1742 in literature

The year 1742 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

• December 2 - The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.
• The Stockholm Gazette begins publication.
• Pierre de Marivaux is elected to the Académie française.

New books

• Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon - Le Sopha, conte moral
• Henry Fielding - Joseph Andrews
• Eliza Haywood - The Virtuous Villager (prose fiction)
• Charles Jervas (misprinted as "Jarvis") - English translation of Don Quixote

New drama

• Charlotte Charke - Tit for Tat
• Charles Jennens - Messiah (libretto and music for Handel's piece)

Poetry

• William Collins - Persian Eclogues
• Thomas Cooke - Original Poems
• James Hammond - Love Elegies
• James Merrick - The Destruction of Troy
• William Shenstone - The School-Mistress
• William Somervile - Field Sports
• Charles Hanbury Williams - The Country Girl: An ode
• Edward Young - Night Thoughts

Non-fiction

• Colley Cibber - A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (in re Pope's satirizing of Cibber)
• Philip Doddridge - Evidences of Christianity
• David Hume - Essays Moral and Political vol. ii
• Colin Maclaurin - Treatise on Fluxions
• John Oldmixon - Memoirs of the Press, Historical and Political
• Horace Walpole and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams - The Lessons for the Day (satire on William Pulteney, Bolingbroke, and the "Patriot Whigs").
• William Warburton - A Critical and Philosophical Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man
• John Wesley
  • The Character of a Methodist
  • The Principles of a Methodist
• George Whitefield - Nine Sermons

Births

• January 1 - Isaac Reed, Shakespearean editor (died 1807)
• June 25 - Johann Schweighauser, German classical scholar (died 1830)
• September 14 - James Wilson, publisher (died 1798)
• October 6 - Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (died 1785)

Deaths

• March 23 - Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (born 1670)
• April 27 - Nicholas Amhurst, poet and political writer (born 1697)
• July 9 - John Oldmixon, English historian (born 1673)
• July 14 - Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (born 1662)
• July 19 - William Somervile, English poet (born 1675)
• November 24 - Andrew Bradford, American publisher (born 1686)