1838 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1838.
Events
- January 25 – William Macready opens a performance of King Lear at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London, restoring most of Shakespeare's original text, including the character of the Fool.
- January 28 – The second night of Henrik Wergeland's satirical musical play Campbellerne in Christiania provokes a riot.
- March – The Monthly Chronicle, "a national journal of politics, literature, science, and art", begins publication by Longman in London.
- June 7 – English poet and novelist Letitia Elizabeth Landon marries George Maclean, travelling with him in early August to Cape Coast Castle, Gold Coast, where she dies on October 15 of a spasm arising from a heart defect.
- October 19 – Poet Alfred de Musset is appointed librarian of the Ministry of the Interior in France.
- November 3 – The Times of India is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce by Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar in Bombay.
- November 8 – French novelist George Sand begins an uncomfortable winter living with her lover, the ailing Polish-born composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin, on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca in the abandoned Carthusian monastery of Valldemossa.
- unknown dates
- *Anna Maria Bunn's Gothic fiction The Guardian: a tale is published in Sydney. It is the first Australian novel printed and published in mainland Australia and the first by a woman.
- *George Palmer Putnam and John Wiley form the book publishing and retail firm of Wiley & Putnam in New York City. It is the forerunner of G. P. Putnam's Sons.
- *Lady Charlotte Guest begins publication of her translation into English of the Welsh traditional tales known as the Mabinogion.
New books
Fiction
- Hendrik Conscience – De Leeuw van Vlaanderen
- Charles Dickens
- *Nicholas Nickleby
- *Oliver Twist
- Théophile Gautier – "One of Cleopatra's Nights"
- William Nugent Glascock – Land Sharks and Sea Gulls
- Edward Howard – Rattling the Reefer
- Karl Leberecht Immermann – Münchhausen
- John Pendleton Kennedy – Rob of the Bowl
- Edgar Allan Poe
- *The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
- *"Ligeia"
- George Sand
- *L'Orco
- *L'Uscoque
- Ann Sophia Stephens – Mary Derwent
- Robert Smith Surtees – ''Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities''
Children
- Hans Christian Andersen – Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. First Booklet comprising "The Daisy", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Wild Swans"
Drama
- Dion Boucicault – A Legend of the Devil's Dyke
- Edward Bulwer – The Lady of Lyons
- Charles Dickens – The Lamplighter: a farce in one act
- Franz Grillparzer – '
- James Haynes – Durazzo
- Victor Hugo – Ruy Blas
- James Sheridan Knowles
- * The Maid of Mariendorpt
- * Woman's Wit
- Martins Pena – '
- Thomas Talfourd – ''The Athenian Captive''
Poetry
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning – The Seraphim and Other Poems
- Eliza Hamilton Dunlop – "The Aboriginal Mother"
- Martin Tupper – ''Proverbial Philosophy''
Non-fiction
- Lady Charlotte Bury – Diary Illustrative of the Times of George IV
- Giacomo Casanova – Memoirs
- Ralph Waldo Emerson – The Divinity School Address
- Anna Brownell Jameson – Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada
- Gideon Mantell – The Wonders of Geology, or, A Familiar Exposition of Geological Phenomena...
- Harriet Martineau – How to Observe Morals and Manners
- Samuel Smiles – Physical Education
- Baron Jules Dupotet de Sennevoy – ''Introduction to the Study of Animal Magnetism''
Births
- January 4 – Eliza Archard Conner, American novelist, journalist, and feminist
- February 6 – Henry Irving, English actor and theatre manager
- February 22 – Margaret Elizabeth Sangster, American author, poet, and editor
- March 6 – Mary Dickens, English memoirist, editor and novelist
- April 25 – Mary Torrans Lathrap, American author and reformer
- April 30 – Abba Goold Woolson, American writer
- June 26 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bengali writer
- July – Emma Pike Ewing, American author and educator
- July 20 – Augustin Daly, American dramatist and theatre manager
- October 2 – Hester A. Benedict, American poet
- October 25 – Annie Hall Cudlip, English novelist, journalist and editor
- November 7 – Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, French Symbolist writer
- December 22 – Clara Doty Bates, American author
- unknown date
- *Josephine E. Keating, American literary critic, musician and music teacher
- *Martha D. Lincoln, American author and journalist
Deaths
- March 28 – Thomas Morton, English playwright
- April 12 – Johann Adam Möhler, German theologian
- April 18 – Mariana Starke, English playwright and travel writer
- July 12 – John Jamieson, Scottish lexicographer
- August 24 – Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and critic
- September 9 – Emma Jane Greenland, English painter, writer
- October 15 – Letitia Elizabeth Landon, English poet and novelist
- November 10 – Ivan Kotliarevsky, Ukrainian writer
- December 17 – Józef Zawadzki, Polish publisher
- December 20 – Hégésippe Moreau, French poet
- December 26 – Ann Hatton, English novelist
- unknown date – Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin, Irish writer in Gaelic