1794 in literature

Events

• March 12 – The rebuilt Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, designed by Henry Holland, opens to the public.
• May 12 – William Godwin's novel Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams is published in London as an attack on tyrannical government, although its controversial original preface and ending are suppressed. The work also contains elements of detective fiction.
• May 14 – Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter by American speculator Gilbert Imlay, Fanny, is born in Le Havre.
• June – English poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey first meet, in Oxford while Coleridge is en route for a tour of Wales. They meet again in Bristol in August. After Robespierre's execution in July, they collaborate on the "historic drama" The Fall of Robespierre, published in October. Southey's first published poetry appears and he also writes the radical play Wat Tyler this summer.
• Autumn–December – English playwright Thomas Holcroft is indicted for treason as a member of the Society for Constitutional Information and held in Newgate Prison, London, but released without charge.
• November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy in Pennsylvania.

• Ludwig Tieck graduates and begins a literary career.

  New books

Fiction

• Xavier de Maistre – Voyage autour de ma chambre
• Giorgio Ferrich – Fabulae ab Illyricis adagiis disumptae
• Ludwig Flammenberg translated and adapted by Peter Teuthold – The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest
• William Godwin – Caleb Williams
• Ann Radcliffe – The Mysteries of Udolpho
• Mary Robinson – The Widow; or, A Picture of Modern Times
• Susanna Rowson – Charlotte Temple
• Thomas Spence – A Description of Spensonia

  Children

• Elizabeth Pinchard – The Two Cousins

  Drama

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey – The Fall of Robespierre
• Richard Cumberland
• *The Jew
• *The Box-Lobby Challenge
• François Juste Marie Raynouard – Caton d'Utique
• Mary Robinson –

  Poetry

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

  Non-fiction

• Edward Bancroft – Experimental Researches Concerning the Philosophy of Permanent Colours
• Erasmus Darwin – Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life
• Elizabeth Dawbarn – Dialogue between Clara Neville and Louisa Mills, on Loyalty
• Edward Gibbon – Memoirs of My Life and Writings
• Deen Mahomed – 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
• Uvedale Price – Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared with the Sublime and The Beautiful
• Patrick Russell – Natural History of Aleppo
• Walter Whiter – Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare

  Births

• January 11 – Jean Philibert Damiron, French philosopher
• May 17 – Anna Brownell Jameson, Irish-born essayist, travel writer and editor
• May 24 – William Whewell, English polymath
• August 16 – Jean-Henri Merle d'Aubigné, Swiss historian of the Reformation

• Emma Roberts, English travel writer and poet

  Deaths

• January 16 – Edward Gibbon, English historian
• March 5 – Ramón de la Cruz, Spanish dramatist
• March 24 – Jacques Hébert, French radical journalist
• April 5 – Susanna Blamire, English dialect poet and songwriter
• April 13 – Nicolas Chamfort, French wit
• April 15 – Fabre d'Églantine, French dramatist and poet
• April 27 – Sir William Jones, English philologist
• June 3 – Girolamo Tiraboschi, Italian literary critic
• June 8 – Gottfried August Bürger, German poet
• July 25
• *André Chénier, French poet
• *Jean-Antoine Roucher, French poet
• August 14 – George Colman the Elder, English dramatist and essayist
• November – Rudolf Erich Raspe, German writer

  In literature

• Victorien Sardou's play Thermidor is set in this year.