This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1855.
Events
January – Samuel Orchart Beeton's weekly The Boys' Own Magazine, "an illustrated journal of fact, fiction, history and adventure", begins publication in London. January 5 – Anthony Trollope's novel The Warden, the first of his Chronicles of Barsetshire, is published in London by Longman as he begins to write the second, Barchester Towers. February 25 – The comedy De Scholtschäin, by Edmond de la Fontaine writing as Dicks, becomes the first play to be performed in the language of Luxembourg. June 29 – The Daily Telegraph newspaper begins publication in London. July 4 – Walt Whitman's first edition of his book of poems titled Leaves of Grass is published in Brooklyn, New York. September 27 – Alfred Tennyson reads from his new book Maud and other poems at a social gathering in the home of Robert and Elizabeth Browning in London. Dante Gabriel Rossetti makes a sketch of him doing so. October – Victor Hugo moves to Hauteville House, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, accompanied by his mistress, Juliette Drouet. December Charles Dickens publishes the first instalment of Little Dorrit, which continues to appear into 1857. Thomas Babington Macaulay's best-selling History of England in four volumes is completed. unknown dates Alexander Afanasyev begins publication of his collection of Narodnye russkie skazki [National Russian Tales]. John Camden Hotten opens a bookselling business in London, which is the origin of the publisher Chatto & Windus. Faris al-Shidyaq publishes the metafiction Sâq 'ala al-sâq (Leg over Leg), the first modern Arabic novel, in Paris. The first Luxembourg novel in French, Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste, is published shortly after the death of its author, Félix Thyes (born 1830). Belarusian writer Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich publishes «Гапон» (Hapon) in the Russian Empire, the first poem written wholly in modern Belarusian.
New books
Fiction
Gheorghe Asachi – Ziua din urmă a municipiului Iașenilor (The Last Day of Iași Municipality) Cuthbert Bede (pseudonym) – The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green (other volumes, 1856 and 1857) Gustav Freytag – Debit and Credit (Soll und Haben) Elizabeth Gaskell – North and South James Grant – The Yellow Frigate (also entitled The Three Sisters) Mary Virginia Hawes – The Hidden Path Caroline Lee Hentz – Robert Graham Paul Heyse – "L'Arrabbiata" (The Fury, short story) Washington Irving – Wolfert's Roost Gottfried Keller – Green Henry (Der grüne Heinrich) Charles Kingsley – Westward Ho! Herman Melville Israel Potter The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids Benito Cereno Gérard de Nerval – Aurelia Giovanni Ruffini – Doctor Antonio Ann Sophia Stephens – The Old Homestead William Makepeace Thackeray – The Newcomes Félix Thyes – Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste Anthony Trollope – The Warden (first in the Chronicles of Barchester series of six books)
Children
Božena Němcová – The Grandmother
Drama
Émile Augier – Le Mariage d'Olympe
Dicks
De Scholtschäin
D'Mumm Sèiss
Léon Gozlan – Le Gâteau des reines
Henrik Ibsen – The Feast at Solhaug
Andreas Munch – En Aften paa Giske
Watts Phillips – Joseph Chavigny
Ivan Turgenev – A Month in the Country
Poetry
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – The Song of Hiawatha
Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass
Non-fiction
David Brewster – Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton John Brown – Slave Life in Georgia Washington Irving – The Life of George Washington, Volumes 1 and 2 George Sand – Histoire de ma vie (The Story of My Life) William Smith – Latin–English Dictionary based upon the works of Forcellini and Freund Leo Tolstoy – Sevastopol Sketches (Севастопольские рассказы, Sevastopolskiye rasskazy) Alfred Russel Wallace – On the Law Which has Regulated the Introduction of Species