# 1791 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1791.

## Events

* May 16 – James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson is published in 2 volumes in London on the 28th anniversary of their first meeting.
* September 10 – The Scottish poet and exciseman Robert Burns moves to Dumfries.
* unknown dates
** Chinese writer and publisher Gao E and his partner Cheng Weiyan claim to have discovered Cao Xueqin's lost novel Dream of the Red Chamber.
** The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge begins his course at Jesus College, Cambridge. He marks his transfer from Christ's Hospital school by composing the poem "On Quitting School".

## New books
### Fiction

* Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) and others – Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢, first printed edition)
* Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai – Émilie de Varmont
* Elizabeth Inchbald – A Simple Story
* Ann Radcliffe – The Romance of the Forest
* Susanna Rowson – Charlotte, a Tale of Truth
* Marquis de Sade – Justine ou Les Malheurs de la vertu
* Charlotte Turner Smith – Celestina

### Drama

* Antoine-Vincent Arnault – Marius à Minturne
* George Colman the Younger – The Surrender of Calais
* Hannah Cowley – A Day in Turkey
* Thomas Holcroft – The School for Arrogance
* Elizabeth Inchbald
** Lovers' Vows
** Next Door Neighbours
* John O'Keeffe – Wild Oats
* Frederick Reynolds –Notoriety

### Poetry

* Robert Burns – "Tam o' Shanter"
* Erasmus Darwin – The Botanic Garden
* Christopher Smart – The Poems of the late Christopher Smart

### Non-fiction

* James Boswell – Life of Samuel Johnson
* Olympe de Gouges – Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
* Isaac D'Israeli – Curiosities of Literature (Volume 1)
* Georg Forster – Views from the Lower Rhine (Volume 1)
* William Gilpin – Remarks on Forest Scenery and Other Woodland Views (3 volumes)
* Thomas Paine – Rights of Man (Part 1)
* Petrarch's View of Life (Latin dialogues De remediis utriusque fortunae translated by Susannah Dobson)
* Helen Maria Williams – Letters on the French Revolution

## Births

* January 15 – Franz Grillparzer, Austrian dramatist (died 1872)
* March 15 – Charles Knight, English publisher and author (died 1873)
* July 5 – Samuel Bailey, English philosopher and author (died 1870)
* August 17 – Richard Lalor Sheil, Irish politician, author and orator (died 1851)
* September 21 – István Széchenyi, Hungarian politician, writer and diarist (died 1860)
* October 26 – Charles Sprague, American poet and banker (died 1875)
* December 24 – Eugène Scribe, French dramatist (died 1861)

## Deaths

* January 11 – William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh religious writer and hymnist (born 1717)
* March 2 – John Wesley, English preacher and religious writer (born 1703)
* April 2 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French revolutionary and writer (born 1749)
* April 19 – Richard Price, Welsh moral philosopher and preacher (born 1723)
* June 12 – Francis Grose, English antiquary and lexicographer (born c. 1730)
* June 30 – Jean-Baptiste Descamps, French writer and painter (born 1714)
* July 2 – Søren Abildgaard, Danish naturalist and writer (born 1718)
* November 22 – Johann Silberschlag, German theologian (born 1721)