18th century in literature Juvenal’s Third Satire, by Samuel Johnson is published. Like so many poets of the 18th century Johnson sought to breathe new life into his favorite classical author Juvenal. In 1740, Samuel Richardson's "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" is published and Marquis de Sade is born. 1744 1745 1748 1749 1751 1754 1755 1760–1767 Laurence Sterne wrote "Tristram Shandy". 1764 1766 1768 1770 April 7: William Wordsworth is born. 1773 Oliver Goldsmith's play "She Stoops to Conquer", a farce, was performed in London. 1776 The United States Declaration of Independence is created and ratified. 1777 the comedy play "The School for Scandal",
18th-century French literature drawing readers by its pre-romantic depiction of nature and romantic love. Another popular example was "Paul et Virginie" by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1787). The "romans éclatés", roughly translated "Novels broken apart", such as "Jacques le fataliste et son maître" (Eng: "Jacques the Fatalist and His Master") (1773) and "le Neveu de Rameau" (Eng: "The Nephew of Rameau") (1762) by Diderot are almost impossible to classify, but resemble the modernist novels that would come a century or more later. Literary stories of people's lives were popular throughout the 18th century, with such popular books as "la Vie de mon père"