1851 in literature

• January 1 – The Caucasian Georgian theatre company gives its first performance, under the direction of Giorgi Eristavi. • June 5 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin begins serialization in the American abolitionist weekly The National Era''. • June – While waiting to cross the English Channel on his honeymoon, Matthew Arnold probably begins to compose the poem "Dover Beach". • September 29 – Marian Evans, the future George Eliot, takes up an appointment as (assistant) editor of the Westminster Review, published by John Chapman. In this capacity she will meet G. H. Lewes. • November 14 – Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is published in full, in a single volume, for the first time, by Harper & Brothers in New York, having been previously issued on October 18 as The Whale in an abridged three-volume edition by Richard Bentley in London. • December 2 – The French coup d'état of 1851 prompts Victor Hugo to be a leader of an unsuccessful insurrection against it. He is forced into exile, initially to Brussels. • December 24 – A fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys 35,000 books, about two–thirds of the collection. • unknown dates • ''Akabi's Story (Akabi Hikayesi''), by Vartan Pasha, is published - an early example of a novel in the Turkish language printed in the Armenian alphabet • Hovhannes Hisarian publishes Khosrov yev Makruhi (Khosrov and Makruhi), the first romantic novel in the Armenian language, written in the vernacular Ashkharhabar dialect. • Stephanos Th. Xenos publishes his "Istanbul novel" The Devil in Turkey; Or Scenes in Constantinople in English translated from his Greek manuscript, in London. • Philosopher Auguste Comte includes a list of 150 books which a well-educated person should have read in his Catéchisme positiviste . • Albertus Willem Sijthoff establishes a publishing business at Leiden. ==New books==

Fiction • Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly – Une Vieille Maîtresse (An Old Mistress) • George Borrow – Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy and the Priest (novelized memoir of Romany life) • Mathilde Fibiger – Clara Raphael, Tolv Breve (Clara Raphael, Twelve Letters) • Elizabeth Gaskell – Cranford (serialization begins) • Nathaniel Hawthorne – The House of the Seven Gables • Gottfried Keller – Der Grüne Heinrich • Sheridan Le Fanu • Ghost Stories and Tales of Mystery • The Watcher • Herman Melville – Moby-Dick • John Ruskin – The King of the Golden River • Jules Verne – A Drama in Mexico (Un drame au Mexique) short story • Harriet Ward – Jasper Lyle: A Tale of Kafirland [sic] Children and young people • W. H. G. Kingston – Peter the Whaler Drama • Edward Bulwer-Lytton – Not So Bad as We Seem, or, Many Sides to a Character: A Comedy in Five Acts • Ferdinand Dugué – Salvator Rosa • Franz Grillparzer – The Jewess of Toledo (Die Jüdin von Toledo, written) • Eugène Marin Labiche with Marc Michel – ''Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie'' (An Italian Straw Hat) • Maria Ann Lovell – Ingomar the Barbarian • Alexey Pisemsky – The Hypochondriac (published) • Eugène Scribe – Bataille de Dames Poetry • Matthew Arnold – "Dover Beach" (probably completed; not published until 1867) • Heinrich Heine – Romanzero • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – The Golden Legend Non-fiction • Hans Christian Andersen – In Sweden • Gilbert Abbott à Beckett – The Comic History of Rome • Edward Creasy – The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World • Catherine Dickens (as Lady Maria Clutterbuck) – What Shall We Have for Dinner? • Josiah Henson – The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself • Søren Kierkegaard • For Self-Examination • On my Work as an Author • Henry Mayhew – London Labour and the London Poor (collected in book form) • Francisco de Paula Mellado – Enciclopedia moderna • John Henry Newman – Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England. • Ferencz Aurelius Pulszky – A magyar jakobinusok (The Jacobins in Hungary) • John Ruskin – The Stones of Venice, vol 1 • Herbert Spencer – Social Statics ==Births==

• February 21 – Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Austrian writer and traveler (died 1918) • April 13 – Helen M. Winslow, American editor, author and publisher (died 1938) • May 27 – Henry Festing Jones, English biographer, editor and lawyer (died 1928) • June – Jessie Fothergill, English novelist (died 1891) • June 11 – Mary Augusta Ward (Mrs. Humphry Ward), Tasmanian-born English novelist (died 1920) • June 29 – Jane Dieulafoy, French archeologist, novelist and journalist (died 1916) • August 23 – Alois Jirásek, Czech novelist and playwright (died 1930) • September 14 – H. E. Beunke, Dutch writer (died 1925) • September 16 – Emilia Pardo Bazán, Galician Spanish novelist (died 1921) • December 10 – Melvil Dewey, born Melville Dewey, American librarian (died 1931) ==Deaths==

• February 1 – Mary Shelley, English novelist and essayist (born 1797) • February 23 – Joanna Baillie, Scottish poet and dramatist (born 1762) • February 24 – Sake Dean Mahomed, author of first book in English by an Indian (born 1759) • May 23 – Richard Lalor Sheil, Irish dramatist and journalist (born 1791) • July 17 – Esther Copley, English children's writer and tractarian (born 1786) • August 1 – Harriet Lee, English novelist (born 1757) • August 10 – Heinrich Paulus, German theologian (born 1761) • September 14 – James Fenimore Cooper, American historical novelist (born 1789) • September 22 – Sarah Elizabeth Utterson, English translator and short story writer (born 1781) • December 19 – Henry Luttrell, English politician, wit and society poet (born c. 1765) • unknown date – Vanchinbalyn Gularans, Mongolian poet (unknown year of birth) ==References==