1G2 Romances and Novels. 



character, and may, with more propriety, be de- 

 nominated a piece of " fictitious biography;" but 

 resembles that celebrated work in wit, humour, 

 and knowledge of the world. Soon after the pub- 

 lication of Gil Bias, the Marianne of Marivaux, 

 on the same general plan, appeared. This work 

 dpas a place assigned to it among the best novels 

 in the French language. It discovers much ac- 

 quaintance with human nature, and, under the 

 veil of wit and incident, conveys much useful moral. 

 Several other novels were written by the same au- 

 thor, but none of them are equal to this. They 

 were succeeded by the fictitious writings of Vol- 

 taire snd Diderot, which were of different kinds, 

 and possessed different degrees of literary merit; 

 but chiefly designed, like most of the other writings 

 of those far-famed infidels, to discredit Religion, 

 both natural and revealed, and to destroy the in- 

 fluence of those institutions which have proved so 

 conducive to human happiness. The novels of 

 Diderot, in particular, abound with every species 

 of licentiousness, and have a most pernicious ten- 

 dency. 



M. Crebillon, the younger, distinguished him- 

 self by several works of fiction, executed in a new 

 taste, which, though rendered highly interesting 

 to many readers by their levity, humour, and 

 whimsical digressions, are yet dangerous in their 

 tendency, from a continual display of libertine sen- 

 timent. Madame Riccoboni is another distin- 

 guished novelist of France, belonging to the pe- 

 riod under review. Her Fanny Butler, and seve- 

 ral other works, have been much read and admired; 

 but have been also severely criticized, as containing 

 much indelicacy, and even obscenity, in their nar- 

 ratives. M. Marmontel, of the same country, 

 also presented the public, during the period under 

 consideration, with a new species of fiction, in 



