1748 IN LITERATURE

The year '1748 in literature' involved some significant events and new books.

Contents

Events

New books

New drama

Births

Deaths

Events

★ The French break the British siege of Pondicherry.

★ End of the War of the Austrian Succession with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle

★ While in debtor's prison in London, John Cleland writes ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', also known as ''Fanny Hill'', considered the first modern "erotic novel" by some.

★ Euler’s fifth paper on nautical topics, E137, is written but published later, in 1750.

New books

★ Mark Akenside - ''An Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon''

★ George Anson - ''A Voyage Round the World''

★ John Cleland - ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'' (aka ''Fanny Hill'')

★ Robert Dodsley - ''A Collection of Poems'' (a publisher's anthology)

★ Eliza Haywood - ''Life's Progress through the Passions'' (novel)

★ James Hervey - ''Meditations and Contemplations''

★ David Hume - ''An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding''

★
★ - ''Three Essays, Moral and Political''

★ William Kenrick - ''The Town''

★ Mary Leapor - ''Poems''

★ William Melmoth, as "Sir Thomas Fitzosborne, bart." - ''Letters''

★ Montesquieu - ''De l'esprit des lois'' (''The Spirit of the Laws'')

★ Ambrose Philips - ''Pastorals, Epistles, Odes and Other Original Poems''

★ Laetitia Pilkington - ''Memoirs''

★ Samuel Richardson - ''Clarissa'', vols. ii - vii

★ Thomas Sheridan - ''The Simile''

★ Tobias Smollett - ''The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane'' (transl. from Alain-René Le Sage)

★
★ - ''The Adventures of Roderick Random''

★ James Thomson - ''The Castle of Indolence''

★ François-Vincent Toussaint - ''Les Mœurs''

★ Horace Walpole - ''A Second and Third Letter to the Whigs''

★ Thomas Warton - ''Poems''

★ John Wesley - ''A Letter to a Person Lately Join'd with the People call'd Quakers''

★ Peter Whalley - ''An Enquiry into the Learning of Shakespeare''

New drama

★ Jean-François Marmontel - ''Denys le Tyran''

★ Edward Moore - ''The Foundling''

Births

★ January 1 - Gottfried August Bürger, German poet (died 1794)

★ February 15 - Jeremy Bentham (died 1832)

★ April 27 - Pierre-Louis Ginguené, French author (died 1815)

★ May 7 - Olympe de Gouges, dramatist (died 1793)

Deaths

★ August 27 - James Thomson, Scottish poet (born 1700)

★ September 21 - John Balguy, English philosopher (born 1686)

★ November 25 : Isaac Watts (born 1674)

★ Charles Johnson, dramatist, pub owner, and "dunce"

★ Christopher Pitt