury Tales, of which he completes only 24 by the time of his death
-
Chaucer completes Troilus and Criseyde, his long poem about a legendary love affair in ancient Troy
-
The material of the Eddas, taking shape in Iceland, derives from earlier sources in Norway, Britain and Burgundy
-
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature, mingles the legends of Scandinavia with the experience in England of Angles and Saxons
-
The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people
-
Duns Scotus, known as the Subtle Doctor in medieval times, later provides humanists with the name Dunsman or dunce
-
William of Ockham advocates paring down arguments to their essentials, an approach later known as Ockham's Razor
-
A narrator who calls himself Will, and whose name may be Langland, begins the epic poem of Piers Plowman One of four new yeomen of the chamber in Edward III's household is Geoffrey Chaucer
-
The courtly poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells of a mysterious visitor to the round table of King Arthur
-
Erasmus and Thomas More take the northern Renaissance in the direction of Christian humanism
-
William Tyndale studies in the university at Wittenberg and plans to translate the Bible into English
-
The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer
-
Marlowe and Shakespeare are born in the same year, with Marlowe the older by two months
-
The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, to be followed by the complete Bible in 1588
-
Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama
-
John Heminge and Henry Condell publish thirty-six Shakespeare plays in the First Folio
-
Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, written during John Bunyan's two spells in Bedford Gaol, is published and is immediately popular
-
1895
Oscar Wilde's most brilliant comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest is performed in London's St. James Theatre Oscar Wilde loses a libel case that he has brought against the marquess of Queensberry for describing him as a sodomite Oscar Wilde is sent to Reading Gaol to serve a two-year sentence with hard labour after being convicted of homosexuality H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine, a story about a Time Traveller whose first stop on his journey is the year 802701 -
This timeline is for the purpose of learning more about English literature and the most representative authors of each era
