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".

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)