# 1768 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1768.

## Events

* March – John Wilkes, returning from exile in France, is elected to the Parliament of Great Britain.
* May 10 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for attacking King George III of Great Britain in print.
* July 28 – Thomas Gray succeeds Lawrence Brockett as Regis Professor of History at the University of Cambridge.
* December 12 – Walter Butler, 16th Earl of Ormonde, father of Lady Eleanor Butler, inherits Kilkenny Castle in Ireland. This brings about the first meeting of the Ladies of Llangollen.
* unknown dates
** John Murray (publisher) is established in London.
** The Theatre Royal, Bath (Old Orchard Street Theatre) and Theatre Royal, Norwich assume these titles on being granted Royal Patents, making them officially England's only legal provincial theaters.
** The Leeds Library is founded, becoming the oldest surviving subscription library of its type in Britain.

## New books
### Fiction

* John Cleland – The Woman of Honour (attributed)
* Alexander Dow (translated) – Tales Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi
* Voltaire – La Princesse de Babylone
* José Francisco de Isla – Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes (second part)
* Anonymous – Fumoto no iro (Japanese: 麓の色, romanized: Sex in the Foothills)

### Children

* Christopher Smart – Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (verse)

### Drama

* Isaac Bickerstaffe
** Lionel and Clarissa
** The Hypocrite
** The Padlock
* Alexander Dow – Zingis
* Samuel Foote – The Devil on Two Sticks
* Oliver Goldsmith – The Good-Natur'd Man
* John Hoole – Cyrus
* Hugh Kelly – False Delicacy
* Arthur Murphy – Zenobia
* Michel-Jean Sedaine – La gageure imprévue
* Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg – Ugolino
* Horace Walpole – The Mysterious Mother (published)
* William Shakespeare, ed. Edward Capell – Mr. William Shakespeare His Comedies, Histories and Tragedies

### Poetry

* Isaac Hawking Browne – Poems
* Thomas Gray – Poems
* Richard Jago – Labour and Genius
* Edward Jerningham – Amabella
* Mary Wortley Montagu – Poetical Works
* Henry James Pye – Elegies
* Alexander Ross – The Fortunate Shepherdess
* Christopher Smart – The Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
* William Wilkie – Fables

### Non-fiction

* Abraham Booth – The Reign of Grace
* James Boswell – An Account of Corsica
* William Gilpin – An Essay upon Prints, containing remarks upon the principles of picturesque beauty
* Oliver Goldsmith – The Present State of the British Empire in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia
* Richard Gough – Anecdotes of British Topography
* Joseph Priestley – An Essay on the First Principles of Government
* Tobias Smollett – The Present State of all Nations
* Laurence Sterne – A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
* Gilbert Stuart – An Historical Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the English Constitution
* Emanuel Swedenborg – Deliciae Sapientiae de Amore Conjugiali
* Abraham Tucker (as Edward Search) – The Light of Nature Pursued
* Horace Walpole – Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III
* Arthur Young – A Six Weeks' Tour Through the Southern Counties of England and Wales

## Births

* March 22 – Melesina Trench, Irish-born writer and socialite (died 1827)
* September 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer and diplomat (died 1848
* November 18 – Zacharias Werner, German religious poet (died 1823)
* November 21 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian (died 1834)

## Deaths

* March 1 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher (born 1694)
* March 18 – Laurence Sterne, Irish-born novelist and cleric (born 1713)
* April 9 – Sarah Fielding, English novelist and children's author (born 1710)
* May 30 – Eggert Ólafsson, Icelandic writer and linguist (drowned, born 1726)
* July 4 – Willem van Haren, Dutch poet (born 1710)
* August 20 – Joseph Spence, English memoirist and professor of poetry (born 1699)
* November 25 – Alexander Russell, Scottish physician and naturalist (born c. 1715)
* December 20 – Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (born 1692)