Novel
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Novel. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a prose narrative of fictitious events connected by a plot, and involving portraitures of character and descriptions of scenery. Is generally applied to narratives of everyday life and manners; while the romance deals with what is ideal, marvelous, mysterious, or supernatural. Prose fiction written for entertainment is of considerable antiquity. Among the Greeks we find mention of a collection of stories known as the "Milesian Tales," before which a sort of historical romance, the "Cyropædia," had been produced by Xenophon (430-357 b. c.). There were several other Greek writers of fiction before the Christian era, but the most notable name is that of Heliodorus in the 4th century after Christ. He was followed by Achilles Tatius and by Longus. Among the Romans the chief names are Petronius Arbiter and Apuleius. The romances of the Middle Ages were metrical in form. The true novel, as understood to-day, had its beginnings in the stories of Boccaccio's "Decameron" (1358). The success of this collection gave rise to numberless imitations, and since that time the development of the novel has been steadily progressive. At first we have nothing but tales of love intrigue, as in the "Decameron," in the "Hundred New Tales" (15th century), and the "Heptameron" of Margaret of Navarre (1559). But during the 16th and 17th centuries there is very marked progress, and we now find produced the comic romance, the picaresque romance or ropastoral romance. The first variety worthily represented by the " ( died 1553). Next in point of " of comes the "Life of Bertoldo Cesare Croce, a narrative of the humorous and successful exploits of a clever peasant. Some years after appeared the "Don Quixote" of Cervantes (1605), which gave the death-blow to the romance of chivalry. About the same time the first of the picaresque romances Matteo Aleman appeared in Spain. a hero gives us in Guzman Alfarache , who is successively beggar, swindler said to student, and galley-slave, and is idea of have suggested to Le Sage the of Sir "Gil Blas." The "Arcadia" Philip Sydney blends pastoral with marks the chivalrous manners, and transition to the romances of conventional love and metaphysical gallantry. In the 17th century century prose fiction in most types had become an estabof its leading prinlished form of literature in the cipal languages of Europe. The full-fledged modern English novel may be said to date from Defoe. The effect of his "Robinson Crusoe," "Colonel Jack," "Moll Flanders," etc., is caused by the delineation and skillful combination of practical details, which give to the adventures the force of realities. The novel of everyday life was further improved by Richardson, Field- The "Tristram ing, and Smollett. Shandy" of Sterne displays admirable character painting, and humor and finer in quality than that of of his contemporaries. Next appeared Gold- ," which smith's "Vicar of Wakefield possesses a higher moral tone than any that had preceded it. Among the best works of secondary rank may be mentioned Johnson's "Rasselas," Madame D'Arblay's "Evelina," and Beckford's "Vathek." Tales of terror and the supernatural for a time held sway, as exemplified in the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe, author of "The Mysteries of Udolpho"; M. G. Lewis's "The Monk," and Maturin's "Melmoth." A return to stricter realism is manifested in Miss Edgeworth and Miss Austen, who describe domestic life with minuteness, good sense, a clear moral aim, and charming simplicity of style. In France, among the novels treating of social life in the 18th century the most prominent are the "Life of Marianne" and the "Successful Peasant" of Marivaux, "Manon l'Escaut" by the Abbé Prévost, the "New Héloise," and the "Emile" of Rousseau, is containing the author's theories of love, education, religion, and society. In the Gargan- Rabelais department of humorous and satirical tua" and "Pantagruel" of fiction the palm belongs to Le Sage, date Julio author of "Gil Blas," the "Lame Devil," etc. As a writer of satirical fiction Voltaire is entitled to high rank by his "Candide," "Zadig," "Princess of Babylon," etc. The translation of the "Ara- " by Galbian Nights' Entertainments land (1704-1717) revived the taste for . the exaggerations of Eastern fiction In Germany three great names tower above all others-Wieland; Jean Paul Richter, whose works abound in strokes fancy; and of humor, pathos, and to Goethe, whose novels are attempts problems of represent or solve the great life and destiny. Popular romantic ) conlegendary tales (Volksmärchen of German stitute a special department literature, which was successfully cultivated by Ludwig Tieck, De la Motte Clemens Brentano, Fouqué, Chamisso, others Zschokke, Hoffmann, Musäus, and . In entering on the 19th century the first name met with is that of the author of "Waverley." Sir Walter Scott may be said to have created the modern historical novel. Since his day the British numernovelists are perhaps the most of authors; and ous class in the the list note among the more prominent we may , Dis- Galt, Charles Lever, Mrs. Gore , Thackens , raeli, Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens eray, James, Ainsworth, the sisters Brontë, Mrs. Trollope, Anthony Troldeeper lope, Mrs. Craik, Kingsley, Marryat, George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Miss Braddon, Mrs. Oliphant, Miss Thackeray, Miss Yonge, Thomas Hughes, Charles Reade, William Black, Thomas Hardy, Richard Blackmore, Walter Besant, W. , Clark Russell, E. Norris, James Payn Rider Haggard, R. L. Stevenson, George , James M. Barrie, Meredith, Hall all Caine Doyle, Maurice Hewlett, H. G. A. Conan Wells, Arnold Bennett, Compton Mc- Kenzie, John Galsworthy, J. D. Bensford, and W. L. George. In the United States it was not till after the Revolutionary War that the earliest attempts in prose fiction were made. The first notable adventurer in this field was Charles Brockden Brown, who was followed by J. Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, Edgar A. Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. After these came a younger, and in some respects a more markedly American school, represented by such names as Bret Harte, Henry James, W. D. Howells, E. P. Roe, Amelia Barr, Gen. Lew. Wallace, Cable, Crawford, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Winston Churchill, P. L. Ford, Miss Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock). Henry Harland, Robert Chambers, Constance Woolson, Mary Wilkins, Thomas N. Page, Mary Hartwell Catherwood, Booth Tarkington, Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, James Lane Allen, and many others. The most celebrated of the French novelists of the 19th century century are Madame de Staël, Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Dumas (father and son), Balzac, Alphonse Karr, Stendhal, De Maupassant, George Sand, Feuillet, Prosper Mérimée, Edmond About, Erckmann- Chatrian, Gautier, Zola, Daudet, etc. The more noteworthy names in the German literature of fiction are those of Gutzkow, Wilibald Alexis (Wilhelm Häring), Hackländer, Spielhagen, Gottfried and Johanna Kinkel, Auerbach, Rodenberg, G. zu Putlitz, Gustav Freytag, Paul Heyse, Georg Ebers, Rosegger, etc. Among the most important novels in other languages are those in the Italian by Manzoni, in Danish by Hans Christian Andersen, in Swedish by Frederika Bremer, and Madame Carlen, in Hungarian by Maurus Jokái, in Russian by Ivan Tourguenieff, Tolstoï and Dostoievsky, in Polish by Sienkiewicz, in Spanish by Valdés, Bazan, and Galdós.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
. See Fiction