Theatre History Timeline

  • Grimm Brothers

    Grimm Brothers
    Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish Children's and Household Tales, later known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, the stories serve as a collection of traditional folktales that are often dark and not meant for children. The tales inspire other collectors to see folktales as embodying the spirit of a country, thus inspiring early feelings of nationalism.
  • Frankenstein Published

    Frankenstein Published
    Mary Shelley anonymously publishes Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, based on a story written for a competition proposed by Lord Byron. The work concerns a failed attempt at artificial life, and is widely seen as a warning on the transformations of man under the Industrial Revolution.
  • Prometheus was published

    The Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who is married to Mary Shelley, publishes Prometheus Unbound, based on Aeschylus' plays about the Greek mythological figure Prometheus. The four-act lyrical drama, which is never meant to be produced onstage, deals with Prometheus' release from captivity.
  • John Keats

    John Keats
    John Keats, already renowned as a Romantic poet, publishes his third volume of poetry, which is considered to be his best work. The poems deal with mythical and legendary themes of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance times, and are rich in imagery and phrasing. The volume includes some of Keats' most famous pieces, such as "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode to a Nightingale."
  • Beethoven

    Beethoven
    completes his Ninth Symphony, This symphony is seen as Beethoven's masterpiece, and it features intellectual depth and intense, highly personal expression.
  • James Fenimore Cooper

    James Fenimore Cooper
    publishes The Prairie, the first of his "Leatherstocking Tales" concerning the hero Natty Bumppo. The books are inspired in part by the real-life Daniel Boone, and romanticize the already-mythic American frontier.
  • Eugène Delacroix

    Eugène Delacroix
    French Romantic artist completes Liberty Leading the People, arguably his most famous painting. The piece commemorates the July 1830 revolution in France that toppled King Charles X, and emphasizes freely brushed color rather than the precise lines of previous schools of art.
  • Boris Godunov

    Boris Godunov
    Alexander Pushkin publishes his play Boris Godunov, which was written in blank verse,the Russian censors didn't approve its staging until 1866. It concerns the Russian Czar Boris Godunov, who reigned from 1598 to 1605, and inspires Mussorgsky's 1874 opera by the same name.
  • The Raven was Published

    The Raven was Published
    "The Raven" which was published by Edgar Allan Poe and was focused mostly on one's own individuality, being one of the first few books of the time being fictional. This period of writing was new to everyone, which is why this book was one of the first few of its kind being fiction.
  • Wuthering Heights was published

    Wuthering Heights was published
    while writing under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell", Emily Brontë managed to publish Wuthering Heights, a year before her death. The novel conforms to traditions of Gothic romance and features Romantic themes of the wildness of nature.