This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1854.
Events
March 2 – An adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice into Bengali, Bhānumatī-chittavilās by Hara Chandra Ghosh, is staged; also, Dinabandhu Mitra introduces Falstaff in Nabin Tapaswini. March 20 – The Boston Public Library opens to the public in the United States. April 1 – August 12 – Charles Dickens's novel Hard Times, is serialised in his magazine Household Words. From September 2, it is followed in the magazine by Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, another social novel based in the Lancashire manufacturing district. July – Publication begins of Anthony Trollope's novel Barchester Towers (1857). November – Crimean War: Future novelist Leo Tolstoy arrives to take part as a defending soldier in the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55). Off-duty he is reading Thackeray's novels in French translation. December 14 – Wilkie Collins's "The Lawyer's Story of a Stolen Letter", published as "The Fourth Poor Traveller" in The Seven Poor Travellers – the Household Words special Christmas number – is the first non-police detective fiction published in Britain. unknown dates John Rollin Ridge's The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, The Celebrated California Bandit is the first novel by a Native American in the United States (writing as "Yellow Bird") to be published. The Polyglotta Africana, an early classification of African languages based on field work under freed slaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is published by Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle.
New books
Fiction
Margaret Jewett Smith Bailey (anonymously) – The Grains, or, Passages in the Life of Ruth Rover, with Occasional Pictures of Oregon, Natural and Moral Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly – L'Ensorcelée William Wells Brown – Sketches of Places and People Abroad Camilla Collett (anonymously) – (The District Governor's Daughters, first part) Wilkie Collins – Hide and Seek John Esten Cooke – The Virginia Comedians Maria Cummins – The Lamplighter Charles Dickens – Hard Times Fanny Fern – Ruth Hall Mathilde Fibiger – Minona Frederick Greenwood – The Loves of an Apothecary Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi – Beatrice Cenci Nathaniel Hawthorne – Mosses from an Old Manse Caroline Lee Hentz – The Planter's Northern Bride Mary Jane Holmes – Tempest and Sunshine Mary Russell Mitford – Atherton Gérard de Nerval – Les Filles du feu (short stories) Charles Reade – The Courier of Lyons Solon Robinson – Hot Corn E. D. E. N. Southworth – The Lost Heiress Leo Tolstoy – Boyhood («Отрочество», Otrochestvo)
Children and young people
Anna Eliza Bray – A Peep at the Pixies, or Legends of the West (illustrated by Phiz)
Drama
Émile Augier and Jules Sandeau – Le Gendre de M. Poirier
Andreas Munch – Salomon de Caus
Alexander Ostrovsky – Poverty is No Vice («Бедность не порок», Bednost ne porok) Charles Reade – The Courier of Lyons Zacharias Topelius – Regina von Emmeritz
Poetry
R. D. Blackmore – Poems by Melanter
Coventry Patmore – The Angel in the House
Emma Tatham – The Dream of Pythagoras and Other Poems
Alfred Tennyson – "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
Non-fiction
Samuel Bache – Exposition of Unitarian Views of Christianity
George Boole – The Laws of Thought
William Erskine with Claudius James Erskine – History of India under the two first sovereigns of the house of Taimur, Baber, and Humayun F. W. Fairholt – Dictionary of Terms in Art Ludwig Feuerbach – The Essence of Christianity (Das Wesen des Christentums) Kuno Fischer – History of Modern Philosophy (Geschichte der neueren Philosophie), vol. 1 Elisha Kane – The U. S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: a Personal Narrative Éliphas Lévi – Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (Dogma and Ritual of High Magic), vol. 1, Dogme Theodor Mommsen – History of Rome (Römische Geschichte), vol. 1 John Neal – One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers Henry David Thoreau – Walden, or Life in the Woods