This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1817.
Events
January 27 – March 18 – Jane Austen begins, but abandons her novel Sanditon ("Three Brothers"). February 12 – Junius Brutus Booth makes his stage debut in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. February 20 – Junius Brutus Booth as Iago plays opposite Edmund Kean in the title role of Othello at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. March – Percy and Mary Shelley with Claire Clairmont and the latter's new daughter by Lord Byron, Allegra (at this time called Alba), having moved from Bath, begin a year's residence in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, where Mary completes Frankenstein and gives birth to her third child, and Percy writes The Revolt of Islam. April 1 – Blackwood's Magazine is launched as the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. In October the publisher, William Blackwood, relaunches it as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. August 6 – Gas lighting on stage is introduced in London's English Opera House (extended to the auditorium on September 8). On September 6 it is introduced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where it has already been installed in the auditorium and foyer, and the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, as a demonstration. December 18 – 20 – William Hone successfully defends himself in a London court on charges arising from his publication of political satires. December 28 – English painter Benjamin Haydon introduces John Keats to William Wordsworth and Charles Lamb at a dinner in London to celebrate progress on his painting Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, in which all feature. December 31 – Walter Scott's historical novel Rob Roy, written from this spring, is published anonymously by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh, while a shipload of copies is carried from Leith to London for simultaneous publication there by Longman. December – Jane Austen's first and last completed novels, respectively Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are published together by John Murray in London (dated 1818), six months after the author's death at Winchester. Her brother Henry Austen contributes a biographical note, which first publicly identifies her as the author of her previously anonymous novels. She had earned £684 in her lifetime from her writing. unknown – J. & J. Harper publishing house is founded in New York City by James Harper and his brother John.
New books
Fiction
Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey
Persuasion
Selina Davenport – Woman's Privilege
Maria Edgeworth
Harrington: a tale
Ormond: a tale
Ann Hatton – Gonzalo de Baldivia
John Neal – Keep Cool
Thomas Love Peacock – Melincourt. Anna Maria Porter – The Knight of St. John Walter Scott – Rob Roy Catherine Selden – Villa Santelle Elizabeth Thomas – Claudine, or Pertinacity Walter Croker - The Treatment of the Algerians (in Internet Archive).
Drama
William Abbot – The Youthful Days of Frederick the Great
William Dimond – The Conquest of Taranto
Franz Grillparzer – Die Ahnfrau (The Ancestress) James Kenney – The Touchstone Charles Maturin – Manuel Richard Lalor Sheil – The Apostate George Soane The Bohemian: a Tragedy The Falls of Clyde: a Melodrama The Innkeeper's Daughter Zachary Zealoushead – Plots and Placement