1765 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1765.

Events

• January 9 or 10 – Arthur Murphy introduces Hester Thrale and her husband to Samuel Johnson.
• October 10 – Samuel Johnson and George Steevens' edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare is published in London after ten years in the making.
• Beginning of Sturm und Drang movement in German literature.
• Denis Diderot completes the Encyclopédie.

New books

Fiction

• Henry Brooke - The Fool of Quality (volume one; the fifth and last appeared in 1770)
• Madame Riccoboni - L'Histoire d'Ernestine
• Laurence Sterne - The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (vol vii - viii)

Children

• Anonymous – The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (attributed to Oliver Goldsmith)

Drama

• Isaac Bickerstaffe - operas
  • Daphne and Amintor
  • The Maid of the Mill
• Dorothea Biehl - Den listige Optrækkerske
• George Colman the Elder - The Comedies of Terence
• Ramón de la Cruz - El Prado por la noche
• Charles Dibdin - The Shepherd's Artifice
• Carlo Gozzi - L'augellino bel verde
• Elizabeth Griffith - The Platonic Wife
• Michel-Jean Sedaine - Philosophe sans le savoir
• William Shirley - Electra

Poetry

• James Beattie
  • The Judgment of Paris
  • Verses Occasioned by the Death of Charles Churchill
• William Collins - Works
• Edward Jerningham - An Elegy Written Among the Ruins of an Abbey
• James Macpherson - The Works of Ossian
• Thomas Percy - Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
• Christopher Smart - A Translation of the Psalms of David
• Percival Stockdale - Churchill Defended
• Nicolás Fernandez de Moratín - La Diana o Arte de la caza

Non-fiction

• William Blackstone - Commentaries on the Laws of England (publication begins)
• John Bunyan (died 1688) - Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan
• Anders Chydenius - The National Gain (Den nationnale winsten)
• Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro - Opera omnia
• Henry Fuseli - Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (translation of Johann Joachim Winckelmann)
• Oliver Goldsmith - Essays
• William Kenrick - A Review of Doctor Johnson's New Edition of Shakespeare
• Filip Lastrić
  • Epitome vetustatum Bosnensis provinciae
  • Od uzame
• Friedrich Christoph Oetinger - Swedenborg und anderer Irrdische und himmlische Philosophie
• Joseph Priestley - Essay on a Course of Liberal Education for Civil and Active Life
• George Alexander Stevens - The Celebrated Lecture on Heads
• Tobias Smollett - Continuation of the History of England (a supplement to Hume's History of England; final volume)
• Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes - Tratado de la regalía de amortización

Births

• January 4 – Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist (died 1863)
• January 11 – Antoine Alexandre Barbier, French librarian (died 1825)
• March 3 – James Mackintosh, Scottish historian (died 1832)
• March 27 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher (died 1841)
• April 22 – James Grahame, Scottish poet (died 1811)
• September 14 – Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann, German bookseller (died 1837)
• November 30 – Johann Friedrich Abegg, German theologian (died 1840)
• Unknown date – Jippensha Ikku (十返舎 一九 Shigeta Sadakazu), Japanese novelist (died 1831)
• Probable year of birth – Henry Luttrell, English wit (died 1851)

Deaths

• March 3 – William Stukeley, English antiquary (born 1687)
• April 5 – Edward Young, English poet, playwright and literary theorist (born 1683)
• April 11 – Lewis Morris, Welsh poet, antiquary and lexicographer (born 1701)
• April 15 – Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian polymath (born 1711)
• May 1 – Franz Neumayr, German controversialist and theologian (born 1697)
• December 31 – Samuel Madden, Irish social and political writer (born 1686)
• Unknown date
  • David Mallet, Scottish poet and playwright (born c. 1705)
  • James Ridley (Sir Charles Morell), English novelist and story writer (born 1736)

In literature

• Walter Scott's novel Redgauntlet (1824) presents an alternate history of this year in Scotland.