title: 1768 in literature
text: # 1768 in literature
  
  This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1768.
  
  ## Events
  
  * March – John Wilkes, returning from exile in France, is elected to the Parliament of Great Britain.
  * May 10 – John Wilkes is imprisoned for attacking King George III of Great Britain in print.
  * July 28 – Thomas Gray succeeds Lawrence Brockett as Regis Professor of History at the University of Cambridge.
  * December 12 – Walter Butler, 16th Earl of Ormonde, father of Lady Eleanor Butler, inherits Kilkenny Castle in Ireland. This brings about the first meeting of the Ladies of Llangollen.
  * unknown dates
     * John Murray (publisher) is established in London.
     * The Theatre Royal, Bath (Old Orchard Street Theatre) and Theatre Royal, Norwich assume these titles on being granted Royal Patents, making them officially England's only legal provincial theaters.
     * The Leeds Library is founded, becoming the oldest surviving subscription library of its type in Britain.
  
  ## New books
  
  ### Fiction
  
  * John Cleland – The Woman of Honour (attributed)
  * Alexander Dow (translated) – Tales Translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi
  * Voltaire – La Princesse de Babylone
  * José Francisco de Isla – Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes (second part)
  * Anonymous – Fumoto no iro (Japanese: 麓の色, romanized: Sex in the Foothills)
  
  ### Children
  
  * Christopher Smart – Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (verse)
  
  ### Drama
  
  * Isaac Bickerstaffe
     * Lionel and Clarissa
     * The Hypocrite
     * The Padlock
  * Alexander Dow – Zingis
  * Samuel Foote – The Devil on Two Sticks
  * Oliver Goldsmith – The Good-Natur'd Man
  * John Hoole – Cyrus
  * Hugh Kelly – False Delicacy
  * Arthur Murphy – Zenobia
  * Michel-Jean Sedaine – La gageure imprévue
  * Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg – Ugolino
  * Horace Walpole – The Mysterious Mother (published)
  * William Shakespeare, ed. Edward Capell – Mr. William Shakespeare His Comedies, Histories and Tragedies
  
  ### Poetry
  
  * Isaac Hawking Browne – Poems
  * Thomas Gray – Poems
  * Richard Jago – Labour and Genius
  * Edward Jerningham – Amabella
  * Mary Wortley Montagu – Poetical Works
  * Henry James Pye – Elegies
  * Alexander Ross – The Fortunate Shepherdess
  * Christopher Smart – The Parables of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
  * William Wilkie – Fables
  
  ### Non-fiction
  
  * Abraham Booth – The Reign of Grace
  * James Boswell – An Account of Corsica
  * William Gilpin – An Essay upon Prints, containing remarks upon the principles of picturesque beauty
  * Oliver Goldsmith – The Present State of the British Empire in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia
  * Richard Gough – Anecdotes of British Topography
  * Joseph Priestley – An Essay on the First Principles of Government
  * Tobias Smollett – The Present State of all Nations
  * Laurence Sterne – A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
  * Gilbert Stuart – An Historical Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the English Constitution
  * Emanuel Swedenborg – Deliciae Sapientiae de Amore Conjugiali
  * Abraham Tucker (as Edward Search) – The Light of Nature Pursued
  * Horace Walpole – Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III
  * Arthur Young – A Six Weeks' Tour Through the Southern Counties of England and Wales
  
  ## Births
  
  * March 22 – Melesina Trench, Irish-born writer and socialite (died 1827)
  * September 4 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French writer and diplomat (died 1848
  * November 18 – Zacharias Werner, German religious poet (died 1823)
  * November 21 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian (died 1834)
  
  ## Deaths
  
  * March 1 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher (born 1694)
  * March 18 – Laurence Sterne, Irish-born novelist and cleric (born 1713)
  * April 9 – Sarah Fielding, English novelist and children's author (born 1710)
  * May 30 – Eggert Ólafsson, Icelandic writer and linguist (drowned, born 1726)
  * July 4 – Willem van Haren, Dutch poet (born 1710)
  * August 20 – Joseph Spence, English memoirist and professor of poetry (born 1699)
  * November 25 – Alexander Russell, Scottish physician and naturalist (born c. 1715)
  * December 20 – Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (born 1692)
  