1778 - Literature

Literature

Nonfiction: Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, 1768 by Jonathan Carver is published at London and will for years be the most widely read account of exploration and adventure, but Carver, now 67, derives no benefit from its sale.

The philosopher Voltaire leaves his estate of Ferney, near the Swiss border, in February and returns to Paris, where he dies May 30 at age 83; philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau dies at Ermenonville July 2 at age 66.

Fiction: Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady's Entry into the World by English novelist Fanny (Frances) Burney, 26, is published anonymously. Having been encouraged by Mrs. Thrale and Doctor Johnson, Burney virtually invents the social novel of domestic life, and she introduces the phrase, "Before you could say Jack Robinson."