NOVELS AND NOVELISTS. INTRODUCTION. THE distinction that once existed between novels and romances has for a long time been lost sight of. In general conversation the two words are now used as synonymous; but they had, at the period when novels first began to be generally read throughout Europe, and for long afterwards, a very different signification. The grand feature of a work of romantic fiction is the supernatural character of the persons whose exploits and adventures are depicted, and of the influences to which they are subjected. Dunlop, in his famous history, says, "The species of machinery, such as giants, dragons, and enchanted castles, which forms the seasoning of the adventures of chivalry, has been distinguished by the name of Romantic Fiction." Those who are desirous of becoming acquainted with this division of literature from the "Theagenes and Chariclea of Heliodorus," and the "Ass of Apuleius" downwards, had better prosecute their studies under the guidance of Huet, the Abbé Lenglet Dufresnoy, Mon. Mallet, Dr. Percy, Ellis, and Dunlop. The Chivalric romance, before it was for ever banished from polite society to the musty curiosity shops of antiquarians, had become distressingly prosy and tedious; it TCL. I. B had lost all the vigour and beauty of youth, and had come into possession of the ungrateful qualities of a dishonourable old age. The general alteration in European manners, and the growing disbelief in enchantments and magical influences, prevented sentimental young ladies from being interested in the fortunes of heroines imprisoned by demoniacal agencies, and heroes continually exposed to dangers which social changes had rendered impossible. Disraeli, in his "Curiosities of Literature," wrote, " From romances, which had now exhausted the patience of the public sprung novels. They attempted to allure attention by this inviting title, and reduced their works from ten to two volumes. The name of romance disgusted; and they substituted those of histories, lives, memoirs, and adventures. In these works (observed Trail) they quitted the unnatural incidents, the heroic projects, the complicated and endless intrigues, and the exertion of noble passions; heroes were now taken, not from the throne, they were sought for even amongst the lowest rank of the people." As the chief merit of the old romance had been found in the incredibility of its incidents and the wildness of its plot, so the novel charmed by adhering to the simple, and sometimes stern truth of life. The first novel-writers were much more anxious that their readers should give them credit for veracity, than that they should applaud them for lively powers of imagination. Speaking of the difference in length between the romances and early novels, Disraeli felicitously observes, "Our grandmothers were incommoded with overgrown folios; and, instead of finishing the eventful history of two lovers at one or two sittings, it was sometimes six months, including Sunday, before they could get quit of their Delias, their Cyruses, and Parthenissas." The source of the British novel has long been a vexata quæstio with antiquarians, though it is generally, and to the satisfaction of most people calculated to form an opinion |