Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/605

LEFT NOVEL 495 NOVEL pastoral romance. The first variety is containing the author's theories of love, worthily represented by the "Gargan- education, religion, and society. In the tua" and "Pantagruel'* of Rabelais department of humorous and satirical (died 1553). Next in point of date fiction the palm belongs to Le Sage, comes the "Life of Bertoldo" of Julio author of "Gil Bias," the "Lame Devil," Cesare Croce, a narrative of the humor- etc. As a writer of satirical fiction ous and successful exploits of a clever Voltaire is entitled to high rank by his peasant. Some years after appeared the "Candide," "Zadig," "Princess of Baby- "Don Quixote" of Cervantes (1605), Ion," etc. The translation of the "Ara- which gave the death-blow to the ro- bian Nights' Entertainments" by Gal- mance of chivalry. About the same land (1704-1717) revived the taste for time the first of the picaresqice romances the exaggerations of Eastern fiction, appeared in Spain. Matteo Aleman In Germany three great names tower gives us in Guzman Alfarache a hero above all others— Wieland ; Jean Paul who is successively beggar, swindler, Richter, whose works abound in strokes student, and galley-slave, and is said to of humor, pathos, and fancy; and have suggested to Le Sage the idea of Goethe, whose novels are attempts to "Gil Bias." The "Arcadia" of Sir represent or solve the great problems of Philip Sydney blends pastoral with life and destiny. Popular romantic chivalrous manners, and marks the legendary tales (Volksmarchen) con- transition to the romances of conven- stitute a special department of German tional love and metaphysical gallantry, literature, which was successfully cul- In the 17th century prose fiction in most tivated by Ludwig Tieck, De la Motte of its leading types had become an estab- Fouque, Chamisso, Clemens Brentano, lished form of literature in the prin- Zschokke, Hoffmann, Musaus, and others, cipal languages of Europe. In entering on the 19th century the The full-fledged modern English first name met with is that of the author novel may be said to date from Defoe, of "Waverley." Sir Walter Scott may The effect of his "Robinson Crusoe," be said to have created the modern his- "Colonel Jack," "Moll Flanders," etc., is torical novel. Since his day the British caused by the delineation and skillful novelists are perhaps the most numer- combination of practical details, which ous class in the list of authors; and give to the adventures the force of real- among the more prominent we may note ities. The novel of everyday life was Gait, Charles Lever, Mrs. Gore, Dis- further improved by Richardson, Field- raeli, Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens, Thack- ing, and Smollett. The "Tristram ^ray, James, Ainsworth, the sisters Shandy" of Sterne displays admirable Bronte, Mrs. Trollope, Anthony Trol- character painting, and humor deeper ^ope, Mrs. Craik, Kingsley, Marryat, and finer in quality than that of his George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Miss Brad- contemporaries. Next appeared Gold- do"» Mrs. Oliphant, Miss Thackeray, smith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which ^iss Yonge, Thomas Hughes, Charles possesses a higher moral tone than any Reade, William Black, Thomas Hardy, that had preceded it. Among the best Richard Blackmore, Walter Besant, W. works of secondary rank may be men- ^- Norris, James Payn, Clark Russell, tioned Johnson's "Rasselas," Madame Rider Haggard, R. L. Stevenson, George D'Arblay's "Evelina," and Beckford's Meredith, Hall Caine, James M. Barrie, "Vathek." A. Conan Doyle, Maurice Hewlett, H. G. Tales of terror and the supernatural ^^Ht ^Tn^r^r^^^^i; Compton Mc- for a time held sway, as exemplified in forS and W r^'&i* t.^'Sfl S^'TheXstelf of ^ff'3 ^"^^ UnU^ed "f tateY' it"^ wa^^^^iS- tillfte? ?LS fc mLI '» 1^ m' f^-- ?• *h« Revolutionary War that the earliest ^ .i,.Pa T^' and Matunns attempts in prose fiction were made. Melmoth. A return to stricter real- The first notable adventurer in this field ism IS manifested m Miss Edgeworth was Charles Brockden Brown, who was and Miss Austen, who describe domestic followed by J. Fenimore Cooper, Wash- life with minuteness, good sense, a clear ington Irving, Edgar A. Poe, Nathaniel moral aim, and charming simplicity of Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and ^^y^®- Oliver Wendell Holmes. After these In France, among the novels treating came a younger, and in some respects of social life in the 18th century the a more markedly American school, rep- most prominent are the "Life of resented by such names as Bret Harte, Marianne" and the "Successful Peas- Henry James, W. D. Howells, E. P. ant" of Marivaux, "Manon I'Escaut" Roe, Amelia Barr, Gen. Lew. Wallace, by the Abbe Prevost, the "New Cable, Crawford, Frances Hodgson Bur- Heloise," and the "Emile" of Rousseau, nett, Winston Churchill, P. L. Ford,