1742 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1742.

Events

• December 2 - The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.
• The Stockholm Gazette, founded by Peter Momma, begins publication.
• French typefounder Pierre Simon Fournier's Modèles des Caractères presents his system of point sizes for typography.
• Pierre de Marivaux is elected to the Académie française.

New fiction

• Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon - Le Sopha, conte moral
• Henry Fielding - Joseph Andrews
• Eliza Haywood - The Virtuous Villager
• Charles Jervas (misprinted as "Jarvis") - English translation of Don Quixote

New drama

• Charlotte Charke - Tit for Tat
• Charles Jennens - Messiah (libretto and music for Handel's piece)
• José de Cañizares - El anillo de Giges
• Ignacio de Luzán - La virtud coronada

Poetry

• William Collins - Persian Eclogues
• Thomas Cooke - Original Poems
• James Hammond - Love Elegies
• James Merrick - The Destruction of Troy
• William Shenstone - The School-Mistress
• William Somervile - Field Sports
• Charles Hanbury Williams - The Country Girl: An ode
• Edward Young - Night Thoughts
• José Gerardo Hervás, Jorge Pitillas - Sátira contra los malos escritores de este siglo

Non-fiction

• Colley Cibber - A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope (in re Pope's satirizing of Cibber)
• Philip Doddridge - Evidences of Christianity
• Pierre Simon Fournier - Modèles des Caractères
• David Hume - Essays Moral and Political vol. ii
• Colin Maclaurin - Treatise on Fluxions
• John Oldmixon - Memoirs of the Press, Historical and Political
• Horace Walpole and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams - The Lessons for the Day (satire on William Pulteney, Bolingbroke, and the "Patriot Whigs").
• William Warburton - A Critical and Philosophical Commentary on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man
• John Wesley
  • The Character of a Methodist
  • The Principles of a Methodist
• George Whitefield - Nine Sermons
• Ignacio de Luzán - Carta en defensa de España
• Benito Jerónimo Feijoo - Cartas eruditas y curiosas

Births

• January 1 – Isaac Reed, English Shakespearean editor (died 1807)
• March 25 – William Combe, English writer, poet and adventurer (died 1823)
• June 25 – Johann Schweighäuser, German classical scholar (died 1830)
• September 14 – James Wilson, American pamphleteer and publisher (died 1798)
• October 6 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian author (died 1785)
• Unknown date – Ralph Broome, English pamphleteer (died 1805)

Deaths

• March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (born 1670)
• April 27 – Nicholas Amhurst, English poet and political writer (born 1697)
• July 9 – John Oldmixon, English historian (born 1673)
• July 14 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (born 1662)
• July 19 – William Somervile, English poet (born 1675)
• November 24 – Andrew Bradford, American publisher (born 1686)