1697 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1697.

Events

 * May 7 – The 13th century royal Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") castle in Stockholm burns to the ground and a large portion of the royal library is destroyed.
 * The actors of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris announce a performance of La fausse prude (The False Hypocrite), a play that ridicules King Louis XIV of France's wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, which causes the King to disband the company.
 * George Farquhar arrives in London from Dublin.
 * Thomas Corneille publishes his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses into French.
 * Daniel Defoe's An Essay Upon Projects suggests insurance, an income tax and the education of women, among other public measures.
 * First publication of the 13th century Heimskringla in Old Norse, with Swedish and Latin translations by Johan Peringskiöld in Stockholm

Prose

 * Mary Astell – A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II
 * Pierre Bayle – Dictionnaire historique et critique (Historical and Critical Dictionary, first part, publication continued until 1702)
 * Richard Blackmore – King Arthur
 * Thomas Burnet – Remarks upon An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (on John Locke)
 * William Congreve – The Birth of the Muse
 * William Dampier – A New Voyage Round the World
 * Daniel Defoe – An Essay Upon Projects
 * John Dryden
 * Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Musique (ode)
 * The Works of Virgil
 * John Evelyn – Numismata: A discourse of medals
 * Jane Lead – A Fountain of Gardens
 * John Locke
 * A Letter to the Right Reverend Edward Ld Bishop of Worcester
 * Mr Locke's Reply to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Answer to his Letter
 * A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity
 * Charles Perrault (as Pierre Perrault Darmancourt) – Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec dez moralitez: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose)
 * John Phillips – Augustus Britannicus
 * Humphrey Prideaux – The True Nature of Imposture Fully Display'd in the Life of Mahomet
 * John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester – Familiar Letters
 * William Wotton – Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (setting off the English "quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns")

Drama

 * Anonymous (A Young Lady) – The Unnatural Mother
 * Colley Cibber – Woman's Wit
 * William Congreve – The Mourning Bride
 * John Dennis – A Plot and No Plot
 * Thomas Dilke – The City Lady, or Folly Reclaimed
 * Thomas D'Urfey
 * Cinthia and Endimion (opera)
 * The Intrigues at Versailles; or, A Jilt in all Humours
 * James Drake – The Sham Lawyer
 * Charles Gildon – The Roman Brides Revenge
 * Charles Hopkins – Boadicea, Queen of Britain
 * Peter Anthony Motteux – The Novelty, or Every Act a Play
 * Mary Pix
 * The Deceiver Deceiv'd
 * The Innocent Mistress
 * George Powell – The Imposture Defeated, or a Trick to Cheat the Devil
 * Jacques Pradon – Scipion
 * Elkanah Settle – The World in the Moon
 * John Vanbrugh
 * Aesop
 * The Provoked Wife
 * The Relapse (performed 1696, published 1697)

Births

 * April 1 - Abbé Prévost, French writer (died 1763)
 * June 16 – Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, French historian, classicist and lexicographer (died 1781)
 * December 27 – Sollom Emlyn, Irish legal writer (died 1754)

Deaths

 * February 5 – Hester Biddle (Esther Biddle), English Quaker writer (born c. 1629)
 * March 1 – Francesco Redi, Tuscan physician, naturalist and poet (born 1626)
 * June 7 – John Aubrey, English memoirist (born 1626)
 * December 9 – Scipion Abeille, French surgeon and poet (year of birth unknown)
 * Unknown date – Juan del Valle y Caviedes, Spanish Peruvian poet (born 1645)
 * Probable year of death – Gilbert Clerke, English mathematician, natural philosopher and theologian (born 1626)