ABSTRACT
William Blake, Songs of Innocence 1790 First Collection of Russian Folk Songs 1791 US Bill of Rights passed 1792 French Republic proclaimed 1793 David, The Death of Marat 1794 Fall of Robespierre 1798 Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads 1799 Church Missionary Society founded in
Britain 1800 Schiller, Maria Stuart 1804 Napoleon’s Coronation 1805 Beethoven, Eroica Symphony 1806 David, The Coronation of Napoleon 1808 Goethe, Faust (part 1) 1813 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice 1814 Jesuit Order restored; Sir Walter Scott,
Waverley; Goya, The Third of May, 1812 1815 J. Constable, View of Dedham 1819 J. Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn; P.B. Shel-
ley,The Defence of Poetry 1819 T. Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa; Schlegel
brothers, The Athanaum 1823 Beethoven, Choral Symphony; F. Schubert,
Die Schöne Müllerin 1824 V. Hugo, Odes et Ballades; E. Delacroix,
Massacre at Chios 1830 F. Mendelssohn’s performance of Bach’s St
Matthew Passion 1830 H. Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique 1831 E. Delacroix, 28th July, Liberty Leading the
People; Stendhal, Le Rouge et le Noir 1832 Mendelssohn, Italian Symphomy 1833 A. Pushkin, Eugen Onegin; Charles Lyell,
Principles of Geology 1834 H. de Balzac, Le Père Goriot 1835 F. Strauss, Life of Jesus 1836 N. Gogol, The Govenment Inspector 1837 C. Dickens, Oliver Twist 1838 J.M.W. Turner, The Fighting Temeraire 1839 Stendhal, La Chartreuse de Parme 1844 J.M.W. Turner, Rail, Steam and Speed
1845 R. Schumann, Piano Concerto 1847 W.M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair; E. Brontë,
Jane Eyre; C. Brontë, Wuthering Heights
The problems of intellectual and cultural history are manifold. The attempt to define what one generation thought and felt requires the arbitrary choice of a few leading authors, whose books may only have been read by a tiny minority of educated men and women. In the same way, the study of the culture of a particular epoch imposes the need to select those works of literature, music and painting which have stood the test of time.
