1840 in literature

See also: 1839 in literature, other events of 1840, 1841 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New Books

• Colomba - Prosper Mérimée
• Democracy in America (vol. 2) - Alexis de Tocqueville
• A Hero of Our Time - Mikhail Lermontov
• The Hour and the Man - Harriet Martineau
• The Novice (poetry) - Mikhail Lermontov
• The Old Curiosity Shop - Charles Dickens
• Olla Podrida - Frederick Marryat
• Otho the Archer - Alexandre Dumas, père
• Poor Jack - Frederick Marryat
• Les Rayons et les Ombres - Victor Hugo
• Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque - Edgar Allan Poe
• The Tower of London - William Harrison Ainsworth
• Two Years Before the Mast - Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
• Valentine Vox - Henry Cockton
• What is Property? - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Births

• January 18 - Henry Austin Dobson, English author
• April 2 - Emile Zola, writer (+ 1902)
• June 2 - Thomas Hardy, novelist (+ 1928)
• November 29 - Rhoda Broughton (+ 1920

Deaths

• January 6 - Fanny Burney, novelist

Awards