1794 in literature

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See also: 1793 in literature, other events of 1794, 1795 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• The rebuilt Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, designed by Henry Holland, opens on March 12.
• Robert Southey's first collection of poetry is published.
• Thomas Holcroft is indicted for treason as a member of the Society for Constitutional Information, but is released without charge.
• Ludwig Tieck graduates and begins a literary career.

New books

Fiction

• Giorgio Ferrich - Fabulae ab Illyricis adagiis disumptae
• William Godwin - Caleb Williams
• Ann Radcliffe - The Mysteries of Udolpho
• Thomas Spence - A Description of Spensonia

Non-fiction

• Edward Gibbon - Memoirs of my own Life
• Sake Dean Mahomet - The Travels of Dean Mahomet
• Thomas James Mathias - The Pursuits of Literature
• Thomas Paine - The Age of Reason
• William Paley - View of the Evidences of Christianity
• Walter Whiter - Specimen of a Commentary on Shakespeare

New drama

• Richard Cumberland
  • The Jew
  • The Box-Lobby Challenge
• François Juste Marie Raynouard - Caton d'Utique

New poetry

• William Blake - Songs of Experience
• Isabella Kelly - Collection of Poems and Fables

Births

• January 11 - Jean Philibert Damiron, philosopher
• May 17 - Anna Brownell Jameson
• May 24 - William Whewell
• August 16 - Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné, historian of the Reformation

Deaths

• January 16 - Edward Gibbon, historian
• March 24 - Jacques Hébert, journalist
• April 13 - Nicolas Chamfort
• April 15 - Fabre d'Églantine, dramatist
• April 27 - Sir William Jones (philologist)
• June 3 - Girolamo Tiraboschi
• June 8 - Gottfried August Bürger, poet
• July 24 - Jean-Antoine Roucher and André Chénier, French poets (guillotined)
• November - Rudolf Erich Raspe, author of the adventures of Baron Münchhausen

Awards