This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1851.
Events
January 1 – The Caucasian Georgian theatre company gives its first performance, under the direction of Giorgi Eristavi. June 5 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin begins serialization in the American abolitionist weekly The National Era. June – While waiting to cross the English Channel on his honeymoon, Matthew Arnold probably begins to compose the poem "Dover Beach". September 29 – Marian Evans, the future George Eliot, takes up an appointment as (assistant) editor of the Westminster Review, published by John Chapman. In this capacity she will meet G. H. Lewes. November 14 – Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is published in full, in a single volume, for the first time, by Harper & Brothers in New York, having been previously issued on October 18 as The Whale in an abridged three-volume edition by Richard Bentley in London. December 2 – The French coup d'état of 1851 prompts Victor Hugo to be a leader of an unsuccessful insurrection against it. He is forced into exile, initially to Brussels. December 24 – A fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys 35,000 books, about two–thirds of the collection. unknown dates Akabi's Story (Akabi Hikayesi), by Vartan Pasha, is published - an early example of a novel in the Turkish language printed in the Armenian alphabet Hovhannes Hisarian publishes Khosrov yev Makruhi (Khosrov and Makruhi), the first romantic novel in the Armenian language, written in the vernacular Ashkharhabar dialect. Stephanos Th. Xenos publishes his "Istanbul novel" The Devil in Turkey; Or Scenes in Constantinople in English translated from his Greek manuscript, in London. Philosopher Auguste Comte includes a list of 150 books which a well-educated person should have read in his Catéchisme positiviste . Albertus Willem Sijthoff establishes a publishing business at Leiden.
New books
Fiction
Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly – Une Vieille Maîtresse (An Old Mistress) George Borrow – Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy and the Priest (novelized memoir of Romany life) Mathilde Fibiger – Clara Raphael, Tolv Breve (Clara Raphael, Twelve Letters) Elizabeth Gaskell – Cranford (serialization begins) Nathaniel Hawthorne – The House of the Seven Gables Gottfried Keller – Der Grüne Heinrich Sheridan Le Fanu Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery The Watcher Herman Melville – Moby-Dick John Ruskin – The King of the Golden River Jules Verne – A Drama in Mexico (Un drame au Mexique) short story Harriet Ward – Jasper Lyle: A Tale of Kafirland [sic]
Children and young people
W. H. G. Kingston – Peter the Whaler
Drama
Edward Bulwer-Lytton – Not So Bad as We Seem, or, Many Sides to a Character: A Comedy in Five Acts Ferdinand Dugué – Salvator Rosa Franz Grillparzer – The Jewess of Toledo (Die Jüdin von Toledo, written) Eugène Marin Labiche with Marc Michel – Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie (An Italian Straw Hat) Maria Ann Lovell – Ingomar the Barbarian Alexey Pisemsky – The Hypochondriac (published) Eugène Scribe – Bataille de Dames
Poetry
Matthew Arnold – "Dover Beach" (probably completed; not published until 1867) Heinrich Heine – Romanzero Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – The Golden Legend
Non-fiction
Hans Christian Andersen – In Sweden
Gilbert Abbott à Beckett – The Comic History of Rome
Edward Creasy – The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World
Catherine Dickens (as Lady Maria Clutterbuck) – What Shall We Have for Dinner? Josiah Henson – The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself Søren Kierkegaard For Self-Examination On my Work as an Author Henry Mayhew – London Labour and the London Poor (collected in book form) Francisco de Paula Mellado – Enciclopedia moderna Ferencz Aurelius Pulszky – A magyar jakobinusok (The Jacobins in Hungary) John Ruskin – The Stones of Venice, vol 1