1765 in literature

Events

• January 10 – Arthur Murphy introduces Hester Thrale and her husband to Samuel Johnson.
• October 10 – Samuel Johnson and George Steevens' edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare is published in London after ten years in the making.
• unknown date – Denis Diderot completes the Encyclopédie.
• Approximate year – Beginning of the Sturm und Drang movement in German literature.

  New books

Fiction

• Henry Brooke – The Fool of Quality
• Madame Riccoboni – L'Histoire d'Ernestine
• Laurence Sterne – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

  Children

• Anonymous – The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes

  Drama

• Isaac Bickerstaffe – operas
• *Daphne and Amintor
• *The Maid of the Mill
• Dorothea Biehl – Den listige Optrækkerske
• George Colman the Elder – The Comedies of Terence
• Ramón de la Cruz – El Prado por la noche
• Charles Dibdin – The Shepherd's Artifice
• Carlo Gozzi – L'augellino bel verde
• Elizabeth Griffith – The Platonic Wife
• Michel-Jean Sedaine – Philosophe sans le savoir
• William Shirley – Electra

  Poetry

• James Beattie
• *The Judgment of Paris
• *Verses Occasioned by the Death of Charles Churchill
• William Collins – Works
• Edward Jerningham – An Elegy Written Among the Ruins of an Abbey
• James Macpherson – The Works of Ossian
• Thomas Percy – Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
• Christopher Smart – A Translation of the Psalms of David
• Percival Stockdale – Churchill Defended
• Nicolás Fernandez de Moratín – La Diana o Arte de la caza

  Non-fiction

• William Blackstone – Commentaries on the Laws of England
• John Bunyan – Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
• Anders Chydenius – The National Gain
• Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro – Opera omnia
• Henry Fuseli – Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks
• Oliver Goldsmith – Essays
• William Kenrick – A Review of Doctor Johnson's New Edition of Shakespeare
• Filip Lastrić
• *Epitome vetustatum Bosnensis provinciae
• *Od uzame
• Friedrich Christoph Oetinger – Swedenborg und anderer Irrdische und himmlische Philosophie
• Joseph Priestley – Essay on a Course of Liberal Education for Civil and Active Life
• George Alexander Stevens – The Celebrated Lecture on Heads
• Tobias Smollett – Continuation of the History of England
• Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes – Tratado de la regalía de amortización

  Births

• January 4 – Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist
• January 11 – Antoine Alexandre Barbier, French librarian
• March 3 – James Mackintosh, Scottish historian
• March 27 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher
• April 22 – James Grahame, Scottish poet
• September 14 – Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann, German bookseller
• November 30 – Johann Friedrich Abegg, German theologian
• Unknown date – Jippensha Ikku, Japanese novelist
• Probable year of birth – Henry Luttrell, English wit

  Deaths

• March 3 – William Stukeley, English antiquary
• April 5 – Edward Young, English poet, playwright and literary theorist
• April 11 – Lewis Morris, Welsh poet, antiquary and lexicographer
• April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath
• April 23 – Sarah Dixon, English poet
• May 1 – Franz Neumayr, German controversialist and theologian
• December 31 – Samuel Madden, Irish social and political writer
• Unknown date
• *David Mallet, Scottish poet and playwright
• *James Ridley, English novelist and story writer

  In literature

• Walter Scott's novel Redgauntlet presents an alternate history of this year in Scotland.