This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1887.
Events
February – Oscar Wilde publishes "The Canterville Ghost", his first short story, in The Court and Society Review. March 30 – Théâtre Libre, established by André Antoine to promote naturalism in theatre, gives its first performances in Paris, originally as an amateur ensemble. April 22 – Syracuse University in New York State purchases the Ranke Library from the estate of historian Leopold von Ranke, outbidding the Prussian government. November – Arthur Conan Doyle's first detective novel, A Study in Scarlet, is published in Beeton's Christmas Annual by Ward Lock & Co. in London, introducing the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler Dr. Watson (illustrated by D. H. Friston). December 5 – The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) comes into effect. December 15 – The Romanian literary magazine Revista Nouă is launched in Bucharest by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who answers a request made by Ioan Bianu, Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea, Alexandru Vlahuță and others. The first issue, illustrated by George Demetrescu Mirea, hosts Delavrancea's Hagi Tudose and Petre Ispirescu's Sarea în bucate (a localized folkloric version of the King Leir myth). unknown dates Futabatei Shimei writes and begins to publish The Drifting Cloud (浮雲, Ukigumo), the first modern novel in Japan. George Hutchinson establishes Hutchinson & Co. as a publisher in London. John Lane and Elkin Mathews set up in partnership under the name The Bodley Head in London, originally as antiquarian booksellers.
New books
Fiction
Herman Bang – Stucco (Stuk) Mary Elizabeth Braddon – Cut by the County Hall Caine – The Deemster Marie Corelli – Thelma F. Marion Crawford – Saracinesca José Maria de Eça de Queiroz – A Relíquia (The Relic) Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea – Hagi Tudose Anna Bowman Dodd – The Republic of the Future Arthur Conan Doyle – A Study in Scarlet Édouard Dujardin – Les Lauriers sont coupés (early example of Stream of consciousness, narrative mode) Benito Pérez Galdós – Fortunata y Jacinta (publication completed) Enrique Gaspar – El anacronópete, first fiction to feature a time machine George Gissing – Thyrza H. Rider Haggard Allan Quatermain Jess She Thomas Hardy – The Woodlanders W. H. Hudson – A Crystal Age Joris-Karl Huysmans – En rade (Becalmed; serialization concludes, book publication) Petre Ispirescu – Sarea în bucate Pierre Loti – Madame Chrysanthème Paolo Mantegazza – Testa William Morris – The Tables Turned, Or, Nupkins Awakened: A Socialist Interlude Appu Nedungadi – Kundalatha (കുന്ദലത) Bolesław Prus – The Doll (Lalka; serialization begins) José Rizal – Noli Me Tangere William James Roe (as Hudor Genone) – Bellona's Husband: A Romance Mark Rutherford (pseudonym of Hale White) – Revolution in Tanner's Lane Futabatei Shimei – The Drifting Cloud August Strindberg – The People of Hemsö (Hemsöborna) Jules Verne The Flight to France (Le Chemin de France) Texar's Revenge, or, North Against South (Nord contre Sud) Émile Zola – La Terre (The Earth)
Children and young people
Palmer Cox – The Brownies, Their Book
Robert Louis Stevenson – The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables
Drama
Anton Chekhov – Ivanov
Arthur Wing Pinero – Dandy Dick
Victorien Sardou – La Tosca
August Strindberg – The Father
Thomas Russell Sullivan – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, adapted from 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Non-fiction
Mikhail Bakunin – God and the State
Hall Caine – Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Charles Darwin (died 1882) – The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
Julius Dresser – The True History of Mental Science
Friedrich Engels (translated by Florence Kelley) – The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (first English language edition) George William Foote – Royal Paupers: a radical's contribution to the Jubilee Franz Hartmann – The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, better known by the name of Paracelsus, and the substance of his teachings David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross - The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers – The Kabbalah Unveiled Friedrich Nietzsche – On the Genealogy of Morality Marius Nygaard, Jan Johanssen and Emil Schreiner – Latinsk Ordbog E. J. Richmond – Woman, First and Last, and What She has Done A. E. Waite – The Real History of the Rosicrucians Mary Allen West – Childhood: Its Care and Culture L. L. Zamenhof – Unua Libro