This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1697.

• May 7 – The 13th century royal Tre Kronor ("Three Crowns") castle in Stockholm burns to the ground and a large portion of the royal library is destroyed.
• The actors of the Comédie-Italienne in Paris announce a performance of La fausse prude (The False Hypocrite), a play that ridicules King Louis XIV of France's wife, Françoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, which causes the King to disband the company.
• George Farquhar arrives in London from Dublin.^[1]
• Thomas Corneille publishes his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses into French.
• Daniel Defoe's An Essay Upon Projects suggests insurance, an income tax and the education of women, among other public measures.^[2]
• First publication of the 13th century Heimskringla in Old Norse, with Swedish and Latin translations by Johan Peringskiöld in Stockholm

• Mary Astell – A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, Part II
• Pierre Bayle – Dictionnaire historique et critique (Historical and Critical Dictionary, first part, publication continued until 1702)
• Richard Blackmore – King Arthur
• Thomas Burnet – Remarks upon An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (on John Locke)
• William Congreve – The Birth of the Muse
• William Dampier – A New Voyage Round the World
• Daniel Defoe – An Essay Upon Projects
• John Dryden
  • Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Musique (ode)
  • The Works of Virgil
• John Evelyn – Numismata: A discourse of medals
• Jane Lead – A Fountain of Gardens
• John Locke
  • A Letter to the Right Reverend Edward Ld Bishop of Worcester
  • Mr Locke's Reply to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Answer to his Letter
  • A Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity
• Charles Perrault (as Pierre Perrault Darmancourt) – Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec dez moralitez: Les Contes de ma Mère l'Oye (Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose)
• John Phillips – Augustus Britannicus
• Humphrey Prideaux – The True Nature of Imposture Fully Display'd in the Life of Mahomet
• John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester – Familiar Letters
• William Wotton – Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (setting off the English "quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns")

• Anonymous (A Young Lady) – The Unnatural Mother
• Colley Cibber – Woman's Wit
• William Congreve – The Mourning Bride
• John Dennis – A Plot and No Plot
• Thomas Dilke – The City Lady, or Folly Reclaimed
• Thomas D'Urfey
  • Cinthia and Endimion (opera)
  • The Intrigues at Versailles; or, A Jilt in all Humours
• James Drake – The Sham Lawyer
• Charles Gildon – The Roman Brides Revenge
• Charles Hopkins – Boadicea, Queen of Britain
• Peter Anthony Motteux – The Novelty, or Every Act a Play
• Mary Pix
  • The Deceiver Deceiv'd
  • The Innocent Mistress
• George Powell – The Imposture Defeated, or a Trick to Cheat the Devil
• Jacques Pradon – Scipion
• Elkanah Settle – The World in the Moon
• John Vanbrugh
  • Aesop^[3]
  • The Provoked Wife^[4]
  • The Relapse (performed 1696, published 1697)

• April 1 - Abbé Prévost, French writer (died 1763)^[5]
• June 16 – Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, French historian, classicist and lexicographer (died 1781)
• December 27 – Sollom Emlyn, Irish legal writer (died 1754)

• February 5 – Hester Biddle (Esther Biddle), English Quaker writer (born c. 1629)
• March 1 – Francesco Redi, Tuscan physician, naturalist and poet (born 1626)
• June 7 – John Aubrey, English memoirist (born 1626)
• December 9 – Scipion Abeille, French surgeon and poet (year of birth unknown)
• Unknown date – Juan del Valle y Caviedes, Spanish Peruvian poet (born 1645)
• Probable year of death – Gilbert Clerke, English mathematician, natural philosopher and theologian (born 1626)