1748 in literature

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The year 1748 in literature involved some significant events and new books.

Events

November 21 - The first instalment of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, also known as Fanny Hill, written by John Cleland to raise money to free himself from the London debtors' prison in which he is held, and considered the first modern erotic novel by some, is published.
David Garrick revives Philip Massinger's play A New Way to Pay Old Debts (written c.1625) in London.
Royal Danish Theatre founded.
Leonhard Euler publishes, in Berlin, one of the two works for which he will be most renowned: the Introductio in analysin infinitorum. Euler’s fifth paper on nautical topics, E137, is also written in this year but not published until 1750.
Publication of the Gospel of Matthew in Manx as Yn Sushtcml scruit liorish yn Noo Mian is the first translation of the New Testament into that language, under the auspices of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.^[1]

Mark Akenside - An Ode to the Earl of Huntingdon
George Anson - A Voyage Round the World by Richard Walton
Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens - Thérèse Philosophe
John Cleland - Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (aka Fanny Hill)
Denis Diderot - Les bijoux indiscrets (The Indiscreet Jewels)
Eliza Haywood - Life's Progress through the Passions (novel)
James Hervey - Meditations and Contemplations
David Hume
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
- Three Essays, Moral and Political
William Kenrick - The Town
Montesquieu - De l'esprit des lois (The Spirit of the Laws)
Julien Offray de La Mettrie - L'homme Machine
Laetitia Pilkington - Memoirs
Samuel Richardson - Clarissa, vols. ii - vii
Thomas Sheridan - The Simile
Tobias Smollett
- The Adventures of Roderick Random
- English translation of The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane by Alain-René Le Sage
François-Vincent Toussaint - Les Mœurs
Horace Walpole - A Second and Third Letter to the Whigs
John Wesley - A Letter to a Person Lately Join'd with the People call'd Quakers
Peter Whalley - An Enquiry into the Learning of Shakespeare

January 1 - Gottfried August Bürger, German poet (died 1794)
February 15 - Jeremy Bentham, English philosopher (died 1832)
April 27 - Pierre-Louis Ginguené, French author (died 1815)
May 7 - Olympe de Gouges, French dramatist (died 1793)
November 1 - Francesco Galeani Napione, Italian historian (died 1830)
December 14 - Louis-François de Bausset, French cardinal, writer and academician (died 1824)
date unknown - Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński, Polish politician, writer, researcher and founder of the Ossoliński Institute (died 1829)

March 11 - Charles Johnson, English dramatist, tavern keeper, and "dunce" (born 1679)
April 3 - Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss political theorist and man of letters (born 1694)
April 13 - Christopher Pitt, English poet and translator (born 1699)
August 27 - James Thomson, Scottish poet (born 1700)
September 21 - John Balguy, English philosopher (born 1686)
November 25 - Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter, theologian and logician (born 1674)