View source for 1884 in literature

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{{Year nav topic5|1884|literature|poetry}}

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of '''1884'''.

==Events==
*January – [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s anonymous story "[[J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement]]" appears in the ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]''. It is inspired by the disappearance of the crew of the ''[[Mary Celeste]]'' in 1872. 
*[[January 11]] – Britain's poet laureate [[Alfred Tennyson]] is created 1st [[Baron Tennyson]] of [[Aldworth]] in the County of [[Sussex]] and of [[Freshwater, Isle of Wight]], in the [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]]. Thus he becomes known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=25308 |date=15 January 1884 |page=243}}</ref>
*[[January 14]] – [[Giovanni Verga]]'s play ''Cavalleria rusticana'', taken from his short story, is first performed, by Cesare Rossi's company at the [[Teatro Carignano]] in [[Turin]], starring [[Eleonora Duse]].<ref>{{Cite book |editor1=Sadie, Stanley |editor2=Macy, Laura |year=2006 |url=https://archive.org/details/grovebookofopera00sadi |url-access=registration |title=The Grove Book of Operas |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0195309073 |page=[https://archive.org/details/grovebookofopera00sadi/page/111 111]}}</ref>
*[[February 1]] – ''A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, part 1'' (covering A–Ant) appears in England, edited by [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James A. H. Murray]], the first fascicle of what will become ''The [[Oxford English Dictionary]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Penguin Pocket On This Day |publisher=Penguin Reference Library |isbn=0-14-102715-0 |year=2006}}</ref>
*[[February 12]] – [[Henry James]] visits the home of [[Alphonse Daudet]] and meets [[Goncourt]], [[Émile Zola]], [[François Coppée]] and others. In a discussion with Daudet, James describes the average Frenchman as "infinitely sharper in his observation than the average Englishman or American."<ref>Henry James, ''The Middle Years'',Avon Books, 1962; Discus paperback, 1978, p. 99.</ref>
*[[February 18]] – The English [[Jesuit]] poet [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] becomes Professor of Greek and Latin at [[University College Dublin]] in Ireland, where he will remain until his death in [[1889 in literature|1889]] and write his innovative [[sonnet]]s and other poems.
*[[May 29]] – [[Oscar Wilde]] marries Constance Mary Lloyd (1858–1898), a Protestant Dubliner, at [[St James's Church, Paddington]], London.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/29400 |last=Edwards|first=Owen Dudley|date=4 October 2012|title=Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills|freearticle=y}}</ref>
*[[June 25]] – [[Hallam Tennyson]], son of the poet laureate, marries Audrey Boyle, a granddaughter of [[Lorenzo Moore (British Army officer)|Sir Lorenzo Moore]] and great-granddaughter of [[Edmund Boyle, 7th Earl of Cork]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ve8_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA320|year=1885|publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited.|pages=320}}</ref>
*[[September 27]] – [[August Strindberg]]'s short stories ''[[Getting Married (Strindberg)|Getting Married]] (Giftas)'' are published in Sweden. A week later, the author is prosecuted for [[blasphemy]], but will be acquitted on November 17.<ref>{{Cite book |authorlink=Michael Meyer (translator) |last=Meyer |first=Michael |year=1987 |title=Strindberg: A Biography |series=Oxford Lives |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-281995-X}}</ref>
*[[December 10]] – The first London publication of [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' occurs.
*''Uncertain dates''
**[[Lie Kim Hok]]'s collection of children's stories ''Sobat Anak-anak'' is published in [[Bogor|Buitenzorg]], the first work of popular literature in the [[Dutch East Indies]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Salam |first=Aprinus |title=Posisi Fiksi Populer di Indonesia |trans-title=Position of Popular Fiction in Indonesia |language=Indonesian |journal=Humaniora|volume=XIV |issue=2 |year=2002 |url=http://culture.ugm.ac.id/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Posisi_fiksi_populer_Di_indonesia.pdf |pages=201–210 |format=PDF |accessdate=2013-07-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531044248/http://culture.ugm.ac.id/main/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Posisi_fiksi_populer_Di_indonesia.pdf |archive-date=2013-05-31 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His [[Malay language]] ''[[syair]]'' (poem) ''[[Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari]]'' is also first published.
**The first translation of Shakespeare's plays in Japan is made, an adaptation of ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'' by [[Tsubouchi Shōyō]] as a [[Bunraku]] puppet play, entitled ''The Strange Case of Caesar: the renowned sharpness of the blade of liberty''.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Paul |last=Collins |title=The Book of William |location=New York |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-59691-195-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/bookofwilliamhow00coll }}</ref>

==New books==
<!-- (''Title of published book translation''), ("Title of published poem/story translation"), (Literal translation of title) -->

===Fiction===
*[[Edwin Abbott Abbott]] – ''[[Flatland]]''
*[[Émile Zola]] – "[[La Joie De Vivre (The Joy of Living)]]"
*[[Henry Brooks Adams]] – ''[[Esther (novel)|Esther]]''
*[[Juhani Aho]] – ''[[Rautatie]]''
*[[Leopoldo Alas]] (Clarín) – ''[[La regenta]]'', vol. 1
*[[Aluísio de Azevedo]] – ''Casa de Pensão''
*[[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly]] – ''[[What Never Dies]]''
*[[R. D. Blackmore]] – ''Tommy Upmore''
*[[Mary Elizabeth Braddon]] – ''Ishmael. A Novel''
*[[Bankim Chandra Chatterji]] – ''[[Devi Chaudhurani]]''
*[[Wilkie Collins]] – ''I Say No''
*[[Alphonse Daudet]] – ''[[Sappho (novel)|Sapho]]''
*[[Amy Dillwyn]] – ''Jill''
*[[J.-K. Huysmans]]
**''[[À rebours]]''
**''Controcorrente''
*[[Helen Hunt Jackson]] – ''[[Ramona]]''
*[[Vernon Lee]] – ''Miss Brown''
*[[George A. Moore]] – ''A Mummer's Wife''
*[[Mrs. Oliphant]]
**''The Ladies Lindores''
**''[[The Wizard's Son]]''
*[[Mark Twain]] – ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]''
*[[Rachilde]] – ''Monsieur Vénus''
*[[Jules Verne]]
**''[[The Archipelago on Fire]]'' (''L'Archipel en feu'')
**''[[The Vanished Diamond]]'' (''L'Étoile du sud'')
*[[Mary Augusta Ward]] – ''Miss Bretherton''

===Drama===
*[[Henrik Ibsen]] – ''[[The Wild Duck]] (Vildanden)''
*[[Alfred Tennyson]] – ''[[Becket (Tennyson play)|Becket]]''
*[[Giovanni Verga]] – ''Cavalleria rusticana''
*[[Friedrich Theodor Vischer]] – ''Nicht Ia: Schwäbisches Lustspiel in drei Aufzügen''

===Poetry===
*[[Lie Kim Hok]] – ''[[Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari]]''
*[[Rabindranath Tagore]] – ''[[Bhanusimha Thakurer Padabali]]''
*[[William Watson (poet)|William Watson]] – ''Epigrams of Art, Life and Nature''

===Non-fiction===
*[[Friedrich Engels]] – ''[[The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State]] (Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigenthums und des Staats)''
*''The [[Herefordshire Pomona]]''
*[[Henry James]] – ''[[A Little Tour in France]]''
*[[Sophia Jex-Blake]] – ''The Care of Infants: A Manual for Mothers and Nurses''
*[[James K. Jones]] – ''The Tariff''
*[[Vernon Lee]]
**''The Countess of Albany''
**''Euphorion: Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediæval in the Renaissance''
*[[George Fletcher Moore]] – ''[[Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia]]''
*[[Elizabeth Robins Pennell]] – ''Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin'' (Eminent Women series)
*[[Arnold Toynbee (historian, born 1852)|Arnold Toynbee]] – ''Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England''<ref>{{citation|url=http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/toynbee/indrev |title=Lectures on The Industrial Revolution in England  |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182004/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/toynbee/indrev |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead |last=Toynbee |first=Arnold |year=1884}}</ref>

==Births==
*[[January 2]] – [[Oscar Micheaux]], African American author and filmmaker (died [[1951 in literature|1951]])
*[[January 18]] – [[Arthur Ransome]], English author of children's and other books (died [[1967 in literature|1967]])
*[[March 13]] – Sir [[Hugh Walpole]], New Zealand-born novelist (died [[1941 in literature|1941]])
*[[April 1]] – [[J. C. Squire]], English writer and critic (died [[1958 in literature|1958]])
*[[April 3]] – [[Nicos Nicolaides]], Greek Cypriot writer (died [[1956 in literature|1956]])
*[[May 21]] – [[Manuel Pérez y Curis]], Uruguayan poet (died [[1920 in literature|1920]])
*[[June 5]] – [[Ivy Compton-Burnett]], English novelist (died [[1969 in literature|1969]])
*[[June 13]] – [[Lillian Barrett]], American novelist and playwright (died [[1963 in literature|1963]])<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newport-mercury-obituary/96559791/|title=Miss Barrett, Author, Was 78|work=[[Newport Mercury]]|date= May 3, 1963|page= 3}}</ref>
*[[June 29]] – [[Francis Brett Young]], English novelist and poet (died [[1954 in literature|1954]])
*[[August 8]] – [[Sara Teasdale]], American poet (died [[1933 in literature|1933]])
*[[August 10]] – [[Panait Istrati]], Romanian novelist, short story writer and political essayist (died [[1935 in literature|1935]])
*[[August 12]] – [[Frank Swinnerton]], English novelist (died [[1982 in literature|1982]])
*[[August 24]] – [[Earl Derr Biggers]], American writer (died [[1933 in literature|1933]])
*[[September 20]] – [[Maxwell Perkins]], American literary editor (died [[1947 in literature|1947]])
*[[December 6]] – [[Otto Roth]], Hungarian Romanian politician, journalist, and literary promoter (died [[1956 in literature|1956]])
*[[December 17]] – [[Alison Uttley]], English writer of children's books (died [[1976 in literature|1976]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Denis Judd|title=Alison Uttley: The Life of a Country Child (1884-1976): the Authorised Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=moxlAAAAMAAJ|year=1986|publisher=M. Joseph|isbn=978-0-7181-2449-6|page=1}}</ref>
*''unknown date'' – [[Mourning Dove (author)|Mourning Dove]] (Christal Quintasket or Hum-isha-ma), Native American writer (died [[1936 in literature|1936]])

==Deaths==
*[[January 3]] – [[William Billington (poet)|William Billington]], English poet and publican (born [[1825 in literature|1825]])
*[[January 7]] – [[John Harris (poet)|John Harris]], English poet (born [[1820 in literature|1820]])
*[[January 11]] – [[Hermann Ulrici]], German philosopher (born [[1806 in literature|1806]])
*[[February 2]] – [[Abraham Hayward]], English man of letters (born [[1801 in literature|1801]])
*[[February 11]] – [[Thomas Chenery]], Barbadian-born English scholar and editor (born [[1826 in literature|1826]]) 
*[[March 10]] – [[William Blanchard Jerrold]], English journalist (born [[1826 in literature|1826]])
*[[March 13]] – [[Richard Henry Horne]], English poet, critic and journalist, and public official in Australia (born [[1802 in literature|1802]])
*[[March 24]] – [[François Mignet]], French historian (born [[1796 in literature|1796]])
*[[April 6]] – [[Emanuel Geibel]], German poet (born [[1815 in literature|1815]])
*[[April 7]] – [[Maria Doolaeghe]], Flemish novelist (born [[1803 in literature|1803]])<ref>{{cite book|first=Lia|last=Van Gemert|title=Women's Writing from the Low Countries 1200-1875: A Bilingual Anthology|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|year=2011|page=500|isbn=978-9-08964-129-8}}</ref>
*[[April 11]] – [[Charles Reade]], English novelist (born [[1814 in literature|1814]])
*[[May 27]] – [[Caroline Dexter]], English-born Australian feminist writer (born [[1819 in literature|1819]])
*[[May 28]] – [[Joseph d'Haussonville]], French historian (born [[1809 in literature|1809]])
*[[June 10]] – [[Johann Gustav Droysen]], German historian (born [[1808 in literature|1808]])
*[[June 27]] – [[Andreas Munch]], Norwegian poet (born [[1811 in literature|1811]])
*[[July 23]] – [[Anna Mary Howitt]], English writer, painter and feminist (born [[1822 in literature|1822]])
*[[September 18]] – [[Boleslav Markevich]], Russian novelist, essayist and critic (born [[1822 in literature|1922]])
*[[October 16]] – [[Paul Lacroix]], French novelist and journalist (born [[1806 in literature|1806]])
*[[October 19]] – [[Karl Hillebrand]], German literary historian and philosopher (born [[1829 in literature|1829]])
*[[November 3]] – [[František Doucha]], Czech translator (born [[1810 in literature|1810]])
*[[November 6]] – [[William Wells Brown]], African-American writer (born [[1814 in literature|1814]])
*[[December 3]] – [[Jane C. Bonar]], Scottish hymnwriter (born [[1821 in literature|1821]])

==Awards==
*[[Gaisford Prize]] – Harry Hammond House (Corpus Christi) for iambics

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1884 In Literature}}
[[Category:1884 books| ]]
[[Category:Years of the 19th century in literature]]