212 



NOVEL NOVGOROD. 



mer productions. But Richardson had too much a 

 single object in view, and therefore failed to pro- 

 duce a true picture of life. His heroes are personi- 

 fied virtue or vice. Richardson's novels are of the 

 grave kind. Fielding's are humorous representa- 

 tions of familiar life. His Tom Jones, Amelia, and 

 Joseph Andrews, display much knowledge of the 

 human heart, and, as works of art, stand much 

 higher than Ricliardson's. Smollett's novels are 

 unrivalled for richness of character and fertility of 

 incident. Sterne has shown incomparable humour 

 in his Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy and his 

 Sentimental Journey, though he has borrowed much 

 from Rabelais. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield is 

 the model of a picture of domestic life. The novel 

 then declined, until, in modern times, it was revived 

 with such splendour by Sir Walter Scott. 



The French excel in light, playful tales. Lesage's 

 Gil Bias de Santillane, and his Estevanille Gonzalez, 

 particularly the first, are highly distinguished. Vol- 

 taire's Candida, Zadig, Micromegas, &c., are lively 

 sketches, but can hardly be called novels. Marmon- 

 tel has the merit of a spirited ease and grace ; but 

 Arnaud's and Florian's works are little more than 

 books from which we may learn a fluent and easy 

 French. Rousseau, in his Heloise, as in his Emile, 

 is, after all, something totally different from a novel 

 writer ; he is a philosopher, but his philosophy is not 

 such as recommends itself to the present time. As 

 to the Helo'ise, much of its merit, we think, lies in 

 the passages which, though written in prose, are, in 

 fact, of a lyrical character. Madame de Genlis, 

 Madame Cottin, and, before all, the great genius 

 Madame de Stael, had contributed to the fame of 

 French literature, the latter shining, in her Corinne 

 and Delphine, as one of the first class of writers. 

 The historical novel has, of late, also found several 

 successful imitators in France, as well as in Ger- 

 many, in both which countries, all the novels of 

 Scott, and many others, have been translated. Italy 

 and Spain have produced little in the way of novels, 

 though the tale (novella) flourished so early and bril- 

 liantfy in the former. The first modern attempt at 

 an Italian novel has been made by Manzoni. 



No nation, probably, has been more productive in 

 novels than the German ; their number is immense, 

 their character peculiar. The separation of the 

 German man of letters from practical life, and the 

 want of a national life, in which characters may de- 

 velop themselves, are the causes both of the general 

 failure of German novels in depicting men in their 

 various situations, and of a want of manliness, to 

 which we have alluded already in other places. 

 Their descriptions sink not seldom almost to childish- 

 ness, and, though there is, in the novels of several 

 authors, matter enough for admiration, as, for in- 

 stance, in Jean Paul, the excellencies are not those 

 which properly belong to a novel. His men are not 

 men , A comparison might be made in some points 

 between Goethe and Scott. If the latter, in some 

 cases, detains the reader too long with an historical 

 introduction, almost amounting to a scientific disser- 

 tation, the former detains us, at the beginning of his 

 Meister, with a prolix description of puerilities which 

 few readers would wade through, did not the cele- 

 brated name of its author warrant a recompense in 

 the sequel. Goethe's novels are, in their kind, some 

 of the best ever written. In the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, after the period of romances had gone by, 

 novels appeared in Germany like Ziegler's Asiatische 

 Banise, or Lohenstein's Arminius ; and, in France, 

 those of Mademoiselle Scude'ri portentous produc- 

 tions, in 8 12 vols., prolix, formal, and tedious. A 

 better taste was awakened in the middle of the eigh- 

 teenth century, by Richardson's novels. After this 



period followed novels, in which Stark and Lafon- 

 taine produced much. Hippel wrote some works of 

 humour. Schlegel, Tieck, Novalis (see Hardenburg, 

 Frederic), Wagner, Jean Paul, Goethe followed. 

 Some of their productions, though in general excel- 

 lent, are infected with a kind of mysticism, which 

 nobody seems to understand but the author, if he. 

 There is one writer who stands almost alone among 

 German novelists we mean Heinse, whose Ardin- 

 ghello is distinguished for its vigour and voluptuous 

 glow, and, though far from being commendable in a 

 moral point of view, is unsurpassed in its depart- 

 ment. Thummel's works show much knowledge of 

 life and character, though the tone is such that it is 

 not every reader who will acknowledge that he has 

 read him. Wieland's novels certainly show the 

 genius of their author, but his Agathon has probably 

 excited much more sensuality than he has conquered. 

 The novels still produced in Germany are very 

 numerous, as the catalogue of the Leipsic book fair 

 annually shows ; but whether it were better for most 

 of them " to be or not to be, that is the question." 



NOVELS, in law, are those decrees .of the Greek 

 emperors which appeared after the official collection, 

 in the Codex repetitts Praclectionis, since the year 534 

 A. D. Of Justinian ] 60 are known, of which but 

 97 have the force of law, because these only were 

 commented upon by the first commentators of the 

 Roman law. The novels, of the emperor Leo have 

 no authority. 



NOVEMBER (from novem, nine) ; the ninth month 

 of the Roman year, -which began in March. Sec 

 Calendar and Epoch. 



NOVERRE, JOHN GEORGE, the reformer of the 

 art of dancing in Europe, was born at Paris in 1727. 

 His father was an adjutant in the army qf Charles 

 XII., and he was destined for the military profession ; 

 but his taste led him to prefer dancing to fighting, 

 and he became the pupil of the famous dancer Dupre. 

 After attracting the notice of royalty in his own 

 country, he went to Berlin, where he was equally 

 well received. He returned to France in 1746, and 

 composed, for the comic opera, his noted Chinese 

 ballet, which made no extraordinary sensation. He 

 afterwards produced other pieces of the same kind, 

 and acquired so much celebrity, that Garrick invited 

 him to England, where his talents attracted great 

 admiration. Returning to France, he published, in 

 1760, Lettres sur la Danse, in which he started some 

 new ideas, and proposed a radical reformation of his 

 art. He afterwards became master of the revels to 

 the duke of Wurtemberg, with whom he continued 

 some years, and then held a similar office at Vienna. 

 He went to Milan on the marriage of the archduke 

 Ferdinand, and also visited the courts of Naples and 

 Lisbon, where his merit was rewarded with the cross 

 of the order of Christ. After a second journey to 

 London, Noverre entered into the service of Marie 

 Antoinette, queen of France, who appointed him 

 chief ballet-master of the royal academy of music. 

 He suffered greatly at the revolution, and passed the 

 later years of his life in indifferent circumstances. 

 His death took place in November, 1810. He pub 

 lished, in 1807, a new and enlarged edition of his 

 Lettres sur les Arts imitateurs, et sur la Danse en 

 particulier (2 vols., 8vo) ; and at the time of his death 

 he was engaged on a dictionary of the art of dancing, 

 intended to rectify the errors of the Encyclopedic on 

 that subject. 



NOVGOROD (properly Nowgorod, or Nowgorod- 

 Weliki) ; a city of European Russia, capital of a 

 government of the same name, situated on the Wol- 

 chow, at its efflux from lake Ilmen ; lat. 58 31' N. ; 

 Ion. 31 16' E. ; population, 10,000. In the earlier 

 periods of the middle apes, Nowgorod v as the cen- 



