The Age of Romanticism Texts and Contexts: A Chronological Chart
The Age of Romanticism Texts and Contexts: A Chronological Chart
The Age of Romanticism Texts and Contexts: A Chronological Chart
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong><br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong>: A <strong>Chronological</strong><br />
<strong>Chart</strong><br />
In the chart below, dates generally refer to the year when a work was first made public, whether<br />
published in print or, in the case <strong>of</strong> dramatic works, made public through the first performance <strong>of</strong> a<br />
play. Where that date is known to differ substantially from the date <strong>of</strong> composition, the difference<br />
is generally noted. With medieval works, where there is no equivalent to the “publication” <strong>of</strong> later<br />
eras, where texts <strong>of</strong>ten vary greatly from one manuscript copy to another, <strong>and</strong> where knowledge <strong>of</strong><br />
date <strong>of</strong> original composition is usually imprecise, the date that appears is an estimate <strong>of</strong> the date <strong>of</strong><br />
the work’s origin in the written form included or referenced in the Broadview Anthology. Earlier oral<br />
or written versions are <strong>of</strong> course in some cases real possibilities.<br />
Divisions in these chronological charts follow the divisions into six parts <strong>of</strong> the Broadview<br />
Anthology. For the convenience <strong>of</strong> those who may be focusing on only one period, but who may wish<br />
to look slightly beyond its boundaries as they are generally defined, there is in some cases an overlap<br />
between periods in these chronologies. <strong>The</strong> Restoration <strong>and</strong> the Eighteenth Century chart, for<br />
example, carries through to the end <strong>of</strong> the eighteenth century (thereby overlapping with the chart for<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong>), <strong>and</strong> the chart for <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era begins several years before Victoria<br />
came to the throne.<br />
<strong>Texts</strong><br />
1789 Jeremy Bentham, Principles <strong>of</strong> Morals <strong>and</strong><br />
Legislation<br />
William Blake, Songs <strong>of</strong> Innocence<br />
Gilbert White, <strong>The</strong> Natural History <strong>and</strong><br />
Antiquities <strong>of</strong> Selborne<br />
1790 Joanna Baillie, Poems<br />
William Blake, <strong>The</strong> Marriage <strong>of</strong> Heaven <strong>and</strong> Hell<br />
William Bligh, A Narrative <strong>of</strong> the Mutiny on<br />
Board His Britannic Majesty’s Ship Bounty<br />
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in<br />
France<br />
Charlotte Lennox, Euphemia<br />
Amelia Opie, <strong>The</strong> Dangers <strong>of</strong> Coquetry<br />
Helen Maria Williams, Letters Written in France<br />
(first <strong>of</strong> eight volumes published in 1790-96)<br />
<br />
<strong>Contexts</strong><br />
1789 Storming <strong>of</strong> the Bastille (a prison in Paris in<br />
which political prisoners were held) marks the<br />
beginning <strong>of</strong> the French Revolution<br />
1790 J.M.W. Turner exhibits his work at the Royal<br />
Academy for the first time
2 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong><br />
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication <strong>of</strong> the Rights<br />
<strong>of</strong> Men<br />
1791 Jeremy Bentham, Panopticon; or, <strong>The</strong> Inspection-<br />
House<br />
Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story<br />
Thomas Paine, Rights <strong>of</strong> Man, Part 1 (Part 2<br />
published in 1792)<br />
Charlotte Smith, Celestina<br />
1792 Charlotte Smith, Desmond<br />
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication <strong>of</strong> the Rights<br />
<strong>of</strong> Woman<br />
1793 William Blake, America: A Prophecy<br />
Robert Burns, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish<br />
Dialect (enlarged edition; earlier editions<br />
published in 1786, 1787)<br />
William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning<br />
Political Justice<br />
Charlotte Smith, <strong>The</strong> Old Manor House<br />
1794 William Blake, Songs <strong>of</strong> Innocence <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
Experience<br />
William Godwin, Caleb Williams<br />
Ann Radcliffe, <strong>The</strong> Mysteries <strong>of</strong> Udolpho<br />
1795 Eliza Fenwick, Secresy<br />
Robert Southey, Poems<br />
1796 Robert Bage, Hermsprong<br />
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poems (second edition<br />
published in 1797)<br />
Elizabeth Inchbald, Nature <strong>and</strong> Art<br />
Elizabeth Hamilton, Translations <strong>of</strong> the Letters <strong>of</strong><br />
a Hindoo Rajah<br />
1791 First Haitian Revolution; slaves overthrow<br />
French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue<br />
(modern day Haiti). A complex series <strong>of</strong><br />
struggles against French <strong>and</strong> British forces <strong>and</strong><br />
among factions within Haiti itself ends in 1804<br />
with the establishment <strong>of</strong> Haiti as a free<br />
republic––the second independent nation in the<br />
Western hemisphere<br />
<strong>The</strong> Canada Act divides the former jurisdiction<br />
<strong>of</strong> the province <strong>of</strong> Quebec into Upper Canada<br />
(now southern Ontario), a province that would<br />
follow English legal <strong>and</strong> institutional practices,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Lower Canada (now southern Quebec), a<br />
province that would be governed by the<br />
principles <strong>of</strong> French civil law <strong>and</strong> in which the<br />
Roman Catholic Church would hold a<br />
privileged position<br />
1793 Reign <strong>of</strong> Terror––an eleven-month period <strong>of</strong><br />
brutal repression during the French<br />
Revolution––begins in Paris<br />
British colony <strong>of</strong> Upper Canada bans slavery<br />
1795 France becomes the world’s first jurisdiction to<br />
adopt a secret ballot for elections<br />
1796 Napoleon invades Italy <strong>and</strong> defeats Austria at<br />
the Battle <strong>of</strong> Lodi
Mary Hays, Memoirs <strong>of</strong> Emma Courtney<br />
Matthew Lewis, <strong>The</strong> Monk<br />
Ann Radcliffe, <strong>The</strong> Italian<br />
William Taylor, Ellenore<br />
1797 Mary Robinson, Walsingham<br />
Charlotte Smith, Elegiac Sonnets<br />
1798 Joanna Baillie, Plays on the Passions (volume 1)<br />
Jeremy Bentham, Political Economy<br />
Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle <strong>of</strong><br />
Population<br />
Charlotte Smith, <strong>The</strong> Young Philosopher<br />
George Vancouver, A Voyage <strong>of</strong> Discovery to<br />
the North Pacific Ocean, <strong>and</strong> Around the<br />
World<br />
Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria, or <strong>The</strong> Wrongs <strong>of</strong><br />
Woman (unfinished; published as part <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Posthumous Works <strong>of</strong> the Author <strong>of</strong> A<br />
Vindication <strong>of</strong> the Rights <strong>of</strong> Woman, edited<br />
by William Godwin)<br />
William Wordsworth <strong>and</strong> Samuel Taylor<br />
Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other<br />
Poems (revised <strong>and</strong> enlarged editions<br />
published in 1801, 1802, 1805, 1815)<br />
1799 William Godwin, St. Leon<br />
Hannah More, Strictures on the Modern System<br />
<strong>of</strong> Female Education<br />
Mary Robinson, Letter to the Women <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
Mary Robinson, <strong>The</strong> Natural Daughter<br />
Robert Southey, Poems<br />
George Walker, <strong>The</strong> Vagabond<br />
1800 William Earle, Jr., Obi<br />
Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent<br />
Mary Hays, <strong>The</strong> Victim <strong>of</strong> Prejudice<br />
Mary Robinson, Lyrical Tales<br />
1801 Maria Edgeworth, Moral Tales for Young People<br />
Charles Lucas, <strong>The</strong> Infernal Quixote<br />
Amelia Opie, <strong>The</strong> Father <strong>and</strong> Daughter<br />
Anne Plumptre, Something New<br />
1802 Edinburgh Review founded<br />
William Paley, Natural <strong>The</strong>ology<br />
1797 Edmund Burke dies<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 3<br />
1798 Irish Rebellion <strong>of</strong> 1798, a non-sectarian uprising<br />
(under the leadership <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong>obald Wolfe Tone)<br />
against British control <strong>of</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong><br />
British Navy under Horatio Nelson defeats the<br />
French fleet at the Battle <strong>of</strong> the Nile<br />
Income tax introduced in Britain<br />
1799 Napoleon seizes control <strong>of</strong> the French<br />
government<br />
1800 English <strong>and</strong> Irish parliaments pass the Act <strong>of</strong><br />
Union; the United Kingdom <strong>of</strong> Great Britain <strong>and</strong><br />
Irel<strong>and</strong> created on 1 January 1801<br />
1802 Health <strong>and</strong> Morals <strong>of</strong> Apprentices Act (also<br />
known as the Factory Act <strong>of</strong> 1802) limits<br />
employment <strong>of</strong> children in cotton <strong>and</strong> woolen
4 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong><br />
Ann Taylor <strong>and</strong> Jane Taylor, Original Poems for<br />
Infant Minds<br />
1805 Amelia Opie, Adeline Mowbray<br />
William Godwin, Fleetwood, or <strong>The</strong> New Man <strong>of</strong><br />
Feeling<br />
1806 Charlotte Dacre, Z<strong>of</strong>loya, or <strong>The</strong> Moor<br />
Sydney Owenson (later Lady Morgan), <strong>The</strong><br />
Wild Irish Girl<br />
Sir Walter Scott, Ballads <strong>and</strong> Lyrical Pieces<br />
Ann Taylor <strong>and</strong> Jane Taylor, Rhymes for the<br />
Nursery<br />
1807 Joanna Baillie, De Montfort: A Tragedy<br />
Henrietta Bowdler, <strong>The</strong> Family Shakespeare<br />
(later editions edited by her brother Thomas<br />
Bowdler)<br />
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Poems Printed on<br />
Various Occasions<br />
Charles Lamb <strong>and</strong> Mary Lamb, Tales from<br />
Shakespeare<br />
Charlotte Smith, Beachy Head, with Other<br />
Poems<br />
William Wordsworth, Poems, in Two Volumes<br />
mills to no more than 12 hours per day <strong>and</strong> sets<br />
out various other regulations (e.g., requiring that<br />
children living under the supervision <strong>of</strong> the<br />
employer not sleep more than two to a bed, <strong>and</strong><br />
that on Sunday they be given a least one hour’s<br />
instruction in the Christian religion)<br />
1803 Louisiana Purchase: the United States acquires<br />
from France approximately 828,000 square<br />
miles (2,100,000 square kilometers) <strong>of</strong> l<strong>and</strong>,<br />
extending from what are now the states <strong>of</strong><br />
Arkansas <strong>and</strong> Missouri north <strong>and</strong> west to what<br />
are now portions <strong>of</strong> southern Alberta <strong>and</strong><br />
Saskatchewan<br />
Fighting between Britain <strong>and</strong> France resumes in<br />
the Napoleonic wars<br />
1804 Napoleon crowns himself Emperor<br />
1805 Battle <strong>of</strong> Trafalgar establishes British sea<br />
supremacy<br />
Battle <strong>of</strong> Austerlitz establishes the supremacy <strong>of</strong><br />
Napoleon’s l<strong>and</strong> forces on the European<br />
continent<br />
1807 Abolition <strong>of</strong> the Slave Trade Act ends the slave<br />
trade in all British possessions (slavery itself in<br />
British possessions would not be abolished until<br />
1833)<br />
First public street lighting, Pall Mall, London.<br />
(Five years later Parliament granted a charter to<br />
the London <strong>and</strong> Westminster Gas Light <strong>and</strong><br />
Coke Company, which became the world’s first<br />
gas company. By the 1820s, many <strong>of</strong> Britain’s<br />
larger cities <strong>and</strong> towns had public street lighting<br />
by gas)
1808 William Blake, Milton<br />
Thomas Clarkson, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong> the Rise,<br />
Progress, <strong>and</strong> Accomplishment <strong>of</strong> the Abolition<br />
<strong>of</strong> the African Slave-Trade<br />
Charles Robert Maturin, <strong>The</strong> Wild Irish Boy<br />
1809 Hannah More, Coelebs in Search <strong>of</strong> a Wife<br />
1810 George Crabbe, <strong>The</strong> Borough<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Zastrozzi<br />
1811 Jane Austen, Sense <strong>and</strong> Sensibility<br />
Sydney Owenson (later Lady Morgan), <strong>The</strong><br />
Missionary: An Indian Tale<br />
Jonathan Scott, <strong>The</strong> Arabian Nights<br />
Entertainments (the first English translation)<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley <strong>and</strong> Thomas Hogg, <strong>The</strong><br />
Necessity <strong>of</strong> Atheism<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, St. Irvyne<br />
Mary Tighe, Psyche, with Other Poems<br />
1812 Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Eighteen Hundred <strong>and</strong><br />
Eleven<br />
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s<br />
Pilgrimage, cantos 1 <strong>and</strong> 2 (fourth<br />
<strong>and</strong> final canto published in 1818)<br />
1813 John Aubrey, Lives <strong>of</strong> Eminent Men (later known<br />
as Aubrey’s Brief Lives)<br />
Jane Austen, Pride <strong>and</strong> Prejudice<br />
1814 Jane Austen, Mansfield Park<br />
Frances Burney, <strong>The</strong> W<strong>and</strong>erer; or, Female<br />
Difficulties<br />
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Ode to Napoleon<br />
Buonaparte (published anonymously)<br />
Sir Walter Scott, Waverley<br />
William Wordsworth, <strong>The</strong> Excursion<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 5<br />
1808 Johann Wolfgang von Goëthe, Faust<br />
1810 Napoleon annexes the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s to France<br />
1811 Luddite anti-factory riots <strong>and</strong> other workingclass<br />
protests against loss <strong>of</strong> employment <strong>and</strong><br />
economic hardship due to industrialization<br />
1812 United States declares war on Britain<br />
Napoleon invades Russia <strong>and</strong> attacks the<br />
Russian army at the Battle <strong>of</strong> Borodino, the<br />
largest <strong>and</strong> most destructive battle <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Napoleonic Wars, with over 250,000 soldiers<br />
involved, <strong>and</strong> between 65,000 <strong>and</strong> 120,000 dead<br />
<strong>and</strong> wounded. <strong>The</strong> battle does not produce a<br />
clear victory; Napoleon enters Moscow a week<br />
later, but begins to retreat from Russia the<br />
following month<br />
Jacob <strong>and</strong> Wilhelm Grimm publish Kinder-und-<br />
Hausmarchen (Children’s <strong>and</strong> Household Tales,<br />
commonly referred to as Grimm’s Fairy Tales)<br />
1814 Napoleon forced to abdicate as Allies enter<br />
Paris; he is exiled to Elba<br />
War between the United States <strong>and</strong> Britain ends<br />
with the Treaty <strong>of</strong> Ghent
6 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong><br />
1814-17 William Hazlitt <strong>and</strong> Leigh Hunt, Round Table<br />
essays published in <strong>The</strong> Examiner (issued in<br />
book form in 1817)<br />
1815 Jane Austen, Emma<br />
Robert Owen, Observations on the Effect <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Manufacturing System<br />
Sir Walter Scott, <strong>The</strong> Field <strong>of</strong> Waterloo<br />
Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering<br />
1816 Leigh Hunt, <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> Rimini<br />
Sir Walter Scott, <strong>The</strong> Antiquary<br />
1817 Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey; <strong>and</strong> Persuasion<br />
First appearance <strong>of</strong> the radical journals Black<br />
Dwarf <strong>and</strong> Sherwin’s Political Register (later<br />
<strong>The</strong> Republican)<br />
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine first published<br />
George Gordon, Lord Byron, Manfred<br />
Maria Edgeworth, Harrington<br />
David Ricardo, On the Principles <strong>of</strong> Political<br />
Economy <strong>and</strong> Taxation<br />
Major developments in steam technology as<br />
George Watson develops a steam locomotive<br />
<strong>and</strong> the British navy introduces a steam-driven<br />
warship<br />
1815 Napoleon returns from Elba <strong>and</strong> briefly resumes<br />
his rule over France; he is finally defeated by the<br />
Duke <strong>of</strong> Wellington <strong>and</strong> Gebhard von Blücher<br />
at the Battle <strong>of</strong> Waterloo, <strong>and</strong> exiled to St.<br />
Helena<br />
Construction begins on the Brighton Pavilion,<br />
designed by John Nash (completed in 1823)<br />
Parliament passes the Importation Act (legislation<br />
subsequently referred to as the Corn Laws),<br />
protecting grain producers against imports (<strong>and</strong><br />
thereby maintaining higher prices for<br />
consumers)<br />
1816 Elgin Marbles exhibited at the British Museum<br />
1816-17 Economic depression <strong>and</strong> political upheaval in<br />
Britain; riots at the opening <strong>of</strong> Parliament,<br />
insurrection in Derbyshire, <strong>and</strong> protests in<br />
Manchester. <strong>The</strong> government suspends the right<br />
<strong>of</strong> habeas corpus (thereby allowing authorities to<br />
imprison dissenters without bringing them to<br />
trial or laying formal charges), <strong>and</strong> various<br />
political societies are suppressed<br />
1817-23 Simon Bolivar leads the struggle against colonial<br />
rule in several South American Wars <strong>of</strong><br />
Independence
1818 Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey<br />
John Keats, Endymion<br />
Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy<br />
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein<br />
1819 George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, cantos<br />
1 <strong>and</strong> 2 (final cantos published in 1824)<br />
John William Polidori, <strong>The</strong> Vampyre<br />
Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, <strong>The</strong> Cenci<br />
William Wordsworth, Peter Bell<br />
1820 John Clare, Poems Descriptive <strong>of</strong> Rural Life <strong>and</strong><br />
Scenery<br />
John Keats, Lamia, Isabella, <strong>The</strong> Eve <strong>of</strong> St. Agnes,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
Sir Walter Scottt, Kenilworth<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound<br />
1821 John Clare, <strong>The</strong> Village Minstrel, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Poems<br />
William Cobbett, Cottage Economy<br />
William Hazlitt, Table-Talk<br />
Letitia Elizabeth L<strong>and</strong>on, <strong>The</strong> Fate <strong>of</strong> Adelaide,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the W<strong>and</strong>erer<br />
Mary Shelley, Mathilda completed (not<br />
published until 1959)<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the<br />
Death <strong>of</strong> John Keats<br />
First publication <strong>of</strong> the Manchester Guardian<br />
1822 Thomas De Quincey, Confessions <strong>of</strong> an English<br />
Opium Eater<br />
Amelia Opie, Madeline<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 7<br />
1818 Publisher Richard Carlile tried <strong>and</strong> imprisoned<br />
as part <strong>of</strong> the government’s effort to suppress<br />
political dissent<br />
1819 “Peterloo Massacre”: militia attacks<br />
approximately 50,000 people attending a<br />
peaceful political demonstration in Manchester,<br />
killing 11 <strong>and</strong> injuring over 400; the<br />
government passes several acts designed to<br />
suppress dissent<br />
Venezuela, Columbia, <strong>and</strong> Ecuador declare<br />
independence from Spain<br />
1820 Development <strong>of</strong> quinine (the first effective antimalarial<br />
drug)<br />
1820-23 Political unrest in continental Europe, especially<br />
in Spain, France, <strong>and</strong> Portugal<br />
1821 John Keats dies<br />
1821-32 Greek War <strong>of</strong> Independence, in which the<br />
Greeks fought for <strong>and</strong> eventually won<br />
independence from the Ottoman Empire<br />
1822 Brazil achieves independence from Portugal<br />
Liberia is established by the American<br />
Colonization Society as a place to which freed<br />
African-American slaves could “return”<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley dies
8 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong><br />
1823 Felicia Hemans, <strong>The</strong> Siege <strong>of</strong> Valencia<br />
Charles Lamb, Elia, first series (second series<br />
published in 1828)<br />
Mary Shelley, Valperga<br />
Edgar Taylor, trans., German Popular Stories,<br />
volume 1 (first English translations <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Grimm’s fairy tales); volume 2 published in<br />
1826<br />
William Wilberforce, An Appeal to the Religion,<br />
Justice, <strong>and</strong> Humanity <strong>of</strong> the British Empire,<br />
in Behalf <strong>of</strong> the Negro Slaves in the West<br />
Indies<br />
1824 James Hogg, <strong>The</strong> Private Memoirs <strong>and</strong><br />
Confessions <strong>of</strong> a Justified Sinner<br />
Letitia Elizabeth L<strong>and</strong>on, <strong>The</strong> Improvisatrice,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
Westminster Review founded by Jeremy Bentham<br />
(later editors included John Stuart Mill <strong>and</strong><br />
George Eliot)<br />
1825 William Hazlitt, <strong>The</strong> Spirit <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Age</strong><br />
Felicia Hemans, <strong>The</strong> Forest Sanctuary, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Poems<br />
1823 <strong>The</strong> United States declares itself a world power<br />
through the Monroe Doctrine; President James<br />
Monroe gives notice that the United States<br />
would view any attempt by an European power<br />
to control the destiny <strong>of</strong> any part <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Americas that was not already under its control<br />
as “the manifestation <strong>of</strong> an unfriendly<br />
disposition toward the United States”<br />
Mexico, Guatemala, <strong>and</strong> Costa Rica declare<br />
independence from Spain<br />
George Birkbeck founds the London Mechanics<br />
Institute (later Birkbeck College, a part <strong>of</strong> the<br />
University <strong>of</strong> London) to provide adult<br />
education. Beginning in 1830, women as well as<br />
men are admitted; in 1866, the institute was<br />
renamed the Birkbeck Literary <strong>and</strong> Scientific<br />
Institution<br />
1824 National Gallery opens in London<br />
Ludwig von Beethoven, Ninth Symphony<br />
Lord Byron dies<br />
1825 Opening <strong>of</strong> the Stockton <strong>and</strong> Darlington<br />
Railway (the first passenger railway in Britain)<br />
Stock market crash <strong>and</strong> banking crisis: the Bank<br />
<strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong> had greatly exp<strong>and</strong>ed the money<br />
supply in the wake <strong>of</strong> the Napoleonic Wars, <strong>and</strong><br />
the stock market had experienced a boom, with<br />
new dem<strong>and</strong>s for capital investment in factories,<br />
canals, gas lighting, etc., <strong>and</strong> new markets for<br />
exports, particularly in the now-independent<br />
states <strong>of</strong> Latin America. By 1825, much <strong>of</strong> the<br />
boom was based on ill-advised speculation <strong>and</strong><br />
in some cases outright fraud (bonds were issued<br />
to finance Poyais, an imaginary South<br />
American republic). <strong>The</strong> collapse <strong>of</strong> the bubble<br />
began in April, with a stock market crash; by the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the year, several major banks had failed, a<br />
financial panic had set in, <strong>and</strong> the Bank <strong>of</strong><br />
Engl<strong>and</strong> itself had barely avoided failure. A<br />
sharp recession followed in 1826
1826 Elizabeth Barrett (later Elizabeth Barrett<br />
Browning), An Essay on Mind <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Poems<br />
Richard Carlile, <strong>The</strong> Philosophy <strong>of</strong> the Sexes; or,<br />
Every Woman’s Book<br />
William Hazlitt, <strong>The</strong> Plain Speaker<br />
Thomas Love Peacock, <strong>The</strong> Four <strong>Age</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Poetry<br />
Mary Shelley, <strong>The</strong> Last Man<br />
1827 John Clare, <strong>The</strong> Shepherd’s Calendar<br />
1828 <strong>The</strong> Athaneum first published (weekly<br />
publication continued until 1921)<br />
John Brown, A Memoir <strong>of</strong> Robert Blincoe (first<br />
published as a series <strong>of</strong> five articles in<br />
Richard Carlile’s newspaper <strong>The</strong> Lion; later<br />
reprinted in <strong>The</strong> Poor Man’s Advocate ;<br />
published in pamphlet form in 1832)<br />
Edward Lytton Bulwer (later Edward Bulwer-<br />
Lytton), Pelham; or, <strong>The</strong> Adventures <strong>of</strong> a<br />
Gentleman<br />
Felicia Hemans, Records <strong>of</strong> Woman<br />
<strong>The</strong> Keepsake first published (annual publication<br />
continued until 1857)<br />
1829 Caroline Norton, <strong>The</strong> Undying One<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Timbuctoo<br />
1830 Ebenezer Elliot, Corn Law Rhymes<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical<br />
1831 Mary Prince, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong> Mary Prince<br />
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, third edition<br />
(substantially revised from the first edition<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1818)<br />
1832 Anna Jameson, Characteristics <strong>of</strong> Women<br />
Charles Lyell, Principles <strong>of</strong> Geology<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, <strong>The</strong> Mask <strong>of</strong> Anarchy<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 9<br />
1826 Founding <strong>of</strong> University College, London, as a<br />
secular alternative to the universities <strong>of</strong> Oxford<br />
<strong>and</strong> Cambridge (both <strong>of</strong> which were tied to the<br />
established Church <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong>)<br />
Georg Simon Ohm defines the relationship<br />
between electrical voltage, current, <strong>and</strong><br />
resistance<br />
1828 Repeal <strong>of</strong> the Test Act, which had required that<br />
all holders <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>fice swear allegiance to the<br />
monarch as head <strong>of</strong> the Church <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
receive the sacrament <strong>of</strong> communion through<br />
the established Church (thereby excluding from<br />
<strong>of</strong>fice all who were not members <strong>of</strong> the Church<br />
<strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong>). A broader Catholic Emancipation<br />
followed in 1829, though some discriminatory<br />
measures remained in the case <strong>of</strong> Catholics; the<br />
many restrictions existing for Jews were<br />
unaffected by the 1828 <strong>and</strong> 1829 measures<br />
1829 Metropolitan Police Act sets up an organized<br />
police force in London—<strong>of</strong>ten called the first<br />
police force in the modern sense <strong>of</strong> the term.<br />
(Previously law enforcement had been provided<br />
through a combination <strong>of</strong> individual local<br />
constables, informal local militias, <strong>and</strong>, in the<br />
case <strong>of</strong> larger disturbances, army troops.) <strong>The</strong><br />
early police <strong>of</strong>ficers were called “Peelers,” after<br />
Sir Robert Peel, the Home secretary (later Prime<br />
Minister) responsible for the force’s creation<br />
1831 Defeat <strong>of</strong> First <strong>and</strong> Second Reform Bills; a<br />
Third Reform Bill is introduced<br />
1832 Representation <strong>of</strong> the People Act (commonly<br />
referred to as the Reform Act) passed by both<br />
houses <strong>of</strong> Parliament. <strong>The</strong> act introduced a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> changes to the electoral system <strong>and</strong>
10 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong><br />
Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Americans<br />
1833 Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (published<br />
serially in 1833-34; first published in book<br />
form in 1836 [United States] <strong>and</strong> 1838<br />
[Engl<strong>and</strong>])<br />
1834 Edward Bulwer-Lytton, <strong>The</strong> Last Days <strong>of</strong><br />
Pompeii<br />
Sara Coleridge, Pretty Lessons in Verse for Good<br />
Children<br />
1835 Mary Shelley, Lodore<br />
1836 Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz<br />
Caroline Norton, A Voice from the Factories<br />
1837 Bentley’s Miscellany first published<br />
Thomas Carlyle, <strong>The</strong> French Revolution<br />
Charles Dickens, <strong>The</strong> Posthumous Papers <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Pickwick Club (later generally referred to as<br />
<strong>The</strong> Pickwick Papers)<br />
Harriet Martineau, Society in America<br />
Mary Shelley, Falkner<br />
substantially exp<strong>and</strong>ed the categories <strong>of</strong> people<br />
eligible to vote<br />
1833 Report on the Employment <strong>of</strong> Children in Factories<br />
Factory Act restricts working hours to no more<br />
than 9 hours per day for children aged 9-13 <strong>and</strong><br />
no more than 10 hours per day for those aged<br />
13-18<br />
British Emancipation Act (also known as the<br />
Slavery Abolition Act): the Act, which was passed<br />
by Parliament <strong>and</strong> signed into law in 1833 but<br />
which took effect on 1 August 1834, ended<br />
slavery in all British possessions. (Britain’s<br />
involvement in the slave trade had ended in 1807,<br />
but slavery itself within British territories had not)<br />
John Keble’s attack on a proposal to reduce the<br />
number <strong>of</strong> bishoprics helps spark the formation<br />
<strong>of</strong> the “Oxford Movement,” a group that sought<br />
to promote within the Church <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong> the<br />
bonds between the traditions <strong>of</strong> that church <strong>and</strong><br />
those <strong>of</strong> the Catholic Church <strong>of</strong> Rome<br />
1834 Poor Law Amendment Act sets out workhouse<br />
procedures<br />
Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot<br />
Samuel Taylor Coleridge dies<br />
1835 First colonial settlement at Melbourne, Australia<br />
1836 Beginning <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Chart</strong>ist Movement; the<br />
People’s <strong>Chart</strong>er calls for universal suffrage <strong>and</strong><br />
a variety <strong>of</strong> other reforms<br />
Boer settlers in South Africa begin a “Great<br />
Trek” away from British-controlled territory<br />
1837 Samuel Morse demonstrates his electric<br />
telegraph in New York<br />
Death <strong>of</strong> George IV; 18-year-old Princess<br />
Victoria assumes the throne
<strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong>: A <strong>Chronological</strong><br />
<strong>Chart</strong><br />
In the chart below, dates generally refer to the year when a work was first made public, whether<br />
published in print or, in the case <strong>of</strong> dramatic works, made public through the first performance <strong>of</strong> a<br />
play. Where that date is known to differ substantially from the date <strong>of</strong> composition, the difference<br />
is generally noted. With medieval works, where there is no equivalent to the “publication” <strong>of</strong> later<br />
eras, where texts <strong>of</strong>ten vary greatly from one manuscript copy to another, <strong>and</strong> where knowledge <strong>of</strong><br />
date <strong>of</strong> original composition is usually imprecise, the date that appears is an estimate <strong>of</strong> the date <strong>of</strong><br />
the work’s origin in the written form included or referenced in the Broadview Anthology. Earlier oral<br />
or written versions are <strong>of</strong> course in some cases real possibilities.<br />
Divisions in these chronological charts follow the divisions into six parts <strong>of</strong> the Broadview<br />
Anthology. For the convenience <strong>of</strong> those who may be focusing on only one period, but who may wish<br />
to look slightly beyond its boundaries as they are generally defined, there is in some cases an overlap<br />
between periods in these chronologies. <strong>The</strong> Restoration <strong>and</strong> the Eighteenth Century chart, for<br />
example, carries through to the end <strong>of</strong> the eighteenth century (thereby overlapping with the chart for<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong>), <strong>and</strong> the chart for <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era begins several years before Victoria<br />
came to the throne.<br />
<strong>Texts</strong><br />
1830 Ebenezer Elliot, Corn Law Rhymes<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical<br />
1831 Mary Prince, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong> Mary Prince<br />
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, third edition<br />
(substantially revised from the first edition<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1818)<br />
1832 Anna Jameson, Characteristics <strong>of</strong> Women<br />
Charles Lyell, Principles <strong>of</strong> Geology<br />
Percy Bysshe Shelley, <strong>The</strong> Mask <strong>of</strong> Anarchy<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems<br />
Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Americans<br />
<strong>Contexts</strong><br />
1831 Defeat <strong>of</strong> First <strong>and</strong> Second Reform Bills; a third<br />
reform Bill is introduced<br />
1832 Representation <strong>of</strong> the People Act (commonly<br />
referred to as the Reform Act) passed by both<br />
houses <strong>of</strong> Parliament. <strong>The</strong> act introduced a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> changes to the electoral system <strong>and</strong><br />
substantially exp<strong>and</strong>ed the franchise
12 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1833 Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (published<br />
serially in 1833-34; first published in book<br />
form in 1836 [United States] <strong>and</strong> 1838<br />
[Engl<strong>and</strong>])<br />
1834 Edward Lytton Bulwer (later Edward Bulwer-<br />
Lytton), <strong>The</strong> Last Days <strong>of</strong> Pompeii<br />
Sara Coleridge, Pretty Lessons in Verse for Good<br />
Children<br />
1835 Mary Shelley, Lodore<br />
1836 Charles Dickens, Sketches by Boz<br />
Caroline Norton, A Voice from the Factories<br />
1837 Bentley’s Miscellany first published<br />
Thomas Carlyle, <strong>The</strong> French Revolution<br />
Charles Dickens, <strong>The</strong> Posthumous Papers <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Pickwick Club (later generally referred to as<br />
<strong>The</strong> Pickwick Papers)<br />
Harriet Martineau, Society in America<br />
Mary Shelley, Falkner<br />
1833 Report on the Employment <strong>of</strong> Children in<br />
Factories<br />
Factory Act restricts working hours in the textile<br />
industry to no more than 9 hours per day for<br />
children aged 9-13 <strong>and</strong> no more than 10 hours<br />
per day for those aged 13-18<br />
British Emancipation Act (also known as the<br />
Slavery Abolition Act): the Act, which was<br />
passed by Parliament <strong>and</strong> signed into law in<br />
1833 but which took effect August 1, 1834,<br />
ended slavery in all British possessions. (Britain’s<br />
involvement in the slave trade had ended in<br />
1807, but slavery itself within British territories<br />
had not)<br />
John Keble’s attack on a proposal to reduce the<br />
number <strong>of</strong> bishoprics helps to spark the formation<br />
<strong>of</strong> the “Oxford Movement,” a group that<br />
sought to promote within the Church <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
the bonds between the traditions <strong>of</strong> that church<br />
<strong>and</strong> those <strong>of</strong> the Catholic Church <strong>of</strong> Rome<br />
1834 Poor Law Amendment Act sets out workhouse<br />
procedures<br />
Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot<br />
Samuel Taylor Coleridge dies<br />
1835 First colonial settlement at Melbourne, Australia<br />
1836 Beginning <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Chart</strong>ist Movement; the<br />
People’s <strong>Chart</strong>er calls for universal suffrage <strong>and</strong><br />
a variety <strong>of</strong> other reforms<br />
Boer settlers in South Africa begin a “Great<br />
Trek” away from British-controlled territory<br />
1837 Samuel Morse demonstrates his electric<br />
telegraph in New York<br />
Death <strong>of</strong> William IV; 18-year-old Princess<br />
Victoria assumes the throne
1838 Charles Darwin, <strong>The</strong> Zoology <strong>of</strong> the Voyage <strong>of</strong><br />
HMS Beagle<br />
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist; or <strong>The</strong> Parish<br />
Boy’s Progress<br />
Lady Charlotte Guest, <strong>The</strong> Mabinogion (first<br />
translation into English)<br />
Sir Charles Lyell, Elements <strong>of</strong> Geology<br />
1839 William H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard<br />
Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 13<br />
1838 First regular London-New York steamship<br />
service begins<br />
Richard Cobden <strong>and</strong> John Bright establish the<br />
Anti-Corn Law League. (Parliament had passed<br />
the Importation Act in 1815—legislation<br />
subsequently referred to as the Corn Laws—<br />
protecting grain producers against imports, <strong>and</strong><br />
thereby maintaining higher prices for<br />
consumers)<br />
1838-39 Louis Daguerre in France <strong>and</strong> Henry Fox<br />
Talbot in Engl<strong>and</strong> introduce rival methods <strong>of</strong><br />
photography<br />
1838-80 <strong>The</strong> Anglo-Afghan Wars: this series <strong>of</strong> conflicts<br />
had its roots in what came to be referred to as<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Great Game” <strong>of</strong> great power politics—<br />
specifically, in Britain’s desire to increase its<br />
sphere <strong>of</strong> influence while at the same time<br />
putting a check on Russia’s expansionist<br />
tendencies in Central Asia. Persia (which had<br />
formerly controlled Afghanistan) also retained<br />
territorial ambitions <strong>and</strong>, in the First Afghan<br />
War (1838-40), attempted to re-establish its<br />
control. But Afghan resistance to foreign rule<br />
was extremely fierce, <strong>and</strong> the British suffered<br />
substantial losses, even in battles in which they<br />
were judged to have been victorious. In 1880,<br />
they pulled out their forces <strong>and</strong> h<strong>and</strong>ed the<br />
throne to Abdul Rahman Khan—a strong leader<br />
who was nevertheless prepared to accept a large<br />
measure <strong>of</strong> British control <strong>of</strong> Afghan foreign<br />
policy<br />
1839 <strong>Chart</strong>ists present to Parliament a petition calling<br />
for reforms; when Parliament votes not to hear<br />
the petitioners, widespread protests erupt, with<br />
rioting in many towns <strong>and</strong> calls for a general<br />
strike<br />
Infant Custody Bill (pressed for by Caroline<br />
Norton) ends the absolute control <strong>of</strong> husb<strong>and</strong>s<br />
over their children’s custody, allowing mothers<br />
in the event <strong>of</strong> divorce or separation to apply for<br />
custody <strong>of</strong> children under the age <strong>of</strong> seven, <strong>and</strong><br />
for access to children under the age <strong>of</strong> sixteen
14 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1840 Frances Trollope, <strong>The</strong> Life <strong>and</strong> Adventures <strong>of</strong><br />
Michael Armstrong: <strong>The</strong> Factory Boy<br />
1841 Dion Boucicault, London Assurance: A Comedy<br />
Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, <strong>and</strong><br />
the Heroic in History<br />
Charles Dickens, <strong>The</strong> Old Curiosity Shop<br />
A.W.N. Pugin, <strong>The</strong> True Principles <strong>of</strong> Pointed or<br />
Christian Architecture<br />
1842 Robert Browing, Dramatic Lyrics (number 3 in<br />
the Bells <strong>and</strong> Pomegranates series, 1841-46)<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems<br />
1843 Thomas Carlyle, Past <strong>and</strong> Present<br />
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol<br />
Thomas Hood, <strong>The</strong> Song <strong>of</strong> the Shirt<br />
John Ruskin, Modern Painters<br />
1839-60 Anglo-Chinese Opium Wars: the British, keen<br />
to increase trade penetration into China, had<br />
encouraged the growth <strong>of</strong> trade in opium, which<br />
was popular among the Chinese but had been<br />
made illegal by a Chinese government alarmed<br />
at its effect on the populace. <strong>The</strong> British<br />
continued to subsidize <strong>and</strong> protect the<br />
production <strong>of</strong> opium in their Indian colonies<br />
<strong>and</strong> to support its importation into China, <strong>and</strong><br />
the issue eventually sparked two wars (1839-42<br />
<strong>and</strong> 1856-69). In 1860, the Chinese finally<br />
succumbed to a joint Anglo-French force that<br />
captured Beijing <strong>and</strong> looted the treasure-filled<br />
Summer Palace before destroying it. <strong>The</strong><br />
Chinese were forced to legalize the opium trade<br />
again, but the atmosphere <strong>of</strong> mistrust between<br />
China <strong>and</strong> the European powers that the<br />
conflicts had engendered lasted well into the<br />
twentieth century.<br />
1840 Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert<br />
1842 China forced to cede Hong Kong to Britain<br />
through the provisions <strong>of</strong> the Treaty <strong>of</strong> Nanking<br />
Copyright Act increases the period <strong>of</strong> protection<br />
for intellectual property rights to 42 years after<br />
publication, <strong>and</strong> to seven years after an author’s<br />
death<br />
Charles Edward Mudie begins to lend books for<br />
a fee from his bookselling <strong>and</strong> stationery shop;<br />
by the early 1850s, Mudie’s Select Library had<br />
proved a substantial success<br />
1843 <strong>The</strong> Economist Weekly Commercial Times<br />
newspaper first published, with the aim <strong>of</strong><br />
publishing articles in which “free-trade<br />
principles will be most rigidly applied to all the<br />
most important questions <strong>of</strong> the day”
1844 Elizabeth Barrett (later Elizabeth Barrett<br />
Browning), Poems<br />
Benjamin Disraeli, Coningsby; or, <strong>The</strong> New<br />
Generation<br />
Harriet Martineau, Life in the Sick Room; or,<br />
Essays by an Invalid<br />
William Makepeace Thackeray, <strong>The</strong> Luck <strong>of</strong><br />
Barry Lyndon<br />
1845 Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil; or, <strong>The</strong> Two Nations<br />
Harriet Martineau, Letters on Mesmerism<br />
1846 “Currer, Ellis, <strong>and</strong> Acton Bell” (Charlotte<br />
Brontë, Emily Brontë <strong>and</strong> Anne Brontë), Poems<br />
by Currer, Ellis, <strong>and</strong> Acton Bell<br />
1847 Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre<br />
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights<br />
Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, <strong>The</strong> Princess<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 15<br />
Maori revolt against British colonial rule in New<br />
Zeal<strong>and</strong><br />
1844 Public bath houses open in Britain for the first<br />
time<br />
Invention <strong>of</strong> wood-pulp paper<br />
Founding <strong>of</strong> the Young Men’s Christian<br />
Association (YMCA)<br />
Factory Act restricts working hours in the textile<br />
industry to no more than 6 ½ hours per day for<br />
children aged 9-13; maximum working hours<br />
for women are set at 12 hours per day, 9 hours<br />
on Sunday. <strong>The</strong> Act also included a variety <strong>of</strong><br />
provisions regarding workplace safety<br />
1845 John Franklin sets sail to try to find the<br />
Northwest Passage<br />
1845-49 Anglo-Sikh Wars: the two wars (1845-46 <strong>and</strong><br />
1848-49) were fought on the British side under<br />
the auspices <strong>of</strong> the British East India Company;<br />
at war’s end, the British had brought the Sikh<br />
Kingdom under control <strong>and</strong> annexed the Punjab<br />
1845-50 Famine in Irel<strong>and</strong> as fungus destroys much <strong>of</strong><br />
the potato crop. By 1850, it is believed that<br />
between 750,000 <strong>and</strong> 1,000,000 people had<br />
died <strong>and</strong> approximately 2,000,000 had<br />
emigrated; the population <strong>of</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong> (over 6<br />
million in the early 1840s) had in 2006 still not<br />
recovered to its pre-famine level<br />
1846 Corn Laws repealed in the face <strong>of</strong> intense public<br />
pressure. <strong>The</strong> move was intended in part to<br />
ameliorate the effects <strong>of</strong> famine in Irel<strong>and</strong>, but<br />
the change was phased in over three years <strong>and</strong><br />
came too late to provide much help to the Irish<br />
1847 Foundation <strong>of</strong> the Communist League, the first<br />
international organization devoted to<br />
communist doctrines; Karl Marx <strong>and</strong> Friedrich<br />
Engels are asked to write a manifesto setting out<br />
the organization’s principles
16 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1848 Anne Brontë, <strong>The</strong> Tenant <strong>of</strong> Wildfell Hall<br />
Charles Dickens, Dombey <strong>and</strong> Son<br />
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton<br />
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair<br />
1849 Thomas Babington Macaulay, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong><br />
Engl<strong>and</strong> from the Accession <strong>of</strong> James II<br />
William Makepeace Thackeray, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong><br />
Pendennis<br />
1850 Charles Dickens begins to publish Household<br />
Words<br />
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Poems<br />
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memorium A. H. H.<br />
Factory Act restricts the working week for<br />
women <strong>and</strong> children under 18 employed in<br />
factories to 58 hours<br />
1848 Revolt <strong>and</strong> revolution across Europe, including<br />
upheavals in Austria, Rome, Venice, Milan, <strong>and</strong><br />
Berlin. In France, Louis Phillipe is forced to<br />
relinquish the monarchy; a republic is declared<br />
<strong>and</strong> the right to vote is granted to all males;<br />
Louis Napoleon, a descendant <strong>of</strong> Napoleon<br />
Bonaparte who had been living in exile, returns<br />
<strong>and</strong> is elected as president <strong>of</strong> the republic<br />
Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, <strong>and</strong> Dante<br />
Gabriel Rossetti form the Pre-Raphaelite<br />
Brotherhood. <strong>The</strong> group, founded in reaction to<br />
what the three saw as an overly classical <strong>and</strong><br />
academic approach by many artists <strong>of</strong> their day,<br />
put forward four goals: “to have genuine ideas to<br />
express; to study Nature attentively, so as to<br />
know how to express them; to sympathize with<br />
what is direct <strong>and</strong> serious <strong>and</strong> heartfelt in<br />
previous art, to the exclusion <strong>of</strong> what is<br />
conventional <strong>and</strong> self-parading <strong>and</strong> learned by<br />
rote; <strong>and</strong>, most indispensable <strong>of</strong> all, to produce<br />
thoroughly good pictures <strong>and</strong> statues”<br />
1849 Bedford College founded in London (the first<br />
institution in Britain to <strong>of</strong>fer higher education<br />
for women)<br />
1850 Public Libraries Act: although this act did not<br />
directly fund the creation <strong>of</strong> “libraries freely<br />
open to the public,” as Edward Edwards <strong>and</strong><br />
others pressing for a new bill had wanted, it did<br />
allow local authorities to levy taxes in a very<br />
limited way in order to pay for the creation <strong>of</strong><br />
such libraries. Even after an amendment<br />
increasing the amount that municipalities could<br />
levy, it was impossible for local authorities to do<br />
so without also enlisting the help <strong>of</strong> wealthy<br />
benefactors. Manchester <strong>and</strong> some other towns<br />
acted quickly to set up libraries, but it was only<br />
in the twentieth century—particularly after the<br />
1919 abolition <strong>of</strong> the rate limits—that publicly<br />
funded lending libraries spread throughout<br />
Britain
1851 J.S. Le Fanu, Ghost Stories <strong>and</strong> Tales <strong>of</strong> Mystery<br />
Henry Mayhew, London Labour <strong>and</strong> the London<br />
Poor<br />
John Ruskin, <strong>The</strong> Stones <strong>of</strong> Venice: Volume the<br />
First<br />
1852 Susanna Moodie, Roughing It in the Bush<br />
William Makepeace Thackeray, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong><br />
Henry Esmond, Esq.<br />
1853 Matthew Arnold, Poems: A New Edition<br />
Charlotte Brontë, Villette<br />
Charles Dickens, Bleak House<br />
Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford<br />
Charlotte M. Yonge, <strong>The</strong> Heir <strong>of</strong> Redclyffe<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 17<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson appointed Poet Laureate,<br />
succeeding William Wordsworth<br />
1851 Great Exhibition <strong>of</strong> Science <strong>and</strong> Industry in the<br />
Crystal Palace, London<br />
Coup d’état in France in December: Louis<br />
Napoleon suspends the constitution <strong>of</strong> the<br />
republic <strong>and</strong> declares himself Emperor. (Those<br />
moves, together with the seizure <strong>of</strong> property<br />
from some French citizens, leads some in Britain<br />
to see Louis Napoleon as dangerously<br />
unpredictable—<strong>and</strong> to fear he might<br />
contemplate an invasion <strong>of</strong> Britain)<br />
1851-53 Cape Colony-Xhosa War: this conflict was the<br />
bloodiest <strong>of</strong> the Cape Frontier wars (also known<br />
as the Kaffir Wars) that were fought intermittently<br />
from 1779 to 1879 as the Cape Colony<br />
exp<strong>and</strong>ed <strong>and</strong> took over territory previously<br />
occupied by the Xhosa peoples <strong>of</strong> the Eastern<br />
Cape. In the case <strong>of</strong> the 1851-53 war, conflict<br />
broke out after the Cape colonists objected to a<br />
previous treaty settlement reserving a territory<br />
known as S<strong>and</strong>ile for occupation by native<br />
Africans. Britain was reluctantly drawn into the<br />
conflict in support <strong>of</strong> the colonists; the Cape<br />
Colony <strong>and</strong> British forces suffered substantial<br />
losses, but eventually their superior numbers <strong>and</strong><br />
firepower overwhelmed the Xhosa, <strong>and</strong> in 1853<br />
the disputed territory was annexed to the Cape<br />
Colony<br />
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin<br />
1853-56 Crimean War: Britain <strong>and</strong> France went to war<br />
in support <strong>of</strong> the crumbling Turkish Ottoman<br />
Empire in order to try to preserve the European<br />
balance <strong>of</strong> power against Russia. France <strong>and</strong><br />
Russia had come into conflict in the matter <strong>of</strong><br />
who would exert religious authority over<br />
Christian worship in the Ottoman empire. In<br />
the ensuing struggle, it was feared that Russia<br />
might seize control not only <strong>of</strong> the strategic<br />
Black Sea port <strong>of</strong> Sebastopol, but perhaps also <strong>of</strong><br />
Constantinople, the center <strong>of</strong> the Ottoman
18 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1854 Charles Dickens, Hard Times<br />
“Arthur Pendennis” (William Makepeace<br />
Thackeray), <strong>The</strong> Newcomes<br />
1855 Robert Browning, Men <strong>and</strong> Women<br />
Elizabeth Gaskell, North <strong>and</strong> South<br />
Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Poems (revised version published 1856)<br />
Anthony Trollope, <strong>The</strong> Warden<br />
Charlotte M. Yonge, <strong>The</strong> Railroad Children<br />
Daily Telegraph begins publishing<br />
1856 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh<br />
Thomas De Quincey, Confessions <strong>of</strong> an English<br />
Opium Eater (enlarged edition; first edition<br />
published in 1822)<br />
Charlotte M. Yonge, <strong>The</strong> Daisy Chain; or,<br />
Aspirations<br />
1857 Charlotte Brontë, <strong>The</strong> Pr<strong>of</strong>essor<br />
Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit<br />
Elizabeth Gaskell, <strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> Charlotte Brontë<br />
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays<br />
Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers<br />
empire. <strong>The</strong> war, which ended with an<br />
agreement by all sides to respect the territorial<br />
integrity <strong>of</strong> the Ottoman empire, was notable<br />
for the introduction <strong>of</strong> railway <strong>and</strong> telegraph<br />
technology to warfare, for various<br />
demonstrations <strong>of</strong> military futility (most<br />
famously, the Charge <strong>of</strong> the Light Brigade at the<br />
Battle <strong>of</strong> Balaclava), <strong>and</strong> for its appalling<br />
casualty rates—the worst <strong>of</strong> any war for which<br />
records exist. Casualties from disease far<br />
outnumbered those from battle, <strong>and</strong> Florence<br />
Nightingale became famous for leading a force<br />
<strong>of</strong> volunteer nurses to care for the sick, <strong>and</strong> for<br />
campaigning for improved conditions for troops<br />
1856 <strong>The</strong> Australian colonies <strong>of</strong> Tasmania, Victoria,<br />
<strong>and</strong> South Australia become the first Britishcontrolled<br />
jurisdictions to enact voting by secret<br />
ballot. (Britain did not adopt the secret ballot<br />
until the Ballot Act <strong>of</strong> 1872; Canada made the<br />
change in 1874, <strong>and</strong> the “Australian ballot” was<br />
not adopted in the United States until the<br />
1880s)<br />
County <strong>and</strong> Borough Police Act makes the<br />
formation <strong>of</strong> a county constabulary compulsory<br />
in every county. Following the introduction <strong>of</strong> a<br />
police force to London in 1829, a number <strong>of</strong><br />
jurisdictions had followed suit in setting up their<br />
own constabularies; the 1856 Act regularized<br />
this practice throughout Engl<strong>and</strong>. A similar act<br />
was passed regarding Scotl<strong>and</strong> in 1857<br />
1857 Matrimonial Causes Act makes it possible to<br />
obtain a divorce through the law courts rather<br />
than through a Private Act <strong>of</strong> Parliament. Under<br />
the provisions <strong>of</strong> the Act, adultery by the wife<br />
was sufficient cause for a husb<strong>and</strong> to sue for<br />
divorce, but adultery by the husb<strong>and</strong> was not<br />
considered cause without its being accompanied<br />
by grounds such as cruelty or desertion<br />
Matthew Arnold appointed Pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> Poetry<br />
at Oxford University<br />
Indian Rebellion: this war had its roots in<br />
economic <strong>and</strong> religious grievances among the<br />
native Hindu <strong>and</strong> Muslim population against
1858 “George Eliot” (Mary Anne Evans), Scenes <strong>of</strong><br />
Clerical Life<br />
George MacDonald, Phantastes: A Faerie<br />
Romance for Men <strong>and</strong> Women<br />
1859 Dion Boucicault, <strong>The</strong> Octoroon<br />
Charles Darwin, On the Origin <strong>of</strong> Species by<br />
Natural Selection<br />
Charles Dickens, A Tale <strong>of</strong> Two Cities<br />
George Eliot, Adam Bede<br />
Edward Fitzgerald (trans.), <strong>The</strong> Rubáiyát <strong>of</strong><br />
Omar Khayyám<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 19<br />
control by the British East India Company,<br />
which had attempted to outlaw various religious<br />
customs deemed uncivilized <strong>and</strong> to convert<br />
many Indians to Christianity. <strong>The</strong> rebellion was<br />
eventually suppressed by the British, but it<br />
brought about the end <strong>of</strong> the British East India<br />
Company’s rule in India; in 1858, the<br />
company’s powers were transferred to the<br />
British Crown, <strong>and</strong> for the following 90 years,<br />
Britain ruled India directly through their<br />
viceroy. <strong>The</strong> war, sometimes referred to as the<br />
Indian Mutiny or the Sepoy Rebellion, is also<br />
referred to as the First War <strong>of</strong> Indian<br />
Independence<br />
Members <strong>of</strong> the Philological Society form an<br />
“Unregistered Words Committee” to identify<br />
words not included in extant dictionaries. <strong>The</strong><br />
following year, the Society decided in principle<br />
to undertake preparation <strong>of</strong> A New English<br />
Dictionary on Historical Principles. <strong>The</strong> project<br />
proceeded fitfully until 1879, when it was taken<br />
over by Oxford University Press <strong>and</strong> James<br />
Murray was appointed general editor. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
edition <strong>of</strong> the full Oxford English Dictionary was<br />
finally published in 1928<br />
Charles Baudelaire, Les fleurs du mal (<strong>The</strong><br />
Flowers <strong>of</strong> Evil)<br />
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary. <strong>The</strong> novel<br />
had been issued in serial form in 1856; Flaubert<br />
was tried on charges <strong>of</strong> obscenity in January/<br />
February <strong>of</strong> 1857 <strong>and</strong> acquitted, <strong>and</strong> the novel<br />
became a bestseller in book form later that year
20 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
George Meredith, <strong>The</strong> Ordeal <strong>of</strong> Richard Feverel<br />
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty<br />
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help<br />
Alfred, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls <strong>of</strong> the King<br />
1860 Wilkie Collins, <strong>The</strong> Woman in White<br />
George Eliot, <strong>The</strong> Mill on the Floss<br />
1861 Charles Dickens, Great Expectations<br />
Charles Reade, <strong>The</strong> Cloister <strong>and</strong> the Hearth<br />
Ellen Wood (Mrs. Henry Wood), East Lynne<br />
1862 Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret<br />
Arthur Hugh Clough, Poems<br />
George Meredith, Modern Love<br />
Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Poems<br />
1863 Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Aurora Floyd<br />
George Eliot, Romola<br />
Elizabeth Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lover<br />
Charles Kingsley, <strong>The</strong> Water-Babies<br />
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism<br />
Charles Reade, Hard Cash: A Matter-<strong>of</strong>-Fact<br />
Romance<br />
1864 J.S. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas<br />
John Henry Newman (later Cardinal), Apologia<br />
Pro Vita Sua<br />
1860 Emancipation <strong>of</strong> the serfs in Russia<br />
1861 Giuseppe Garibaldi completes the unification <strong>of</strong><br />
Italy with his conquest <strong>of</strong> Naples; Victor<br />
Emmanuel is crowned as king <strong>of</strong> the new nation<br />
Prince Albert dies<br />
1861-64 American Civil War: though the people <strong>of</strong> the<br />
adjacent British colonies in Canada were almost<br />
universally opposed to slavery, opinion in<br />
Britain itself was mixed—particularly after the<br />
“Trent Affair” in 1861, in which a US warship<br />
intercepted a British ship (the R.M.S. Trent) on<br />
its way to London <strong>and</strong> forcibly removed two<br />
Confederate diplomats who had hoped to plead<br />
their case to the British. <strong>The</strong> French declared<br />
their willingness to fight alongside the British if<br />
Britain went to war against the Union<br />
government, but the crisis was defused early in<br />
1862, <strong>and</strong> neither Britain nor any other<br />
European powers intervened in the American<br />
conflict<br />
1862 Emancipation Proclamation in America<br />
Otto von Bismarck becomes Prime Minister <strong>of</strong><br />
Prussia. Bismarck largely created the modern<br />
German state over the following decade<br />
1864-69 Contagious Diseases Acts <strong>of</strong> 1864, 1866, <strong>and</strong><br />
1869 (all repealed in 1886 after a long campaign<br />
<strong>of</strong> public opposition): these acts attempted to
1865 Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism<br />
“Lewis Carroll” (C.L. Dodgson), Alice’s<br />
Adventures in Wonderl<strong>and</strong><br />
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend<br />
J.S. Le Fanu, Guy Deverell<br />
David Livingstone, Narrative <strong>of</strong> an Expedition to<br />
the Zambesi <strong>and</strong> its Tributaries<br />
Charlotte M. Yonge, <strong>The</strong> Clever Woman <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Family<br />
1866 Margaret Oliphant, Miss Marjoribanks<br />
Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems <strong>and</strong> Ballads<br />
1867 Walter Bagehot, <strong>The</strong> English Constitution<br />
Anthony Trollope, <strong>The</strong> Last Chronicle <strong>of</strong> Barset<br />
Augusta Webster, A Woman Sold, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Poems<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 21<br />
control venereal disease in specified cities <strong>and</strong><br />
towns by m<strong>and</strong>ating the physical examination <strong>of</strong><br />
women suspected <strong>of</strong> being prostitutes, <strong>and</strong><br />
interning those suspected <strong>of</strong> infection for up to<br />
three months, without legal recourse. No<br />
provisions were included for the examination or<br />
detention <strong>of</strong> the prostitutes’ clientele<br />
1865 Morant Bay Insurrection (also known as the<br />
Jamaica Rebellion) <strong>and</strong> subsequent Eyre<br />
controversy: this episode had its roots in the<br />
deplorable conditions to which Jamaica’s black<br />
population remained subject. Officially, they<br />
had been free since the 1834 emancipation <strong>of</strong> all<br />
slaves in British possessions, but in practice<br />
there were severe limits on this freedom.<br />
Economically, most remained under the<br />
effective control <strong>of</strong> plantation owners, <strong>and</strong><br />
exorbitant voting fees in effect reserved the right<br />
to vote to wealthy white males. <strong>The</strong> spark for<br />
insurrection in 1865 was the imprisonment <strong>of</strong> a<br />
black man for trespassing on a long-ab<strong>and</strong>oned<br />
piece <strong>of</strong> property. When the militia fired into a<br />
gathering <strong>of</strong> protesters, killing at least seven, the<br />
crowd attacked in turn <strong>and</strong> killed at least 18<br />
members <strong>of</strong> the militia <strong>and</strong> others. <strong>The</strong><br />
insurrection was quickly put down by troops,<br />
but, after calm had been restored, the Governor-<br />
General, Edward John Eyre, ordered brutal<br />
reprisals; almost 800 black Jamaicans were killed<br />
either directly by troops or by execution without<br />
proper trial <strong>and</strong> at least 600 were flogged. <strong>The</strong><br />
episode excited considerable controversy in<br />
Britain, <strong>and</strong> Governor Eyre was suspended from<br />
his duties <strong>and</strong> recalled, but never formally<br />
accused or tried for his actions<br />
1865-69 Leo Tolstoy, Voyna I mir (War <strong>and</strong> Peace) is<br />
published in serial form<br />
1867 Reform Act (<strong>of</strong>ten referred to as the Second<br />
Reform Bill) extends the franchise to all male<br />
householders satisfying a residential<br />
requirement, greatly increasing the size <strong>of</strong> the<br />
electorate. Member <strong>of</strong> Parliament John Stuart
22 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1868 Robert Browning, <strong>The</strong> Ring <strong>and</strong> the Book (vols.<br />
1 <strong>and</strong> 2)<br />
Wilkie Collins, <strong>The</strong> Moonstone: A Romance<br />
1869 Matthew Arnold, Culture <strong>and</strong> Anarchy<br />
R.D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone<br />
John Stuart Mill, <strong>The</strong> Subjection <strong>of</strong> Women<br />
1870 Charles Dickens, <strong>The</strong> Mystery <strong>of</strong> Edwin Drood<br />
Edward Lear, Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany <strong>and</strong><br />
Alphabet<br />
Charles Reade, Put Yourself in his Place<br />
Augusta Webster, Portraits<br />
Mill proposes an amendment to the Act that<br />
would substitute “person” for “man”—thereby<br />
enfranchising women for the first time—but the<br />
amendment is defeated 196 to 73<br />
Bicycles first manufactured in France<br />
British North America Act unites Ontario,<br />
Quebec, Nova Scotia, <strong>and</strong> New Brunswick to<br />
form the Dominion <strong>of</strong> Canada—a confederation<br />
largely independent <strong>of</strong> British control.<br />
(Britain retained limited control over Canadian<br />
foreign policy until the Statute <strong>of</strong> Westminster<br />
in 1931)<br />
Factory Extension Act extended the provisions<br />
<strong>of</strong> earlier Factory Acts (many <strong>of</strong> which had<br />
applied only to the textile industry) to all firms<br />
employing more than 50 workers<br />
Émile Zola, Thérèse Raquin<br />
1868 Public executions abolished<br />
1869 Joseph Lister invents antiseptics<br />
<strong>The</strong> Suez canal opened<br />
1870 Elementary Education Act m<strong>and</strong>ates that<br />
elementary education be made available to all<br />
children through local school boards. Under the<br />
provisions <strong>of</strong> the act, the boards were allowed<br />
(but not required) to make attendance<br />
compulsory within their jurisdictions. An 1872<br />
act m<strong>and</strong>ated compulsory elementary education<br />
in Scotl<strong>and</strong>. In 1880, attendance was made<br />
compulsory throughout Engl<strong>and</strong> (though fees<br />
could still be levied); in 1891, elementary<br />
education was made universally free as well as<br />
compulsory<br />
Married Women’s Property Act <strong>of</strong> 1870 grants<br />
women control over funds earned by or given to<br />
them in certain financial categories (such as<br />
wages earned after marriage, certain investments,<br />
<strong>and</strong> legacies under £200)
1871 Edward Bulwer-Lytton, <strong>The</strong> Coming Race<br />
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, <strong>and</strong><br />
What Alice Found <strong>The</strong>re<br />
George MacDonald, <strong>The</strong> Princess <strong>and</strong> the Goblin<br />
Samuel Smiles, Character<br />
1872 Samuel Butler, Erewhon; or, Over the Range<br />
Frances Power Cobbe, Darwinism in Morals <strong>and</strong><br />
Other Essays<br />
George Eliot, Middlemarch<br />
Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree<br />
Christina Rossetti, Sing-Song<br />
Henry Morton Stanley, How I Found<br />
Livingstone<br />
1873 Robert Bridges, Poems by Robert Bridges<br />
John Henry Newman (later Cardinal), <strong>The</strong> Idea<br />
<strong>of</strong> a University<br />
1874 Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 23<br />
1870-71 Franco-Prussian War: the immediate cause <strong>of</strong><br />
France declaring war on Prussia was a dispute<br />
over the succession to the Spanish throne, but<br />
its underlying cause was French concern that<br />
Prussia’s new position <strong>of</strong> prominence (among<br />
the loose federation <strong>of</strong> quasi-independent states<br />
that together comprised Germany) would upset<br />
the European balance <strong>of</strong> power. As it turned<br />
out, France’s anxiety was well founded:<br />
Germany’s ability to mobilize rapidly (using<br />
railways to best advantage) <strong>and</strong> their superior<br />
artillery helped them to decisively defeat the<br />
French. Before the war’s end, the French<br />
Emperor had been overthrown <strong>and</strong> the Germans<br />
had formally united in a single nation state<br />
under the Prussian monarch. <strong>The</strong> French were<br />
forced to cede territory in the provinces <strong>of</strong><br />
Alsace <strong>and</strong> Lorraine to Germany<br />
End <strong>of</strong> religion requirement for admission to the<br />
universities <strong>of</strong> Oxford, Cambridge, <strong>and</strong><br />
Durham; it had previously been required that<br />
one be a communicant in the established<br />
Church <strong>of</strong> Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
1871 Paris Commune: disenchantment among French<br />
workers both at their country’s humiliating<br />
defeat <strong>and</strong> at poor economic conditions had led<br />
to an upsurge <strong>of</strong> socialism, <strong>and</strong> in the spring <strong>of</strong><br />
1871 the “Conseille de la Commune” assumed<br />
power in Paris. <strong>The</strong> commune was soon<br />
overthrown, but it came to be seen by many as a<br />
model for revolutionary government<br />
1872 Formation <strong>of</strong> the National Society for Women’s<br />
Suffrage, forerunner <strong>of</strong> the influential National<br />
Union <strong>of</strong> Women’s Suffrage Societies<br />
1873 Arthur Rimbaud, Un saison en enfer (A Season in<br />
Hell)<br />
1874 Factory Act legislates a 56 hour work week
24 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1876 George Eliot, Daniel Deronda<br />
Margaret Oliphant, Phoebe Junior<br />
1878 W. S. Gilbert, HMS Pinafore; or <strong>The</strong> Lass that<br />
Loved a Sailor<br />
Thomas Hardy, <strong>The</strong> Return <strong>of</strong> the Native<br />
Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems <strong>and</strong><br />
Ballads; Second Series<br />
1879 <strong>The</strong> Boy’s Own Paper begins publishing<br />
1880 James Thomson, <strong>The</strong> City <strong>of</strong> Dreadful Night,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
<strong>The</strong> Girl’s Own Paper begins publishing<br />
First exhibition <strong>of</strong> Impressionist paintings in<br />
Paris<br />
1876 Trial <strong>of</strong> Annie Besant <strong>and</strong> Charles Bradlaugh for<br />
publishing a pamphlet on birth control<br />
Alex<strong>and</strong>er Graham Bell patents the telephone<br />
Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle <strong>of</strong> operas<br />
performed at the new Bayreuth <strong>The</strong>ater<br />
Stéphane Mallarmé, L’après-midi d’un faun (<strong>The</strong><br />
Afternoon <strong>of</strong> a Faun)<br />
1877 Queen Victoria named Empress <strong>of</strong> India<br />
All Engl<strong>and</strong> Lawn Tennis Championship first<br />
held at Wimbledon<br />
Thomas Edison invents the phonograph<br />
1878 Factory Act applies the Factory Code to all<br />
trades, eliminates the employment <strong>of</strong> children<br />
under the age <strong>of</strong> 10, limits the employment <strong>of</strong><br />
workers aged 10-14 to half days, <strong>and</strong> limits the<br />
employment <strong>of</strong> women to 56 hours per week<br />
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake<br />
1878-79 Joseph Swann in Britain <strong>and</strong> Thomas Edison in<br />
the United States develop practical <strong>and</strong> longlasting<br />
forms <strong>of</strong> electric lighting<br />
1879 Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House<br />
Anglo-Zulu War: Henry Bartle Frere, charged<br />
with the task <strong>of</strong> bringing about a consolidation<br />
<strong>of</strong> British colonies in southern Africa, provoked<br />
a quarrel with the independent Zulu nation,<br />
which ended with the British invading<br />
Zulul<strong>and</strong>; fierce fighting ensued, with the Zulu<br />
inflicting a humiliating defeat on British forces<br />
at Is<strong>and</strong>ldwana on 22 January, but by the end <strong>of</strong><br />
July the British had established control over<br />
Zulu territory, <strong>and</strong> the war ended
1881 T.H. Huxley, Science <strong>and</strong> Culture, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Essays<br />
Amy Levy, Xantippe, <strong>and</strong> Other Verse<br />
Christina Rossetti, A Pageant, <strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ballads <strong>and</strong> Sonnets<br />
Oscar Wilde, Poems<br />
1883 Eliza Lynn Linton, <strong>The</strong> Girl from the Period, <strong>and</strong><br />
Other Social Essays<br />
Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Isl<strong>and</strong><br />
1884 Amy Levy, A Minor Poet, <strong>and</strong> Other Verses<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 25<br />
1881 Formation <strong>of</strong> the Rational Dress Society,<br />
founded in order to campaign against “any<br />
fashion or dress that either deforms the figure<br />
[or] impedes the movement <strong>of</strong> the body,” <strong>and</strong> to<br />
promote clothing for women that was<br />
appropriate to “active purposes”<br />
1882 Married Women’s Property Act legislates the<br />
right <strong>of</strong> women to retain property they have<br />
obtained before or after marriage; earnings or<br />
property acquired by women while married<br />
remain legally the property <strong>of</strong> their husb<strong>and</strong>s<br />
1884 Amendment to the Married Women’s Property<br />
Act conveys the status <strong>of</strong> an independent person<br />
on a married woman (who had previously been<br />
considered part <strong>of</strong> the “chattel” <strong>of</strong> her husb<strong>and</strong>)<br />
Reform Act extends the vote to all male<br />
householders<br />
Berlin Conference: acting on a suggestion from<br />
Portugal, German Chancellor Otto von<br />
Bismarck called a conference <strong>of</strong> European<br />
powers, plus the United States, to clarify the<br />
extent <strong>of</strong> their respective “spheres <strong>of</strong> influence”<br />
(the first time this term is recorded as having<br />
been used) in Africa <strong>and</strong> to resolve any issues<br />
over disputed territories. <strong>The</strong> Conference agreed<br />
on boundaries dividing up almost the whole <strong>of</strong><br />
Africa among the colonial powers <strong>and</strong><br />
confirmed the Free State <strong>of</strong> the Congo as<br />
belonging to Leopold II <strong>of</strong> Belgium<br />
Founding <strong>of</strong> the Fabian Society, with the aim <strong>of</strong><br />
advancing the socialist cause by gradualist<br />
means, rather than revolution<br />
1884-85 Siege <strong>of</strong> Khartoum: in December 1883, the<br />
British government had ordered the evacuation<br />
<strong>of</strong> British <strong>and</strong> Egyptian nationals from the<br />
Sudan in the face <strong>of</strong> a fierce rebellion against<br />
Anglo-Egyptian control <strong>of</strong> the territory. General<br />
Charles George Gordon, sent by the British to<br />
support the garrison <strong>and</strong> help coordinate their
26 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1885 W.S. Gilbert, <strong>The</strong> Mikado<br />
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines<br />
George Meredith, Diana <strong>of</strong> the Crossways<br />
Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean<br />
Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child’s Garden <strong>of</strong><br />
Verses<br />
1886 Thomas Hardy, <strong>The</strong> Mayor <strong>of</strong> Casterbridge<br />
Robert Louis Stevenson, <strong>The</strong> Strange Case <strong>of</strong> Dr.<br />
Jekyll<br />
<strong>and</strong> Mr. Hyde<br />
Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped<br />
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Locksley Hall Sixty<br />
Years After<br />
1887 H. Rider Haggard, She: A History <strong>of</strong> Adventure<br />
1888 Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet<br />
Thomas Hardy, Wessex Tales<br />
Amy Levy, <strong>The</strong> Romance <strong>of</strong> a Shop<br />
withdrawal, ordered the evacuation <strong>of</strong> women<br />
<strong>and</strong> children but remained in Khartoum with a<br />
small British force, unwilling to concede defeat<br />
in the territory; from 18 March onwards,<br />
Khartoum was under siege. Public opinion<br />
swung behind Gordon in his defiance <strong>of</strong> orders,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the government was eventually forced to<br />
authorize the sending <strong>of</strong> reinforcements to<br />
provide relief to Gordon. <strong>The</strong> forces <strong>of</strong> Mahdi<br />
Mohammed Ahmed finally overwhelmed the<br />
city <strong>and</strong> killed Gordon on 18 January 1885; two<br />
days later, the relief force arrived <strong>and</strong><br />
reestablished British control over Khartoum<br />
1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act raises the age <strong>of</strong><br />
consent for girls to 16 from 13; the Labouchière<br />
Amendment to the act criminalizes all sexual<br />
acts between men (consensual or not)<br />
1886 Guardianship <strong>of</strong> Infants Act makes it possible<br />
for a woman to be declared the sole guardian <strong>of</strong><br />
her children if her husb<strong>and</strong> dies<br />
Prime Minister William Gladstone’s effort to<br />
allow Irel<strong>and</strong> its own legislature <strong>and</strong> a limited<br />
degree <strong>of</strong> independence from British control<br />
fails as the Irish Government Bill (also known as<br />
the First Home Rule Bill) is defeated 341 to 311<br />
in the House <strong>of</strong> Commons, with 93 from<br />
Gladstone’s own Liberal Party voting against the<br />
measure. <strong>The</strong> “Unionist” Liberal dissidents<br />
allied themselves with Lord Salisbury’s<br />
Conservative Party in the ensuing general<br />
election, <strong>and</strong> Gladstone was thrown from <strong>of</strong>fice.<br />
Subsequent attempts in 1893 <strong>and</strong> 1914 to enact<br />
some form <strong>of</strong> Irish Home Rule also failed; not<br />
until the Government <strong>of</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong> Act <strong>of</strong> 1920<br />
was “Home Rule” finally both passed <strong>and</strong><br />
implemented<br />
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good <strong>and</strong> Evil<br />
1887 Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee<br />
1888 Annie Besant leads the Match Girls strike at the<br />
Bryant <strong>and</strong> May factory in London
Mary Ward (Mrs. Humphrey Ward), Robert<br />
Elsmere<br />
1889 Henry James, A London Life<br />
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say<br />
Nothing <strong>of</strong> the Dog)<br />
Andrew Lang, <strong>The</strong> Blue Fairy Book<br />
Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwinism<br />
William Butler Yeats, <strong>The</strong> W<strong>and</strong>erings <strong>of</strong> Oisin,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
1890 Arthur Conan Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Sign <strong>of</strong> Four<br />
J.G. Frazer, <strong>The</strong> Golden Bough<br />
“Vernon Lee” (Violet Paget), Hauntings<br />
Sidney Webb, Socialism in Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
1891 Thomas Hardy, Tess <strong>of</strong> the d’Urbervilles: A Pure<br />
Woman Faithfully Presented<br />
William Morris, News from Nowhere<br />
Arthur Wing Pinero, <strong>The</strong> Times: A Comedy<br />
Oscar Wilde, <strong>The</strong> Picture <strong>of</strong> Dorian Gray<br />
1892 Arthur Conan Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Adventures <strong>of</strong> Sherlock<br />
Holmes<br />
G.A. Henty, <strong>The</strong> Dash for Khartoum<br />
1893 Annie Besant, An Autobiography<br />
“George Egerton” (Mary Chavelita Dunne),<br />
Keynotes<br />
George Gissing, <strong>The</strong> Odd Women<br />
“Sarah Gr<strong>and</strong>” (Frances Elizabeth McFall), <strong>The</strong><br />
Heavenly Twins<br />
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan<br />
Israel Zangwill, Ghetto Tragedies<br />
1894 Ella Hepworth Dixon, <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> a Modern<br />
Woman<br />
George du Maurier, Trilby<br />
“Anthony Hope” (Anthony Hope Hawkins),<br />
<strong>The</strong> Prisoner <strong>of</strong> Zenda<br />
Rudyard Kipling, <strong>The</strong> Jungle Book<br />
Oscar Wilde, A Woman <strong>of</strong> No Importance<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 27<br />
“Jack the Ripper” murders in the East End <strong>of</strong><br />
London<br />
Completion <strong>of</strong> the Forth Railway Bridge in<br />
Scotl<strong>and</strong><br />
1890 City <strong>and</strong> South London Railway (now<br />
incorporated into the Northern Line) opens as<br />
the first electrically-operated “deep line” in the<br />
London Underground. (Previous lines,<br />
beginning in 1863 with the Metropolitan<br />
Railway, had been covered railways rather than<br />
underground subways in the modern sense)<br />
1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies<br />
1893 Independent Labour Party formed; Labour soon<br />
became a serious competitor to the Liberal <strong>and</strong><br />
Conservative parties, <strong>and</strong> by the 1930s it had<br />
supplanted the Liberals as the main alternative<br />
to the Conservatives<br />
New Zeal<strong>and</strong> grants women the right to vote<br />
1894-95 Japan defeats China in the Sino-Japanese war
28 <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era<br />
1895 Grant Allen, <strong>The</strong> Woman Who Did<br />
Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure<br />
Arthur Wing Pinero, <strong>The</strong> Second Mrs.<br />
Tanqueray<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> Time Machine<br />
1896 A.E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> Isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Dr. Moreau<br />
1897 Joseph Conrad, <strong>The</strong> Nigger <strong>of</strong> the “Narcissus”<br />
Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion<br />
Sarah Gr<strong>and</strong>, <strong>The</strong> Beth Book<br />
Mary Kingsley, Travels in West Africa<br />
Henry Newbolt, Admirals All, <strong>and</strong> Other Verses<br />
Bram Stoker, Dracula<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> Invisible Man: A Grotesque<br />
Romance<br />
1898 Thomas Hardy, Wessex Poems, <strong>and</strong> Other Verses<br />
Bernard Shaw, Plays Pleasant <strong>and</strong> Unpleasant<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> War <strong>of</strong> the Worlds<br />
1899 Helen Bannerman, <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> Little Black<br />
Sambo<br />
Joseph Conrad, Heart <strong>of</strong> Darkness<br />
Arthur Symons, <strong>The</strong> Symbolist Movement in<br />
Literature<br />
Oscar Wilde, <strong>The</strong> Importance <strong>of</strong> Being Earnest: A<br />
Trivial Comedy for Serious People<br />
Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husb<strong>and</strong><br />
William Butler Yeats, <strong>The</strong> Wind Among the<br />
Reeds<br />
1895 Oscar Wilde arrested <strong>and</strong> tried for homosexual<br />
acts<br />
1896-97 Revolt <strong>of</strong> the Ndebele <strong>and</strong> Shona peoples<br />
against colonial rule by the British South Africa<br />
Company in Matabelel<strong>and</strong> (now part <strong>of</strong><br />
Zimbabwe). <strong>The</strong> British sent troops to suppress<br />
the uprising, which is now known variously as<br />
the Matabelel<strong>and</strong> Rebellion, the First<br />
Chimurenga, <strong>and</strong> the First War <strong>of</strong> Zimbabwean<br />
Independence<br />
1897 Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee<br />
1898 <strong>The</strong> Fashoda incident: France attempts to claim<br />
the area surrounding Fashoda in Southern<br />
Sudan as a French protectorate, but eventually<br />
backs down; the issue is resolved without<br />
fighting, <strong>and</strong> the area remains under British<br />
control<br />
1899 Irish Literary <strong>The</strong>atre founded<br />
Sigmund Freud publishes Die Traumdeutung<br />
(<strong>The</strong> Interpretation <strong>of</strong> Dreams)<br />
1899-1902 South African War (also known as the Anglo-<br />
Boer War): an influx <strong>of</strong> British settlers to the<br />
Transvaal following the discovery <strong>of</strong> gold in<br />
1885 had put pressure on relations between<br />
Britain <strong>and</strong> the independent republics <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Orange Free State <strong>and</strong> the Transvaal (South<br />
African Republic), both controlled by Dutchdescended<br />
Afrikaaners. Tensions were exacerbated<br />
by the abortive 1896 Jameson raid (led by<br />
Starr Jameson <strong>of</strong> the Rhodesian police force),<br />
which was an attempt by the British to incite<br />
expatriate British workers in the Transvaal to<br />
rebel against the local government. In the war
1900 Winston Churchill, London to Ladysmith via<br />
Pretoria<br />
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim<br />
H.G. Wells, Love <strong>and</strong> Mr. Lewisham<br />
1901 Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career<br />
Rudyard Kipling, Kim<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> First Men in the Moon<br />
1902 Joseph Conrad, Youth<br />
Arthur Conan Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Hound <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Baskervilles<br />
Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories for Little<br />
Children<br />
Alice Meynell, Later Poems<br />
E(dith) Nesbit, Five Children <strong>and</strong> It<br />
Beatrix Potter, <strong>The</strong> Tale <strong>of</strong> Peter Rabbit<br />
Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Pr<strong>of</strong>ession (first<br />
private performance, Stage Society. Shaw<br />
completed the original version <strong>of</strong> the play in<br />
1892; it was first published [in Plays Pleasant<br />
<strong>and</strong> Unpleasant] in 1898, <strong>and</strong> first<br />
performed publicly [<strong>and</strong> subsequently<br />
banned] in New York, 1905. <strong>The</strong> Lord<br />
Chamberlain’s ban on its public<br />
performance in Britain was removed in<br />
1924)<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 29<br />
itself, the British suffered several embarrassing<br />
defeats (leading many in Britain to question the<br />
government’s colonial strategy) before finally<br />
overcoming the Afrikaaner forces. <strong>The</strong> two<br />
republics were incorporated into the British<br />
Empire at war’s end, but in 1912 South Africa<br />
was granted largely autonomous status as a<br />
dominion<br />
1900 Boxer Rebellion: this uprising in northern China<br />
was led by the Righteous Harmony Society<br />
(nicknamed the Boxers by Westerners), who<br />
were protesting the degree to which citizens <strong>and</strong><br />
companies from Britain <strong>and</strong> other Western<br />
countries were given favorable treatment by the<br />
Qing dynasty. For some months, the foreign<br />
compound in Beijing was under siege, but by<br />
year’s end the rebellion had been suppressed<br />
(<strong>and</strong> numerous reprisals carried out)<br />
1901 Queen Victoria dies; Edward VII succeeds to<br />
the throne<br />
First wireless communication across the Atlantic<br />
Factory Act forbids the employment in factories<br />
or workshops <strong>of</strong> children under the age <strong>of</strong> 12<br />
Commonwealth <strong>of</strong> Australia formed
<strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong>: A <strong>Chronological</strong><br />
<strong>Chart</strong><br />
In the chart below, dates generally refer to the year when a work was first made public, whether<br />
published in print or, in the case <strong>of</strong> dramatic works, made public through the first performance <strong>of</strong> a<br />
play. Where that date is known to differ substantially from the date <strong>of</strong> composition, the difference<br />
is generally noted. With medieval works, where there is no equivalent to the “publication” <strong>of</strong> later<br />
eras, where texts <strong>of</strong>ten vary greatly from one manuscript copy to another, <strong>and</strong> where knowledge <strong>of</strong><br />
date <strong>of</strong> original composition is usually imprecise, the date that appears is an estimate <strong>of</strong> the date <strong>of</strong><br />
the work’s origin in the written form included or referenced in the Broadview Anthology. Earlier oral<br />
or written versions are <strong>of</strong> course in some cases real possibilities.<br />
Divisions in these chronological charts follow the divisions into six parts <strong>of</strong> the Broadview<br />
Anthology. For the convenience <strong>of</strong> those who may be focusing on only one period, but who may wish<br />
to look slightly beyond its boundaries as they are generally defined, there is in some cases an overlap<br />
between periods in these chronologies. <strong>The</strong> Restoration <strong>and</strong> the Eighteenth Century chart, for<br />
example, carries through to the end <strong>of</strong> the eighteenth century (thereby overlapping with the chart for<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Age</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Romanticism</strong>), <strong>and</strong> the chart for <strong>The</strong> Victorian Era begins several years before Victoria<br />
came to the throne.<br />
<strong>Texts</strong><br />
1899 Helen Bannerman, <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> Little Black Sambo<br />
Joseph Conrad, Heart <strong>of</strong> Darkness<br />
Arthur Symons, <strong>The</strong> Symbolist Movement in<br />
Literature<br />
Oscar Wilde, <strong>The</strong> Importance <strong>of</strong> Being Earnest: A<br />
Trivial Comedy for Serious People<br />
Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husb<strong>and</strong><br />
William Butler Yeats, <strong>The</strong> Wind Among the Reeds<br />
<br />
<strong>Contexts</strong><br />
1899 Irish Literary <strong>The</strong>atre founded<br />
Sigmund Freud publishes Die Traumdeutung<br />
(<strong>The</strong> Interpretation <strong>of</strong> Dreams)<br />
1899-1902 South African War (also known as the Anglo-<br />
Boer War): an influx <strong>of</strong> British settlers to the<br />
Transvaal following the discovery <strong>of</strong> gold in<br />
1885 had put pressure on relations between<br />
Britain <strong>and</strong> the independent republics <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Orange Free State <strong>and</strong> the Transvaal (South<br />
African Republic), both controlled by Dutchdescended<br />
Afrikaners. Tensions were<br />
exacerbated by the abortive 1896 Jameson raid<br />
(led by Starr Jameson <strong>of</strong> the Rhodesian police<br />
force), which was an attempt by the British to<br />
incite expatriate British workers in the Transvaal
1900 Winston Churchill, London to Ladysmith via<br />
Pretoria<br />
Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim<br />
H.G. Wells, Love <strong>and</strong> Mr. Lewisham<br />
1901 Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career<br />
Rudyard Kipling, Kim<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> First Men in the Moon<br />
1902 Joseph Conrad, Youth<br />
Arthur Conan Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Hound <strong>of</strong> the Baskervilles<br />
Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories for Little Children<br />
Alice Meynell, Later Poems<br />
E(dith) Nesbit, Five Children <strong>and</strong> It<br />
Beatrix Potter, <strong>The</strong> Tales <strong>of</strong> Peter Rabbit<br />
Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Pr<strong>of</strong>ession (first<br />
private performance, Stage Society. Shaw<br />
completed the original version <strong>of</strong> the play in<br />
1892; it was first published [in Plays Pleasant<br />
<strong>and</strong> Unpleasant] in 1898, <strong>and</strong> first<br />
performed publicly [<strong>and</strong> subsequently<br />
banned] in New York, 1905. <strong>The</strong> Lord<br />
Chamberlain’s ban on its public performance<br />
in Britain was removed in 1924)<br />
1903 Samuel Butler, <strong>The</strong> Way <strong>of</strong> All Flesh<br />
Joseph Conrad, Typhoon <strong>and</strong> Other Stories<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 31<br />
to rebel against the local government. In the war<br />
itself, the British suffered several embarrassing<br />
defeats (leading many in Britain to question the<br />
government’s colonial strategy) before finally<br />
overcoming the Afrikaner forces. <strong>The</strong> two<br />
republics were incorporated into the British<br />
Empire at war’s end, but in 1912 South Africa<br />
was granted largely autonomous status as a<br />
dominion<br />
1900 Boxer Rebellion: this uprising in northern China<br />
was led by the Righteous Harmony Society<br />
(nicknamed the Boxers by Westerners), who<br />
were protesting the degree to which citizens <strong>and</strong><br />
companies from Britain <strong>and</strong> other Western<br />
countries were given favorable treatment by the<br />
Qing dynasty. For some months the foreign<br />
compound in Beijing was under siege, but by<br />
year’s end the rebellion had been suppressed<br />
(<strong>and</strong> numerous reprisals carried out)<br />
1901 Queen Victoria dies; Edward VII succeeds to<br />
the throne<br />
First wireless communication across the Atlantic<br />
Factory Act forbids the employment in factories<br />
or workshops <strong>of</strong> children under the age <strong>of</strong> 12<br />
Commonwealth <strong>of</strong> Australia formed<br />
1903 Women’s Social <strong>and</strong> Political Union (known as<br />
the “suffragettes”) formed as a more militant
32 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1904 J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan: <strong>The</strong> Boy Who Would Not<br />
Grow Up<br />
Aubrey Beardsley, Under the Hill (unexpurgated<br />
version published as <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> Venus <strong>and</strong><br />
Tannhauser in 1907)<br />
A.C. Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy<br />
G.K. Chesterton, <strong>The</strong> Napoleon <strong>of</strong> Notting Hill<br />
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo: A Tale <strong>of</strong> the Seaboard<br />
Sara Jeannette Duncan, <strong>The</strong> Imperialist<br />
Thomas Hardy, <strong>The</strong> Dynasts: A Drama <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Napoleonic Wars (first part; third <strong>and</strong> final<br />
part published in 1908)<br />
W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions<br />
“Saki” (Hector Hugh Munro), Reginald<br />
1905 Ernest Dowson, <strong>The</strong> Poems <strong>of</strong> Ernest Dowson<br />
Arthur Conan Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Return <strong>of</strong> Sherlock<br />
Holmes<br />
Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara<br />
H.G. Wells, Kipps: <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> a Simple Soul<br />
1906 H.W. Fowler <strong>and</strong> F.G. Fowler, <strong>The</strong> King’s<br />
English<br />
John Galsworthy, <strong>The</strong> Man <strong>of</strong> Property<br />
E(dith) Nesbit, <strong>The</strong> Railway Children<br />
1907 Joseph Conrad, <strong>The</strong> Secret <strong>Age</strong>nt<br />
J.M. Synge, <strong>The</strong> Aran Isl<strong>and</strong>s<br />
J.M. Synge, <strong>The</strong> Playboy <strong>of</strong> the Western World<br />
1908 Arnold Bennett, <strong>The</strong> Old Wives’ Tale<br />
E.M. Forster, A Room with a View<br />
Kenneth Grahame, <strong>The</strong> Wind in the Willows<br />
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne <strong>of</strong> Green Gables<br />
breakaway group from the National Union <strong>of</strong><br />
Women’s Suffrage Societies<br />
Orville <strong>and</strong> Wilbur Wright achieve a sustained<br />
flight in a power-driven airplane<br />
1905 <strong>The</strong> Imperial Guard <strong>of</strong> Russia attacks a peaceful<br />
crowd <strong>of</strong> strikers <strong>and</strong> other demonstrators on<br />
“Bloody Sunday,” killing approximately 1,000,<br />
injuring thous<strong>and</strong>s more, <strong>and</strong> sparking an<br />
attempted revolution throughout the Russian<br />
Empire against the rule <strong>of</strong> Czar Nicholas II<br />
Aliens Act <strong>of</strong> 1905 implements measures<br />
designed to deter Jewish immigration<br />
Albert Einstein formulates his <strong>The</strong>ory <strong>of</strong> Special<br />
Relativity<br />
1907 Rudyard Kipling becomes the first British<br />
winner <strong>of</strong> the Nobel Prize for Literature<br />
Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scouts;<br />
the Girl Guides are founded two years later<br />
1908 Olympic Games in London
1910 E.M. Forster, Howards End<br />
Bertr<strong>and</strong> Russell <strong>and</strong> A.N. Whitehead, Principia<br />
Mathematica<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> History <strong>of</strong> Mr. Polly<br />
1911 G.K. Chesterton, <strong>The</strong> Innocence <strong>of</strong> Father Brown<br />
Katherine Mansfield, In a German Pension<br />
Mary Ward, <strong>The</strong> Case <strong>of</strong> Richard Meynell<br />
1912 William Archer, Play-Making<br />
Stephen Leacock, Sunshine Sketches <strong>of</strong> a Little<br />
Town<br />
Isaac Rosenberg, Night <strong>and</strong> Day<br />
Saki, <strong>The</strong> Unbearable Bassington<br />
May Sinclair, Feminism<br />
1913 J.M. Barrie, Quality Street<br />
D.H. Lawrence, Love Poems <strong>and</strong> Others<br />
D.H. Lawrence, Sons <strong>and</strong> Lovers<br />
Leonard Woolf, <strong>The</strong> Village in the Jungle<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 33<br />
1909 People’s budget introduced by the Liberal<br />
government <strong>of</strong> Prime Minister Herbert Asquith<br />
<strong>and</strong> Chancellor <strong>of</strong> the Exchequer David Lloyd<br />
George. This budget was revolutionary in its<br />
measures to redistribute wealth more equitably<br />
in British society; its provisions included a<br />
graduated income tax—a measure that was<br />
rejected by the House <strong>of</strong> Lords<br />
Hunger strike by imprisoned suffrage activists<br />
Ford Motor Company begins production <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Model T<br />
1910 L<strong>and</strong>mark exhibition <strong>of</strong> post-impressionist art in<br />
London, organized by Roger Fry<br />
Union <strong>of</strong> South Africa granted dominion status<br />
Edward VII dies; George V comes to the throne<br />
1911 Health <strong>and</strong> unemployment insurance<br />
introduced through the National Insurance Act<br />
Constitutional crisis over the power <strong>of</strong> the<br />
House <strong>of</strong> Lords results in the Parliament Act,<br />
restricting the Lords’ power to veto House <strong>of</strong><br />
Commons legislation<br />
Q’ing dynasty (the last monarchy in China)<br />
overthrown in a revolution led by Sun Yat-sen; a<br />
new republic is established<br />
1912 Major suffragette demonstrations in London<br />
Extension <strong>of</strong> copyright restrictions in Britain to<br />
fifty years after the death <strong>of</strong> the author<br />
Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen<br />
reaches the South Pole <strong>and</strong> returns safely; rival<br />
expedition led by Robert Scott <strong>of</strong> Britain reaches<br />
the Pole a month later, <strong>and</strong> all members <strong>of</strong> the<br />
expedition succumb to sickness <strong>and</strong> starvation as<br />
they attempt to return<br />
1913 Bill providing for Irish Home Rule is passed<br />
twice by the House <strong>of</strong> Commons <strong>and</strong> both<br />
times defeated in the House <strong>of</strong> Lords
34 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1914 J.M. Barrie, <strong>The</strong> Admirable Crichton<br />
Joseph Conrad, Chance<br />
James Joyce, Dubliners<br />
first issue <strong>of</strong> Blast: Review <strong>of</strong> the Great English<br />
Vortex (edited by Wyndham Lewis)<br />
Bernard Shaw, Common Sense About the War<br />
Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion (first performed in<br />
English; performed in German in Vienna<br />
the previous year)<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> War That Will End War<br />
1915 John Buchan, <strong>The</strong> Thirty-Nine Steps<br />
Joseph Conrad, Victory<br />
Ford Madox Ford, <strong>The</strong> Good Soldier<br />
D.H. Lawrence, <strong>The</strong> Rainbow<br />
Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage<br />
Alice Meynell, Poems on the War<br />
Dorothy Richardson, Pointed Ro<strong>of</strong>s (first<br />
volume <strong>of</strong> the Pilgrimage series)<br />
Virginia Woolf, <strong>The</strong> Voyage Out<br />
1916 John Buchan, Greenmantle<br />
Thomas Hardy, Selected Poems<br />
James Joyce, Portrait <strong>of</strong> the Artist as a Young<br />
Man<br />
Ada Leverson, Love at Second Sight<br />
H.G. Wells, Mr. Britling Sees It Through<br />
H.G. Wells, Easter<br />
1917 Rupert Brooke, Selected Poems<br />
T.S. Eliot, Prufrock <strong>and</strong> Other Observations<br />
William Butler Yeats, <strong>The</strong> Wild Swans at Coole,<br />
Other Verses, <strong>and</strong> a Play in Verse (revised<br />
edition, containing additional poems—<br />
notably “An Irish Airman Foresees His<br />
Death”—published 1919)<br />
First performance <strong>of</strong> Igor Stravinsky’s<br />
revolutionary ballet, <strong>The</strong> Rite <strong>of</strong> Spring<br />
Suffragette Emily Davidson throws herself in<br />
front <strong>of</strong> a horse ridden by King George V during<br />
the Epsom Derby <strong>and</strong> is killed<br />
1914 Archduke Franz Ferdin<strong>and</strong> assassinated,<br />
sparking the outbreak <strong>of</strong> World War I<br />
First battle <strong>of</strong> Ypres<br />
1915 Coalition government formed in Britain<br />
Second battle <strong>of</strong> Ypres<br />
1916 Easter rising in Dublin<br />
Battles <strong>of</strong> Verduyn <strong>and</strong> the Somme<br />
Evacuation <strong>of</strong> Australian <strong>and</strong> British forces from<br />
Gallipoli in Turkey after a disastrous expedition<br />
First use <strong>of</strong> tanks in warfare<br />
Establishment in India <strong>of</strong> Home Rule Leagues,<br />
pressing for independence from British Colonial<br />
Rule<br />
Carl Jung, Psychology <strong>of</strong> the Unconscious<br />
1917 February revolution overthrows Czar Nicholas<br />
II in Russia; October revolution brings the<br />
Bolsheviks to power<br />
United States enters World War I
1918 Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems <strong>of</strong> Gerard<br />
Manley Hopkins<br />
Marie Stopes, Married Love<br />
Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians<br />
1919 Joseph Conrad, <strong>The</strong> Arrow <strong>of</strong> Gold<br />
T.S. Eliot, Poems<br />
John Maynard Keynes, <strong>The</strong> Economic<br />
Consequences <strong>of</strong> the Peace<br />
Somerset Maugham, <strong>The</strong> Moon <strong>and</strong> Sixpence<br />
Siegfried Sassoon, <strong>The</strong> War Poems <strong>of</strong> Siegfried<br />
Sassoon<br />
H.G. Wells, <strong>The</strong> Outline <strong>of</strong> History<br />
P.G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves<br />
Virginia Woolf, Night <strong>and</strong> Day<br />
1920 Hugh L<strong>of</strong>ting, <strong>The</strong> Story <strong>of</strong> Dr. Dolittle<br />
Katherine Mansfield, Bliss, <strong>and</strong> Other Stories<br />
1921 Agatha Christie, <strong>The</strong> Mysterious Affair at Styles<br />
John Galsworthy, To Let<br />
Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow<br />
D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love<br />
Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche: A Romance <strong>of</strong> the<br />
French Revolution<br />
Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah<br />
Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria<br />
1922 Jane Austen, Love & Freindship (sic) <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Early Works<br />
G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics, <strong>and</strong> Other Evils<br />
G.K. Chesterton, <strong>The</strong> Man Who Knew Too<br />
Much, <strong>and</strong> Other Stories<br />
T.S. Eliot, <strong>The</strong> Waste L<strong>and</strong><br />
John Galsworthy, <strong>The</strong> Forsyte Saga<br />
Frank Harris, My Life <strong>and</strong> Loves<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 35<br />
1918 Representation <strong>of</strong> the People Act extends the<br />
vote to all men over 21, to women<br />
householders, <strong>and</strong> to wives <strong>of</strong> householders who<br />
are over the age <strong>of</strong> 30. In 1928, the franchise is<br />
extended to all women above the age <strong>of</strong> 21<br />
German spring <strong>of</strong>fensive is stopped at the<br />
Marne, turning the tide in the War<br />
11 November Armistice brings an end to World<br />
War I<br />
1919 Conflict in Irel<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> the proclamation <strong>of</strong> an<br />
Irish Free State<br />
Treaty <strong>of</strong> Versailles imposes reparations on<br />
Germany<br />
Sex Disqualification Removal Act removes a<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> legal barriers; the first woman<br />
Member <strong>of</strong> Parliament is admitted to the House<br />
<strong>of</strong> Commons<br />
1920 Formation <strong>of</strong> the League <strong>of</strong> Nations (without<br />
American participation, after the US Senate<br />
refuses to ratify the Treaty <strong>of</strong> Versailles)<br />
Public radio broadcasting stations set up in both<br />
the United States <strong>and</strong> Britain
36 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
James Joyce, Ulysses (first edition, published in<br />
Paris)<br />
Katherine Mansfield, <strong>The</strong> Garden-Party, <strong>and</strong><br />
Other Stories<br />
1923 Arnold Bennett, Riceyman Steps<br />
Elizabeth Bowen, Encounters<br />
Joseph Conrad, <strong>The</strong> Rover<br />
1924 E.M. Forster, A Passage to India<br />
D.H. Lawrence, Engl<strong>and</strong>, My Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young<br />
I.A. Richards, Principles <strong>of</strong> Literary Criticism<br />
Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan<br />
1925 Jane Austen, S<strong>and</strong>iton<br />
Noel Coward, Hay Fever: A Comedy<br />
Howard Laski, A Grammar <strong>of</strong> Politics<br />
Somerset Maugham, <strong>The</strong> Painted Veil<br />
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway<br />
William Butler Yeats, A Vision (revised edition<br />
published in 1937)<br />
1926 Agatha Christie, <strong>The</strong> Murder <strong>of</strong> Roger Ackroyd<br />
T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars <strong>of</strong> Wisdom<br />
A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh<br />
Sean O’Casey, <strong>The</strong> Plough <strong>and</strong> the Stars<br />
1927 “Jean Rhys” (Ella Gwendolen Rhys Williams),<br />
<strong>The</strong> Left Bank <strong>and</strong> Other Stories<br />
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse<br />
1928 “Radclyffe Hall” (Marguerite Antonia<br />
Radclyffe-Hall), <strong>The</strong> Well <strong>of</strong> Loneliness<br />
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (printed<br />
privately in Italy; first printed in the United<br />
Kingdom in 1960)<br />
A.A. Milne, <strong>The</strong> House at Pooh Corner<br />
J.B. Priestley, Apes <strong>and</strong> Angels<br />
Laura Riding, Love as Love, Death as Death<br />
Bernard Shaw, <strong>The</strong> Intelligent Woman’s Guide to<br />
Socialism <strong>and</strong> Capitalism<br />
Virginia Woolf, Orl<strong>and</strong>o: A Biography<br />
William Butler Yeats, <strong>The</strong> Tower<br />
1924 First Labour Party government in Britain (led by<br />
Ramsay MacDonald)<br />
André Breton, Manifeste du Surréalisme<br />
(Surrealist Manifesto)<br />
1926 General strike to protest the working conditions<br />
<strong>of</strong> coal miners lasts 9 days, but is broken up by<br />
troops; the coal miners are forced to settle<br />
1927 Economic collapse in Germany, fueled by<br />
hyper-inflation<br />
First nonstop flight between New York <strong>and</strong><br />
Paris completed by Charles Lindbergh<br />
1928 Right to vote granted to all women over 21<br />
Publishers <strong>of</strong> Radclyffe Hall’s <strong>The</strong> Well <strong>of</strong><br />
Loneliness charged under the Obscene<br />
Publications Act<br />
Thomas Hardy dies.
1929 Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That<br />
Graham Greene, <strong>The</strong> Man Within<br />
Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica<br />
Virginia Woolf, A Room <strong>of</strong> One’s Own<br />
1930 W.S. Auden, Poems<br />
Samuel Beckett, Whoroscope<br />
Noel Coward, Private Lives: An Intimate<br />
Comedy<br />
J.B. Priestley, Angel Pavement<br />
1931 Virginia Woolf, <strong>The</strong> Waves<br />
1932 Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm<br />
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World<br />
1933 Vera Brittain, Testament <strong>of</strong> Youth<br />
Ivy Compton-Burnett, More Women Than Men<br />
Walter Greenwood, Love on the Dole<br />
James Hilton, Lost Horizon<br />
“George Orwell” (Eric Arthur Blair), Down <strong>and</strong><br />
Out in Paris <strong>and</strong> London<br />
Anthony Powell, From a View to a Death<br />
Stephen Spender, Poems<br />
William Butler Yeats, <strong>The</strong> Winding Stair, <strong>and</strong><br />
Other Poems<br />
1934 Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express<br />
Robert Graves, I, Claudius<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 37<br />
1929 Stock market crash in the United States <strong>and</strong><br />
Britain triggers onset <strong>of</strong> the Great Depression<br />
First presentation <strong>of</strong> the Academy Awards<br />
Erich Remarque, Im Westen Nichts Neues (All<br />
Quiet on the Western Front)<br />
1930 Campaign <strong>of</strong> civil disobedience begins in India,<br />
under the leadership <strong>of</strong> Moh<strong>and</strong>as G<strong>and</strong>hi<br />
First British Empire Games (later the<br />
Commonwealth Games) held in Canada<br />
1931 Spanish King Alfonso XIII abdicates <strong>and</strong> Spain<br />
becomes a republic<br />
Britain ab<strong>and</strong>ons the practice <strong>of</strong> linking the<br />
value <strong>of</strong> its currency to a fixed amount <strong>of</strong> gold<br />
(the gold st<strong>and</strong>ard) in the face <strong>of</strong> economic<br />
depression, financial indebtedness, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
relative economic strength <strong>of</strong> the world’s new<br />
economic power, the United States<br />
Statute <strong>of</strong> Westminster effectively grants full<br />
autonomy to Canada <strong>and</strong> other Dominions<br />
1932 <strong>The</strong> Nazis become the largest party in the<br />
German Parliament<br />
Oswald Mosley founds a new British political<br />
party, the British Union <strong>of</strong> Fascists<br />
Team led by Ernest Rutherford succeeds in<br />
artificially splitting atomic nuclei<br />
1933 Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor <strong>of</strong> Germany;<br />
using the Reichstag fire as a pretext, he suspends<br />
civil liberties<br />
Nazi government begins setting up<br />
concentration camps<br />
1934 Widespread “purges” <strong>of</strong> those suspected <strong>of</strong> antigovernment<br />
sympathies begin in the Soviet
38 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
James Hilton, Good-bye Mr. Chips<br />
Bernard Shaw, Prefaces<br />
Dylan Thomas, 18 Poems<br />
P.I. Travers, Mary Poppins<br />
1935 “C.S. Forester” (Cecil Louis Troughton Smith),<br />
<strong>The</strong> African Queen<br />
Graham Greene, <strong>The</strong> Basement Room, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Stories<br />
George Orwell, Burmese Days<br />
1936 Stevie Smith, Novel on Yellow Paper<br />
1937 W.H. Auden, Spain<br />
George Orwell, <strong>The</strong> Road to Wigan Pier<br />
J.R.R. Tolkien, <strong>The</strong> Hobbit; or, <strong>The</strong>re <strong>and</strong> Back<br />
Again<br />
1938 Elizabeth Bowen, <strong>The</strong> Death <strong>of</strong> the Heart<br />
Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca<br />
Graham Greene, Brighton Rock<br />
George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia<br />
Dorothy Richardson, Pilgrimage (first<br />
publication as a complete work)<br />
Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas<br />
1939 Joyce Cary, Mister Johnson<br />
Agatha Christie, Ten Little Niggers (serialized in<br />
the US in 1939 as And <strong>The</strong>n <strong>The</strong>re Were<br />
None <strong>and</strong> issued in book form under that<br />
title in 1940; re-issued in Britain in 1965<br />
under the title Ten Little Indians; American<br />
title And <strong>The</strong>n <strong>The</strong>re Were None<br />
subsequently adopted in Britain <strong>and</strong><br />
Commonwealth countries as well)<br />
Monica Dickens, One Pair <strong>of</strong> H<strong>and</strong>s<br />
T.S. Eliot, <strong>The</strong> Family Reunion<br />
Union; by the end <strong>of</strong> the decade, Josef Stalin’s<br />
government kills between ten <strong>and</strong> twenty<br />
million Soviet citizens<br />
1936 Popular front elected in Spain; Fascist forces led<br />
by Francisco Franco take up arms against the<br />
new government, <strong>and</strong> the Spanish Civil War<br />
begins<br />
Olympic Games held in Berlin; African-<br />
American Jesse Owens wins four gold medals<br />
Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry the<br />
divorced Wallis Simpson; George VI comes to<br />
the throne<br />
1937 Japanese-Chinese War begins as Japan invades<br />
Northern China<br />
Spanish town <strong>of</strong> Guernica destroyed by German<br />
bombers (Guernica by Pablo Picasso famously<br />
depicts the horror <strong>of</strong> the attack)<br />
1938 Munich Agreement allows Germany to annex<br />
the Sudenl<strong>and</strong> from Czechoslovakia; British<br />
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaims<br />
that Hitler’s ambitions have now been satisfied<br />
<strong>and</strong> “Peace in our time” has been achieved<br />
1939 Franco defeats the Republican Loyalists, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Spanish Civil War ends<br />
Germany occupies the rest <strong>of</strong> Czechoslovakia,<br />
<strong>and</strong> then occupies Pol<strong>and</strong>; war is declared on 3<br />
September as Britain, France, <strong>and</strong> other allies<br />
resolve to stop German expansionism
Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin<br />
James Joyce, Finnegans Wake<br />
1940 Graham Greene, <strong>The</strong> Power <strong>and</strong> the Glory<br />
Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon<br />
C.P. Snow, Strangers <strong>and</strong> Brothers<br />
Christina Stead, <strong>The</strong> Man Who Loved Children<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 39<br />
1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville<br />
Chamberlain as Prime Minister; a coalition<br />
government is formed<br />
Germany occupies Norway, Denmark, the<br />
Netherl<strong>and</strong>s, <strong>and</strong> France; Britain evacuates its<br />
forces from France at Dunkirk<br />
Battle <strong>of</strong> Britain, <strong>and</strong> the Blitz <strong>of</strong> London<br />
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, starring Laurence<br />
Olivier <strong>and</strong> Joan Fontaine, wins the Academy<br />
Award for Best Picture; Charlie Chaplin stars in<br />
<strong>The</strong> Great Dictator<br />
1941 Germany invades the Soviet Union<br />
Virginia Woolf commits suicide<br />
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor <strong>and</strong> the United<br />
States enters the war against Japan <strong>and</strong> Germany<br />
Nazi government in Germany undertakes the<br />
systematic extermination <strong>of</strong> all Jewish people in<br />
German-controlled territory; by 1945,<br />
approximately six million have been murdered<br />
in the gas chambers <strong>of</strong> Nazi death camps<br />
1942 Anglo-American <strong>of</strong>fensive against German<br />
armies in North Africa<br />
Beveridge Report recommends implementing a<br />
comprehensive system <strong>of</strong> government support<br />
(later nicknamed “the welfare state”)<br />
Mission to India by Sir Stanford Cripps meets<br />
with widespread resistance from the “Quit<br />
India” movement<br />
1943 German armies defeated in North Africa <strong>and</strong> at<br />
Stalingrad in Russia<br />
Allied armies invade Italy <strong>and</strong> defeat Hitler’s<br />
ally, fascist dictator Benito Mussolini
40 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1944 Joyce Cary, <strong>The</strong> Horse’s Mouth<br />
T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets<br />
Somerset Maugham, <strong>The</strong> Razor’s Edge<br />
1945 “Henry Green” (Henry Vincent Yorke), Loving<br />
George Orwell, Animal Farm<br />
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited<br />
1946 Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan<br />
Terence Rattigan, <strong>The</strong> Winslow Boy<br />
Dylan Thomas, Deaths <strong>and</strong> Entrances<br />
1947 Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano<br />
J.B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls<br />
1948 Robert Graves, <strong>The</strong> White Goddess: A Historical<br />
Grammar <strong>of</strong> Poetic Myth<br />
Graham Greene, <strong>The</strong> Heart <strong>of</strong> the Matter<br />
F.R. Leavis, <strong>The</strong> Great Tradition<br />
Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved Country<br />
Evelyn Waugh, <strong>The</strong> Loved One<br />
1944 Allied invasion <strong>of</strong> German-controlled France<br />
begins in Norm<strong>and</strong>y on 4 June; Paris liberated<br />
25 August<br />
V-Bombs dropped on London<br />
Jewish uprising against Nazi oppression in<br />
Warsaw, Pol<strong>and</strong><br />
Education Act makes secondary education<br />
m<strong>and</strong>atory<br />
1945 Allied fire-bombing <strong>of</strong> Dresden <strong>and</strong> other<br />
German cities kills tens <strong>of</strong> thous<strong>and</strong>s<br />
Russian armies enter Berlin 20 April; Allied<br />
victory in Europe declared 8 May<br />
Labour Party under Clement Attlee defeats<br />
Winston Churchill <strong>and</strong> the Conservatives<br />
American President Harry Truman orders<br />
atomic bombs to be dropped on Hiroshima <strong>and</strong><br />
(a few days later) Nagasaki; Japan surrenders 14<br />
August<br />
United Nations <strong>Chart</strong>er is ratified<br />
1947 Partition <strong>of</strong> India into two independent states:<br />
Muslim-dominated Pakistan <strong>and</strong> Hindudominated<br />
India; confusion <strong>and</strong> widespread<br />
conflict follows, leaving approximately one million<br />
dead <strong>and</strong> forcing millions more to relocate<br />
1948 United States approves plan drawn up by<br />
General George C. Marshall (the “Marshall<br />
Plan”) to aid in the rebuilding <strong>of</strong> Europe<br />
State <strong>of</strong> Israel created in the former Palestine<br />
Status <strong>of</strong> Berlin—jointly controlled by the<br />
Soviet Union <strong>and</strong> the Western Allies (the<br />
United States, the United Kingdom, <strong>and</strong><br />
France) after the end <strong>of</strong> World War II—<br />
becomes a major issue between the powers;
1949 Christopher Fry, <strong>The</strong> Lady’s Not for Burning: A<br />
Comedy<br />
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four<br />
Judith Wright, Woman to Man<br />
1950 T.S. Eliot, <strong>The</strong> Cocktail Party: A Comedy<br />
Doris Lessing, <strong>The</strong> Grass is Singing<br />
C.S. Lewis, <strong>The</strong> Lion, the Witch, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Wardrobe (first volume in the Chronicles <strong>of</strong><br />
Narnia series, completed in 1956)<br />
“Nevil Shute” (Nevil Shute Norway), A Town<br />
Like Alice<br />
1951 Anthony Powell, A Question <strong>of</strong> Upbringing (first<br />
volume <strong>of</strong> the Dance to the Music <strong>of</strong> Time<br />
sequence <strong>of</strong> 12 novels, completed in 1975)<br />
C.P. Snow, <strong>The</strong> Masters<br />
“Josephine Tey” (Elizabeth Mackintosh), <strong>The</strong><br />
Daughter <strong>of</strong> Time<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 41<br />
Soviet armies blockade the city <strong>and</strong> the Western<br />
powers respond with a large-scale effort to<br />
supply West Berlin by air (the “Berlin Airlift”)<br />
Afrikaner Nationalist Party assumes power in<br />
South Africa, with a platform <strong>of</strong> apartheid—the<br />
separation <strong>of</strong> whites from non-whites on terms<br />
that discriminate against blacks in particular<br />
British Citizenship Act allows unrestricted<br />
immigration to Britain for citizens <strong>of</strong><br />
Commonwealth nations<br />
1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)<br />
formed<br />
Newly formed republic <strong>of</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong> leaves the<br />
British Commonwealth<br />
Communist governments assume power in<br />
Hungary, East Germany, <strong>and</strong> China<br />
Simone de Beauvoir, Le deuxième sex (<strong>The</strong><br />
Second Sex) published in France<br />
Devaluation <strong>of</strong> the British Pound from U.S.<br />
$4.03 to U.S. $2.80<br />
Soviet Union explodes an atomic bomb for the<br />
first time<br />
1950-1953 War between Communist <strong>and</strong> Non-communist<br />
forces (backed respectively by the Soviet Union<br />
<strong>and</strong> the United States) in Korea
42 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1952 Samuel Beckett, En attendant Godot (first<br />
publication; first published in English, as<br />
Waiting for Godot, in the USA in 1955, <strong>and</strong><br />
in Britain in 1956)<br />
1953 Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim<br />
Ian Fleming, Casino Royale<br />
L.P. Hartley, <strong>The</strong> Go-Between<br />
1954 William Golding, Lord <strong>of</strong> the Flies<br />
Thom Gunn, Fighting Terms<br />
P.K. Page, <strong>The</strong> Metal <strong>and</strong> the Flower<br />
Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood<br />
J.R.R. Tolkien, <strong>The</strong> Fellowship <strong>of</strong> the Ring (first<br />
part <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Lord <strong>of</strong> the Rings trilogy,<br />
completed in 1955)<br />
1955 Graham Greene, <strong>The</strong> Quiet American<br />
Philip Larkin, <strong>The</strong> Less Deceived<br />
Brian Moore, Judith Hearne<br />
“John Wyndham” (J. B. Harris), <strong>The</strong> Chrysalids<br />
1956 Agatha Christie, <strong>The</strong> Mousetrap<br />
1957 Samuel Beckett, Fin de partie (first performed in<br />
French in London in 1957; published in<br />
English as Endgame in 1958)<br />
John Braine, Room at the Top<br />
Lawrence Durrell, Justine (first volume <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong><br />
Alex<strong>and</strong>ria Quartet, completed in 1962)<br />
Ted Hughes, <strong>The</strong> Hawk in the Rain<br />
John Osborne, Look Back in Anger<br />
Nevil Shute, On the Beach<br />
Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning<br />
1952 Britain explodes an atomic bomb<br />
Death <strong>of</strong> George V; Elizabeth II assumes the<br />
throne<br />
1954 Defeat <strong>of</strong> French forces in Vietnam at Dien<br />
Bien Phu; Communist forces occupy Hanoi<br />
End <strong>of</strong> post-war rationing in Britain<br />
1956 Suez Crisis: Britain <strong>and</strong> France invade Egypt in<br />
response to Egyptian President Gamal Abdul<br />
Nasser’s nationalizing <strong>of</strong> the Suez Canal; by the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the year Britain <strong>and</strong> France had been<br />
forced to back down<br />
Revolution in Hungary against Communist<br />
Rule is suppressed by the Soviet Union<br />
European Economic Community (or “Common<br />
Market”) formed in Europe<br />
Ghana becomes the first <strong>of</strong> many former British<br />
colonies in Africa to be granted full<br />
independence (<strong>and</strong> membership in the British<br />
Commonwealth)
1958 Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart<br />
1959 Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape<br />
Ian Fleming, Goldfinger<br />
Alan Sillitoe, <strong>The</strong> Loneliness <strong>of</strong> the Long-Distance<br />
Runner<br />
1960 Stan Barstow, A Kind <strong>of</strong> Loving (first volume <strong>of</strong><br />
the Vic Brown trilogy, completed in 1976)<br />
D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (first<br />
publication in Britain <strong>of</strong> the unexpurgated<br />
edition)<br />
Brian Moore, <strong>The</strong> Luck <strong>of</strong> Ginger C<strong>of</strong>fey<br />
Edna O’Brien, <strong>The</strong> Country Girls (first volume<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Country Girls trilogy, completed in<br />
1964)<br />
Harold Pinter, <strong>The</strong> Birthday Party<br />
Harold Pinter, <strong>The</strong> Caretaker<br />
1961 Leonard Cohen, <strong>The</strong> Spice Box <strong>of</strong> Earth<br />
V.S. Naipaul, A House For Mr. Biswas<br />
Muriel Spark, <strong>The</strong> Prime <strong>of</strong> Miss Jean Brodie<br />
1962 Alan Bennett, Beyond the Fringe<br />
“Anthony Burgess” (John Anthony Burgess<br />
Wilson), A Clockwork Orange<br />
Doris Lessing, <strong>The</strong> Golden Notebook<br />
Derek Walcott, In a Green Night<br />
1963 “John le Carré” (David John Moore Cornwell),<br />
<strong>The</strong> Spy Who Came in from the Cold<br />
P.G. Wodehouse, Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (last in<br />
the series <strong>of</strong> Jeeves novels)<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 43<br />
1959 Rebel forces led by Fidel Castro overthrow<br />
Batista’s dictatorship in Cuba<br />
1961 Yuri Gagarin <strong>of</strong> the Soviet Union becomes the<br />
first human in space<br />
Berlin Wall constructed<br />
American invasion <strong>of</strong> Cuba at the Bay <strong>of</strong> Pigs<br />
fails to overthrow Castro’s government<br />
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: in the wake <strong>of</strong> the Bay <strong>of</strong><br />
Pigs invasion <strong>of</strong> its ally, the Soviet Union began<br />
secretly to build missile launching sites in Cuba.<br />
When American reconnaissance flights detected<br />
this activity, American President John F.<br />
Kennedy dem<strong>and</strong>ed that the Soviets withdraw<br />
the missiles <strong>and</strong> put into effect a naval blockade<br />
<strong>of</strong> Cuba. Six days later, Soviet leader Nikita<br />
Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles,<br />
provided that the United States also remove the<br />
missiles it had deployed in Turkey, near the<br />
Soviet border<br />
1963 American President John F. Kennedy<br />
assassinated<br />
United States becomes involved militarily in the<br />
fight against Communist forces Vietnam
44 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1964 Philip Larkin, <strong>The</strong> Whitsun Weddings<br />
Margaret Laurence, <strong>The</strong> Stone Angel<br />
1965 Samuel Beckett, Imagination Dead Imagine<br />
Margaret Drabble, <strong>The</strong> Millstone<br />
T.S. Eliot, To Criticize the Critic, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Writings<br />
James Ngugi (later Ngg wa Thiong’o), <strong>The</strong><br />
River Between<br />
Harold Pinter, <strong>The</strong> Homecoming<br />
Sylvia Plath, Ariel<br />
1966 John Fowles, <strong>The</strong> Magus<br />
Seamus Heaney, Death <strong>of</strong> a Naturalist<br />
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea<br />
1967 Roald Dahl, Charlie <strong>and</strong> the Chocolate Factory<br />
P.D. James, Unnatural Causes<br />
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz <strong>and</strong> Guildenstern are<br />
Dead<br />
1964 China explodes an atomic bomb<br />
1965 Ian Smith, Prime Minister <strong>of</strong> the former British<br />
colony <strong>of</strong> Rhodesia, unilaterally declares<br />
independence from Britain in response to<br />
British attempts to persuade his government to<br />
end systemic racial discrimination against the<br />
black majority<br />
Widespread civil rights marches in United<br />
States; passage <strong>of</strong> the Civil Rights Act<br />
American military involvement in Vietnam<br />
begins to escalate<br />
1967 <strong>The</strong> “Six Day War”: in response to Egyptian<br />
threats Israel attacks Egypt <strong>and</strong> inflicts a massive<br />
defeat<br />
<strong>The</strong> Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club<br />
B<strong>and</strong><br />
Sexual Offences Act makes male homosexual<br />
acts legal in Britain<br />
1968 Assassinations in the United States <strong>of</strong><br />
Democratic politician Robert F. Kennedy <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
civil rights leader Martin Luther King<br />
“Prague Spring” <strong>of</strong> new freedoms in<br />
Czechoslovakia under Alex<strong>and</strong>er Dubek<br />
crushed by Soviet invasion<br />
Tet <strong>of</strong>fensive by North Vietnam exposes the<br />
vulnerability <strong>of</strong> South Vietnamese <strong>and</strong> American<br />
forces<br />
Student <strong>and</strong> labor unrest in support <strong>of</strong> left-wing<br />
causes in Europe, notably in France<br />
Student protests <strong>and</strong> a growing movement in<br />
opposition to the Vietnam War in the United<br />
States
1969 John Cleese <strong>and</strong> Graham Chapman, Monty<br />
Python’s Flying Circus (television program<br />
aired 1969-74)<br />
John Fowles, <strong>The</strong> French Lieutenant’s Woman<br />
1971 Margaret Atwood, Power Politics<br />
E.M. Forster, Maurice (written 1913-14 but<br />
only published posthumously)<br />
Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Hill, Mercian Hymns<br />
1972 P.D. James, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman<br />
1974 Philip Larkin, High Windows<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 45<br />
Commonwealth Immigration Act <strong>of</strong> 1968<br />
denies Kenyan Asians holding British passports<br />
the right to immigrate to Britain<br />
1969 American Neil Armstrong becomes the first<br />
human on the moon<br />
Britain sends troops to quell unrest in Northern<br />
Irel<strong>and</strong><br />
Britain liberalizes divorce laws, introducing “n<strong>of</strong>ault”<br />
divorce<br />
1972 “Bloody Sunday” in Derry, Northern Irel<strong>and</strong>:<br />
British soldiers kill thirteen civilians<br />
participating in a banned but peaceful civil<br />
rights march<br />
American President Richard Nixon visits China,<br />
thus easing tensions between Communist China<br />
<strong>and</strong> Western powers<br />
Richard Nixon is re-elected President <strong>of</strong> the<br />
United States, but it is discovered that his<br />
campaign has used a variety <strong>of</strong> “dirty tricks”<br />
against the rival Democratic Party. <strong>The</strong> ensuing<br />
outrage over the “dirty tricks” <strong>and</strong> over efforts to<br />
cover them up became known as the Watergate<br />
Sc<strong>and</strong>al (after the hotel where Republican Party<br />
operatives were caught breaking into the<br />
headquarters <strong>of</strong> the Democratic Party), <strong>and</strong> it<br />
prompted Nixon’s resignation in 1974<br />
1973 Britain, Irel<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> Denmark join the<br />
European Economic Community<br />
Yom Kippur War in the Middle East sparks a<br />
worldwide oil crisis
46 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1975 Alan Ayckbourn, <strong>The</strong> Norman Conquests<br />
John Cleese <strong>and</strong> Connie Booth, Fawlty Towers<br />
(first series; second series aired in 1979)<br />
David Lodge, Changing Places<br />
Ian McEwan, First Love, Last Rites<br />
J.H. Prynne, High Pink on Chrome<br />
Tom Stoppard, Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Foul (first televised<br />
September 1977; published in book form<br />
1978)<br />
“William Trevor” (William Trevor Cox), Angels<br />
at the Ritz, <strong>and</strong> Other Stories<br />
1978 Penelope Fitzgerald, <strong>The</strong> Bookshop<br />
Graham Greene, <strong>The</strong> Human Factor<br />
David Hare, Plenty<br />
Ian McEwan, <strong>The</strong> Cement Garden<br />
Iris Murdoch, <strong>The</strong> Sea, the Sea<br />
1979 Angela Carter, <strong>The</strong> Bloody Chamber, <strong>and</strong> Other<br />
Stories<br />
Seamus Heaney, Field Work<br />
V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River<br />
Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home<br />
1980 Peter Shaffer, Amadeus<br />
1975 Margaret Thatcher becomes leader <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Conservative Party<br />
Last American personnel leave Saigon as<br />
Communist forces take over all <strong>of</strong> the former<br />
South Vietnam<br />
1979 “Winter <strong>of</strong> Discontent” in Britain as unions take<br />
industrial action in disputes concerning pay <strong>and</strong><br />
other issues; Thatcher elected Prime Minister<br />
following the Conservative’s “Labour isn’t<br />
working” advertising campaign<br />
Revolution in Iran: the Shah is deposed <strong>and</strong><br />
Ayatollah Khomeini comes to power at the head<br />
<strong>of</strong> an Islamic fundamentalist regime<br />
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan<br />
S<strong>and</strong>inista forces in Nicaragua overthrow<br />
dictator Anastasio Somoza. <strong>The</strong> Nicaraguan<br />
Revolution was a key moment in a struggle<br />
during the 1970s <strong>and</strong> 1980s throughout much<br />
<strong>of</strong> Central America between business-friendly<br />
dictatorships (generally supported by the United<br />
States) <strong>and</strong> left-<strong>of</strong>-centre populist movements<br />
that the United States government generally<br />
sought to undermine<br />
1980 End <strong>of</strong> Zimbabwe’s War <strong>of</strong> Independence;<br />
Robert Mugabe becomes Prime Minister<br />
Iraq invades Iran, beginning an eight-year war<br />
Solidarity Movement in Pol<strong>and</strong>, led by Lech<br />
Walesa, begins to undermine Communist Rule
1981 Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children<br />
1982 Eavan Bol<strong>and</strong>, Night Feed<br />
Caryl Churchill, Top Girls<br />
Michael Frayn, Noises Off<br />
Michael Ondaatje, <strong>The</strong> English Patient<br />
1983 J.M. Coetzee, <strong>The</strong> Life <strong>and</strong> Times <strong>of</strong> Michael K.<br />
Terry Eagleton, Literary <strong>The</strong>ory<br />
Les Murray, <strong>The</strong> People’s Otherworld<br />
Graham Swift, Waterl<strong>and</strong><br />
1984 Martin Amis, Money<br />
Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot<br />
Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac<br />
Liz Lochhead, Dreaming Frankenstein <strong>and</strong><br />
Collected Poems<br />
1985 Margaret Atwood, <strong>The</strong> H<strong>and</strong>maid’s Tale<br />
Tony Harrison, V<br />
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only<br />
Fruit<br />
1986 Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette<br />
Ngg wa Thiong’o, Decolonizing the Mind<br />
1987 Bruce Chatwin, <strong>The</strong> Songlines<br />
Roddy Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Commitments (first volume<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 47<br />
1982 Falkl<strong>and</strong>s War between Britain <strong>and</strong> Argentina<br />
Richard Attenborough’s G<strong>and</strong>hi wins the<br />
Academy Award for Best Picture over Steven<br />
Spielberg’s E.T.<br />
1984 Miners strike in Britain. Even though the strike<br />
lasted a year—from March 1984 to March<br />
1985—the miners were eventually forced to<br />
back down on most <strong>of</strong> their dem<strong>and</strong>s in the face<br />
<strong>of</strong> intransigence on the part <strong>of</strong> Thatcher’s<br />
Conservative government. <strong>The</strong> strike had a<br />
considerable ripple effect on union-government<br />
<strong>and</strong> union-business relations in general<br />
Bombing <strong>of</strong> the Gr<strong>and</strong> Hotel in Britain by the<br />
Irish Republican Army in an attempt to<br />
assassinate British Prime Minister Thatcher<br />
Indian troops storm the Golden Temple; Prime<br />
Minister Indira G<strong>and</strong>hi is assassinated as a<br />
reprisal by Islamic militants<br />
1985 New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev launches<br />
glasnost <strong>and</strong> perestroika initiatives, bringing<br />
limited freedom <strong>of</strong> speech <strong>and</strong> limited economic<br />
freedom to the Soviet Union<br />
Massive famine in Ethiopia<br />
Plaza Accord: the American dollar <strong>and</strong> other<br />
currencies are devalued in relation to the<br />
currencies <strong>of</strong> Germany <strong>and</strong> Japan, in recognition<br />
<strong>of</strong> the great increase in strength <strong>of</strong> the<br />
economies <strong>of</strong> those two countries<br />
1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union
48 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Barrydown Trilogy, completed in<br />
1991 with the publication <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Van)<br />
Carol Ann Duffy, Selling Manhattan<br />
Jeanette Winterson, <strong>The</strong> Passion<br />
1988 David Lodge, Nice Work<br />
Salman Rushdie, <strong>The</strong> Satanic Verses<br />
1989 Martin Amis, London Fields<br />
Julian Barnes, A History <strong>of</strong> the World in 10½<br />
Chapters<br />
Kazuo Ishiguro, <strong>The</strong> Remains <strong>of</strong> the Day<br />
Grace Nichols, Lazy Thoughts <strong>of</strong> a Lazy Woman,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Other Poems<br />
1990 A.S. Byatt, Possession<br />
1991 Pat Barker, Regeneration (first <strong>of</strong> trilogy <strong>of</strong> First<br />
World War novels, completed in 1995 with<br />
the publication <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Ghost Road)<br />
Alan Bennett, <strong>The</strong> Madness <strong>of</strong> George III<br />
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Tings an’ Times<br />
Jackie Kay, <strong>The</strong> Adoption Papers<br />
Medbh McGuckian, Marconi’s Cottage<br />
Ben Okri, <strong>The</strong> Famished Road<br />
Tim Winton, Cloudstreet<br />
1993 Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha<br />
Carol Ann Duffy, Mean Time<br />
Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy<br />
Tom Stoppard, Arcadia<br />
Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting<br />
1988 Soviet army withdraws from Afghanistan<br />
1989 Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa<br />
against Salman Rushdie after the publication <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Satanic Verses<br />
Freedom <strong>of</strong> Speech Movement in China is<br />
brutally suppressed in Beijing’s Tiananmen<br />
Square as troops attack demonstrators, with<br />
estimates <strong>of</strong> the number killed ranging from 500<br />
to more than 5,000<br />
Communist governments overthrown in Pol<strong>and</strong>,<br />
Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia,<br />
Bulgaria, <strong>and</strong> Romania as the former “East<br />
Bloc” <strong>of</strong> Communist regimes crumbles with<br />
astonishing speed<br />
1991 Lithuania, Latvia, <strong>and</strong> Estonia declare independence,<br />
<strong>and</strong> are soon followed by other republics.<br />
By the end <strong>of</strong> the year, Russia has declared the<br />
Soviet Union to be no longer in existence, <strong>and</strong><br />
the Communist Party in Russia is disb<strong>and</strong>ed<br />
Iraq’s invasion <strong>of</strong> Kuwait triggers the “Gulf<br />
War,” in which American <strong>and</strong> allied forces<br />
defeat Saddam Hussein’s army but do not<br />
attempt to remove him from power or to take<br />
over the entire country<br />
Repeal <strong>of</strong> the apartheid laws in South Africa<br />
1993 Czechoslovakia peacefully separates into the<br />
Czech Republic <strong>and</strong> Slovakia<br />
Arab-Islamist terrorists explode a car bomb in<br />
the parking garage <strong>of</strong> the World Trade Center<br />
in New York, killing six people
1995 Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance<br />
1996 Roddy Doyle, <strong>The</strong> Woman Who Walked into<br />
Doors<br />
Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’ Diary<br />
Graham Swift, Last Orders<br />
1997 Bernardine Evaristo, Lara<br />
Ian McEwan, Enduring Love<br />
Conor McPherson, <strong>The</strong> Weir<br />
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter <strong>and</strong> the Philosopher’s<br />
Stone<br />
Arundhati Roy, <strong>The</strong> God <strong>of</strong> Small Things<br />
Will Self, Great Apes<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 49<br />
Number <strong>of</strong> deaths from AIDS in the developed<br />
world peaks, with over 40,000 dying in the US<br />
alone; among the victims are tennis great Arthur<br />
Ashe <strong>and</strong> ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev<br />
1994 Nelson M<strong>and</strong>ela becomes President <strong>of</strong> South<br />
Africa following the country’s first fully free<br />
elections<br />
Small United Nations peacekeeping force in<br />
Rw<strong>and</strong>a is unable to prevent genocide;<br />
approximately 800,000 die in a governmentsanctioned<br />
killing spree by members <strong>of</strong> the<br />
majority Hutu group, attempting to exterminate<br />
members <strong>of</strong> the minority Tutsi group<br />
Channel tunnel (“Chunnel”) opens, connecting<br />
Britain <strong>and</strong> France<br />
Fighting intensifies in the Balkans, especially in<br />
Bosnia, where Serbian forces engage in “ethnic<br />
cleansing” <strong>of</strong> the Muslim population<br />
1995 American anti-government terrorist Timothy<br />
McVeigh bombs the Federal Building in<br />
Oklahoma City, killing 168 <strong>and</strong> injuring over<br />
800<br />
1997 Tony Blair leads “New Labour” to victory <strong>and</strong><br />
becomes Prime Minister<br />
Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris<br />
Britain cedes Hong Kong to China<br />
Scotl<strong>and</strong> Act creates a new Scottish Parliament<br />
(a parallel Welsh Assembly is created the<br />
following year)<br />
Kyoto Protocol on climate change opened for<br />
signature
50 <strong>The</strong> Twentieth Century <strong>and</strong> Beyond<br />
1998 John Bayley, Iris<br />
Michael Frayn, Copenhagen<br />
Seamus Heaney, Beowulf<br />
Ted Hughes, Birthday Letters<br />
2000 Zadie Smith, White Teeth<br />
2001 Peter Carey, True History <strong>of</strong> the Kelly Gang<br />
Ian McEwan, Atonement<br />
1998 Good Friday Agreement is approved through<br />
referendums both in Northern Irel<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> in<br />
the Republic <strong>of</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong>, bringing an end to the<br />
long-st<strong>and</strong>ing conflict<br />
1999 L<strong>and</strong> seizures <strong>and</strong> other repressive measures by<br />
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe set <strong>of</strong>f a<br />
wave <strong>of</strong> protest, both within the country <strong>and</strong><br />
worldwide<br />
Maastricht Treaty creates a European Monetary<br />
Union<br />
World population surpasses six billion<br />
2000 Worldwide Millennium celebrations: Britain<br />
marks the Millennium with the openings <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Millennium Dome, the Tate Modern Gallery,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Millennium Bridge in London<br />
Vladimir Putin elected President <strong>of</strong> Russia<br />
Weeks <strong>of</strong> delay follow the United States’s<br />
presidential election as votes are recounted <strong>and</strong><br />
arguments made in court before the Supreme<br />
Court finally declares George W. Bush the<br />
winner over Al Gore<br />
2001 Terrorist group Al Qaeda launches attacks in<br />
New York <strong>and</strong> Washington on 11 September,<br />
killing over 2,000 <strong>and</strong> sparking a wave <strong>of</strong> antiterrorist<br />
activity worldwide<br />
United States, Britain, <strong>and</strong> allied countries<br />
overthrow the Taliban government in<br />
Afghanistan, in retaliation for their harboring Al<br />
Qaeda terrorists<br />
Netherl<strong>and</strong>s becomes the world’s first country<br />
to recognize same-sex marriage; by the end <strong>of</strong><br />
2005, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, <strong>and</strong><br />
Spain pass similar legislation<br />
Race-based conflict in Bradford<br />
2002 Terrorist attacks in Bali, Indonesia, kill 202<br />
people (including 88 Australians) <strong>and</strong> injure<br />
hundreds more
2004 Alan Hollinghurst, <strong>The</strong> Line <strong>of</strong> Beauty<br />
Colm Tóibín, <strong>The</strong> Master<br />
2005 Tim Crouch, An Oak Tree<br />
Carol Ann Duffy, Rapture<br />
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go<br />
Ian McEwan, Saturday<br />
Alice Oswald, Woods etc.<br />
2006 John Banville, <strong>The</strong> Sea<br />
Alice Munro, <strong>The</strong> View from Castle Rock<br />
Colm Tóibín, Mothers <strong>and</strong> Sons<br />
2007 Ian McEwan, On Chesil Beach<br />
<strong>Texts</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Contexts</strong> 51<br />
2003 United States <strong>and</strong> Britain launch war against<br />
Iraq, allegedly over the issue <strong>of</strong> Iraq having<br />
concealed “weapons <strong>of</strong> mass destruction.”<br />
Initially, the allied forces were able to take<br />
control <strong>of</strong> the full country quickly. An extended<br />
search revealed no evidence <strong>of</strong> “weapons <strong>of</strong> mass<br />
destruction,” however, <strong>and</strong> a growing<br />
insurgency against the occupying forces made a<br />
mockery <strong>of</strong> American President Bush’s early<br />
“mission accomplished” boast<br />
2003 Terrorist attacks in Madrid kill 191 <strong>and</strong> injure<br />
over 2,000<br />
2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean kills<br />
approximately 250,000<br />
2005 Terrorist attacks in London kill 52 <strong>and</strong> injure<br />
over 700<br />
China ends its practice <strong>of</strong> pegging the yuan to<br />
the value <strong>of</strong> the US dollar, in recognition <strong>of</strong> the<br />
great increase in the strength <strong>of</strong> its economy<br />
Annual number <strong>of</strong> AIDS-related deaths in<br />
Africa exceeds 2,000,000 for the first time; HIV<br />
infection rates in several African countries<br />
exceed 30% <strong>of</strong> the adult population<br />
2006 Number killed in the government-sponsored<br />
violence in Darfur, Sudan, exceeds 400,000;<br />
world-wide efforts to end the genocide continue<br />
to be frustrated<br />
Alarm grows over global warming as 2005 is<br />
declared to have tied 2002 as the secondwarmest<br />
year ever. (<strong>The</strong> warmest years in order<br />
since reliable records began to be kept in the<br />
mid-nineteenth century are, in order, 1998,<br />
2002/2005, 2003, 2004, 2006.) Studies report<br />
that the world’s polar ice caps may be melting at<br />
three times the rate previously thought<br />
2007 British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces a<br />
phased withdrawal <strong>of</strong> British troops from the<br />
conflict in Iraq