118 



NOVELS AXD NOVELISTS. 



fortune to escape to London un- 

 scathed, where he engaged, first as 

 a horse-factor, and then as a brick- 

 maker. Failing in business, how- 

 ever, he became insolvent, and 

 compounded with his creditors as 

 best he could. It is to his credit, 

 however, that when his circum- 

 stances were afterwards improved, 

 he paid the full amount of all his 

 obligations. In 1697, he again be- 

 came an author; and more than 

 twenty years later when about 

 fifty years of age his romance of 

 Robinson Crusoe appeared. His 

 subsequent productions were very 

 numerous ; and a few of them were 

 works of merit. 



GOETHE'S NOVELS. 



The regular novels of Goethe are 

 of a very questionable sort. The 

 vivacity of his imagination and fine- 

 ness of feeling, supply good indi- 

 vidual pictures and acute remarks, 

 but they cannot be praised either 

 for incident or character. They are 

 often stained, too, with the degra- 

 dation to which he -unfortunately 

 reduces love, where liking and vice 

 follow fast upon each other. The 

 Apprenticeship of Wittiam Meister, 

 for instance, is a very readable book, 

 in so far as it contains a great deal 

 of acute and eloquent criticism; but 

 who would purchase the criticism, 

 even of Goethe, at the expense of the 

 licentiousness of incident and pruri- 

 ency of description with which the 

 book teems ? (Eussell's Germany.) 



MISS BURNEY. 



Miss Burney, afterwards Ma- 

 dame D'Arblay, wrote her celebra- 

 ted novel of Evelina when only 

 seventeen years of age, and pub- 

 lished it without the knowledge of 

 her father, who, having occasion to 

 visit the metropolis, soon after il 

 had issued from the press, pur- 

 chased it as the work then mosl 

 popular, and most likely to prove 

 an acceptable treat to his family. 



When Dr. Burney had concluded 

 lis business in town, he went to 

 Chessington, the seat of Mr. Crisp, 

 where his family were on a visit. 

 Se had scarcely dismounted and 

 :ntered the parlour, when the cus- 

 tomary question of " What news ?" 

 was rapidly addressed to him by 

 ;he several personages of tho little 

 sarty. " Nothing," said the worthy 

 doctor, " but a great deal of noise 

 about a novel which I have brought 

 you." 



When the book was produced, 

 and the title read, the surprised 

 and conscious Miss Burney turned 

 away her face to conceal the blushes 

 and delighted confusion which 

 otherwise would have betrayed her 

 secret ; but the bustle which usually 

 attends the arrival of a friend in 

 the country, where the monotonous 

 but peaceful tenor of life is agree- 

 ably disturbed by such a change, 

 prevented the curious and happy 

 group from observing the agitation 

 of their sister. 



After dinner, Mr. Crisp proposed 

 that the book should be read. This 

 was done with all due rapidity ; 

 when the gratifying comments 

 made during its progress, and the 

 acclamations which attended its 

 conclusion, ratified the approbation 

 of the public. The amiable author, 

 whose anxiety and pleasure could 

 with difficulty be concealed, was at 

 length overcome by the delicious 

 feelings of her heai-t ; she burst into 

 tears, and throwing herself on her 

 father's neck, avowed herself the 

 author of Evelina. 



The joy and surprise of her sis- 

 ters, and still more of her father, 

 cannot easily be expressed. Dr. 

 Burney, conscious as he was of the 

 talents of his daughter, never 

 thought that such maturity of ob- 

 servation and judgment, such fer- 

 tility of imagination, and chaste- 

 ness of style, could have been dis- 

 played by a girl of seventeen by 

 one who appeared a mere infant in 





