Time-line of Literature of the 1790s
Authors are listed alphabetically. Links to e-texts are included where possible. Don't worry, you are not expected to read all of this. This is a guideline for the contemporary literary scene. If you would like me to include other works and/or links, please let me know.
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Anon., The Palinode; or The Triumph of Virtue over Love; A Sentimental Novel
Anon., Laura; or Original Letters, A Sequel to the Eloisa of JJ Rousseau
Anon., The Fate of Velina De Guidova. A Novel
Barrell, Maria, The Captive [play]
Blake, William The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Burke, Edmund, Reflections on the Revolution in France [Oxford Text Archive]
De Fleury, Maria, British Liberty established, and Gallic liberty restored; or, the triumph of freedom
Francis, Anne (Gittins), Miscellaneous Poems by a Lady
Hassell, J, A Tour of the Isle of Wight
Macaulay, Catherine, Letters on Education
Mackenzie, Anna Maria , Monmouth: A Tale, Founded on Historic Facts [Chawton House]
Radcliffe, Ann, A Sicilian Romance
Williams, Helen Maria, Letters Written in France in the Summer of 1790
Williams, Helen Maria, Julia (includes The Bastille: A Vision)
Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Vindication of the Rights of Men
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Blake, William, The French Revolution [poetry]
Boswell, James, Life of Johnson [biography]
Bowles, William Lisle, A Poetical Address to Edmund Burke
Cowley, Hannah, A Day in Turkey [burlesque]
Gilpin, William, Remarks on Forest Scenery [prose]
Inchbald, Elizabeth, A Simple Story [novel]
---, Next Door Neighbours [comedy]
---, The Hue and Cry [comedy]
Mackintosh, James, Vindiciae Gallicae. Defence of the French Revolution and Its English Admirers [political tract]
Opie, Amelia, Adelaide [tragedy]
Paine, Thomas, Rights of Man (1791-2)
Radcliffe, Ann, The Romance of the Forest
Robinson, Mary, Poems [A Celebration of Women Writers]
Robinson, Mary (Darby), Impartial Reflections on the Present Situation of the Queen of France
Smith, Charlotte, Celestina [novel]
Volney, Count, The Ruins; or Meditations on the Revolutions of Empires
West, Jane (Iliffe), Miscellaneous Poems and a Tragedy
Wollstonecraft, Mary, Original Stories from Real Life
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Bage, Robert, Man as He Is
Cowley, Hannah, A Day in Turkey; or the Russian Slaves
Cumberland, Richard, Calvary; or the Death of Christ
Dyer, George, Poems
Farrell, Sarah, Charlotte, or , A Sequel to the Sorrows of Werter
Gilpin, William, Essay on Picturesque Beauty
Holcroft, Thomas, Anna St. Ives
Inchbald, Elizabeth, A Case of Conscience
---, The Massacre [British Women Playwrights Around 1800]
---, Yound Men and Old Women [comedy]
Little, Janet, The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scottish Milkmaid [British Women Writers Project Univ California, Davis]
More, Hannah, Village Politics [play]
Robinson, Mary Darby, Vancuza; or, The Dangers of Credulity
Smith, Charlotte, Desmond [novel]
Thelwall, John, The Incas [play]
Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman [Univ of Virginia]
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Barbauld, Anna, Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation [Stuart Curran, Univ. Penn.]
Blake, William, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; Visions of the Daughters of Albion
Burns, Robert, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
Burns, Robert, Topsy Turvey
Godwin, William, Political Justice
Hassell, J, A Picturesque Guide to Bath
Hawkins, Laetitia-Matilda, Letters on the Female Mind (addressed to Miss H.M. Williams)
Hays, Mary, Letters and Essays, Moral and Miscellaneous
Imlay, Gilbert, The Emigrants
Inchbald, Elizabeth, Everyone Has His Fault [comedy]
Mrs Matthews, Simple Facts; or, The History of an Orphan [Chawton House]
Parsons, Eliza, Castle of Wolfenbach
Richards, George, Modern France
Smith, Charlotte ‘The Emigrants’ [U. Penn.] [poem]
Smith, Charlotte, The Old Manor House [novel]
West, Jane, The Advantages of Education; or the History of Miss Maria Williams
Wordsworth, William, Descriptive Sketches
Wordsworth, William, Letter to the Bishop of Llandaff [prose]
Young, A, The Example of France; A Warning to Britain [prose]
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Bennett, Anna Maria, Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel
Blake, William Songs of Innocence and Experience [Univ Virginia] [1784,1789]
Blake, William, Europe: A Prophecy [poem]
Brothers, Richard, Revealed Knowledge
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, The Fall of Robespierre [play]
Cowley, Hannah, The Town Before You [comedy]
Godwin, William, Caleb Williams [novel]
Godwin, William, Italian Letters; or the History of the Count de St. Julian
Holcroft, Thomas, Hugh Trevor (1794-7) [novel]
Inchbald, Elizabeth, The Wedding Day [comedy]
Paine, Thomas, Age of Reason part 1[political prose]
Parsons, Eliza, Lucy. A Novel
Radcliffe, Ann, The Mysteries of Udolpho [gothic novel]
Ritson, Joseph, Northumberland Garland
Robinson, Mary, Nobody [comedy]
Roche, Regina Maria, The Children of the Abbey [gothic novel]
Smith, Charlotte, The Banished Man [novel]
Smith, Charlotte, The Wanderings of Warwick
Southey, Robert, Wat Tyler [play]
Wakefield, Priscilla, Mental Improvement
Wollstonecraft, Mary, A Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Akenside, Mark, The Pleasures of Imagination [prose]
Burney, Fanny, Edwy and Elvina [tragedy]
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Conciones Ad Populum [prose tract]
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Lectures on Politics and Religion [lecture]
Cowley, Hannah, The Town Before You
Cumberland, Richard, Henry
Edgeworth, Maria, Letters for Literary Ladies [prose]
Fenwick, Eliza, Secresy; or the Ruin on the Rock [novel]
Landor, Walter Savage, Poems
Mackenzie, Anna Maria, Mysteries Elucidated, a Novel
More, Hannah, 'The Sorrows of Yamba' [Univ of Virginia]
Pye, Henry, The Democrat [novel]
Playfair, W, The History of Jacobinism, its crimes, cruelties and perfidies [prose]
Radcliffe, Ann, A Journey Made in the Summer of 1794 [travel writing]
Smith, Charlotte, Montalbert [novel]
Smith, Charlotte, Rural Walks [dialogues for children]
Thelwall, John, Poems Written in Close Confinement in the Tower
Wakefield, Priscilla, Juvenile Anecdotes
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Bage, Robert, Hermsprong [novel] [Blackmask.com]
[Beckford, William], Modern Novel Writing or The Elegant Enthusiast; and Interesting Emotions of Arabella Bloomville. A Rhapsodical Romance; Interspersed with Poetry By Lady Harriet Marlow
Burney, Fanny, Camilla or, A Picture of Youth [novel]
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Poems on Various Subjects
Craik, Helen, Julia de St. Pierre [novel]
Day, Esther Milnes, Poems and fugitive pieces, by Eliza [British Women Writers Project]
Gunning, Susannah, Delves: A Welch Tale [novel]
Hamilton, Eliza, Letters of a Hindoo Rajah
Hays, Mary, Memoirs of Emma Courtney [novel]
Helme, Elizabeth, The Farmer of Inglewood Forest [novel]
Inchbald, Elizabeth, Nature and Art [novel]
Lee, Sophia, Almeyda [tragedy] ed Diego Saglia, University of Parma
Lewis, Matthew, The Monk [Project Gutenberg]
Paine, Thomas, The Age of Reason part 2 [political prose]
Price, Uvedale, An Essay on the Picturesque
Robinson, Mary, Sappho and Phaon [Univ of Virginia]
---, The Sicilian Lover [tragedy]
Seward, Anna, Llangollen Vale, with other Poems
Smith, Charlotte, Marchmont
Smith, Charlotte, Rambles Farther: A Continuation of Rural Walks [drama for children]
Southey, Robert, Joan of Arc [epic poem]
West, Jane, A Gossip’s Story (1796-8)
Wollstonecraft, Mary, Letters Written in Sweden [non-fiction prose]
Stedman, John, Narrative of a Five Year's Expedition [non-fiction prose]
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Betham, Mary, Elegies [British Women Romantic Poets Project]
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, Poems
Colman, George, My Night-Gown and Slippers; or Tales in Verse
Cowley, Hannah, Albina, Countess Raimond
D’Israeli, Isaac, Vaurien
Edgeworth, Maria, Old Poz [drama for children]
Gunning, Elizabeth, The Orphans of Snowdon
Godwin, William, 'Of History and Romance' (Michael Gamer)
Inchbald, Elizabeth, Wives as They Were, and Maids as They Are [comedy]
Instone, Sarah, Poems on Various Occasions
Jacson, Frances, Disobedience [novel]
Paine, Thomas, Agrarian Justice [political tract]
Radcliffe, Ann, The Italian [novel]
Robinson, Mary, Walsingham; or, The Pupil of Nature
Smith, Charlotte, Elegiac Sonnets (volume 2)
Southey, Robert, Poems
Tyler, Royall, The Algerian Captive
Williams, Helen Maria, Ambrose and Eleanor
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Anderson, Robert, Cumberland Ballads
Baillie, Joanna, De Montfort: A Tragedy [play]
---, A Series of Plays on the Passions [tragedy]
---, Count Basil tragedy]
---, The Tryal [comedy]
Clark, Emily Frederick, Ianthé, or the Flower of Carnarvon
Coxe, William, Travels in Switzerland
Darwin, Erasmus, A Plan for the Conduct of Female Education
Daye, Eliza, Poems on Various Subjects [British Women Writers Project]
Edgeworth, Maria Practical Education
---, Whim for Whim [comedy]
Hanway, Mary Ann, Elinor; or The World as It Is
Gilpin, William, Observations on the Western Parts of England, relative Chiefly to picturesque Beauty [travel writing]
Inchbald, Elizabeth, (transl of) Kozebue, A. F. F. von., Lovers Vows: From the German of Kotzebue
King, Sophia, Waldorf
Lamb, Charles, Rosamund Gray
Landor, Walter Savage, Gebir [poem]
Lee, Harriet, The Mysterious Marriage [melodrama]
Lewis, Matthew, Castle Spectre [gothic novel]
Lloyd, Charles, Edmund Oliver [novel]
Malthus, Thomas, An Essay on the Principle of Population
Murray, Judith (Sargent), The Gleanor
Plumptre, Anne, The Natural Son [drama]
Polwhele, Richard, The Unsex’d Females; A Poem [Univ of Virginia]
Roche, Regina Maria, Clermont [gothic novel]
Smith, Charlotte, The Young Philosopher [novel]
Smith, Charlotte, Minor Morals [prose]
Wakefield, Priscilla, Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex
Williams, Helen Maria, A Tour in Switzerland [travel writing]
Wollstonecraft, Mary, Maria; or the Wrongs of Woman [Public Domain Modern Eng Text Coll.]
Wollstonecraft, Mary, Posthumous Works
Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads [VoS links to several editions]
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Burney, Frances Love and Fashion [Play. Ed. with an Introduction by Jessica Richard. British Women
Playwrights around 1800]
[Cassandra Cooke], Battleridge: An Historical Tale
Craven, Elizabeth, The Princess of Georgia [opera]
Cowper, William, The Cast-Away [poem]
Godwin, William, St. Leon [novel]
Hays, Mary, Victim of Prejudice [novel]
Inchbald, Elizabeth, The Wise Men of the East
Ker, Anne, The Heiress di Montdale; or, The Castle of Bezanto
More, Hannah, Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education
Radcliffe, Mary Ann, The Female Advocate; or An Attempt to Recover the Rights of Women from Male Usurpation [n.b. this is not the Ann Radcliffe who wrote The Mysteries of Udolpho.]
Robinson, Mary, The False Friend: A Domestic Story
---, A Letter to the Women of England (1799) A Romantic Circles electronic edition.
Seward, Anna, Original Sonnets
Smith, Charlotte, What is She?
Smith, Charlotte, Letters of a Solitary Wanderer [prose]
Southey, Robert, Poems
Walker, George, The Vagabond [novel]
West, Jane, A Tale of the Times
Wordsworth, William, The Two-Part Prelude
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
Bannerman, Anne Poems
Bloomfield, Robert, The Farmer’s Boy [poetry]
Burges, Mary Anne, The Progress of the Pilgrim of Good-Intent in Jacobinical Times
Burney, Fanny, A Busy Day [comedy]
Burns, Robert, Works [poetry]
Clark, Emily Frederick, Ermina Montrose, or, the Cottage in the Vale
Craik, Helen, Adelaide de Narbonne, with Memoirs of Charlotte Cordet [novel]
Edgeworth, Maria, Castle Rackrent [novel]
Hamilton, Elizabeth, Memoirs of Modern Philosophers
Hurdis, James, The Favourite Village
Ker, Anne, Adeline St. Julian; or, The Midnight Hour
Lucas, Charles, The Infernal Quixote [1800 or 1801?]
Robinson, Mary, Lyrical Tales
Smith, Charlotte Letters of a Solitary Wanderer
Smith, Charlotte Elegiac Sonnets (volume 2)
Wordsworth and Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (volume 2)
Later literature (related to the 1790s)
1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 Historical Literature
1802 Anne Bannerman, Tales of Superstition and Chivalry [Poems; British Women Romantic Writers Project]
1805 Amelia Opie, Adeline Mowbray [novel]
1805 William Godwin, Fleetwood [novel]
1811 Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility [Univ. of Virginia]
1813 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice [Univ. of Virginia]
1814 Fanny Burney, The Wanderer [novel]
1816 Walter Scott, The Antiquary [novel]: set in 1794
1818 Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey [novel]
1818 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein [novel]
1826 Felicia Hemans, ‘Casabianca’ [poem]
1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution [prose]
1859 Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities [Univ. of Virginia]
1996 Marge Piercy, City of Darkness, City of Light [Marge Piercy Homepage]