NOVA ZEMBLA.
660
NOVEL.
include bears, volves and foxes, reindeer, ermines,
and other fur-bearing animals, and large numbers
of aquatic birds, while whales and seals are
found in the surrounding seas. The islands are
practically uninhabited, but are visited in sum-
u)er by fishermen and hunters.
NOVEL (OF. iiovelle, nouvcUe, Fr. nouvcUc,
from Lat. iwidla. fcm. of novcllus, new, diminu-
tive of noius, new), TuE. To designate modern
prose fictions there are current two terms: ro-
maitcc and novel. The term romance (from the
Latin adverb romanice), originally employed in
Italy, Spain, and France (in other words, in the
Romanic lands) to distinguish the common
speech, i.e. the li)igua romaiui, from the Latin
of the learned, came in time to denote a composi-
tion in the vernacular— and finally any verse-tale
of intrigue and adventure. The word 'romance'
was established in English usage by the time of
Chaucer. At first the word -novel' was probably
the name given to some new story. In the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was common
among the Proven(.al jioets for a verse-tale of
intrigue realistic in treatment. It was popu-
larized in Italy by Uoccaecio as the title of
a short narrative in prose. When these Italian
tales came into English, the word came with
them. It first occurs (so far as has been dis-
covered) in Painter's Palace of I'lcasiiir (15GG).
In the hands of several English writers the
Italian noiclla was by degrees expanded, until
by the eighteenth century it filled a duodecimo
volume. Tlien came Richardson and Fielding
with their larger delineations of contemporary
life, which with some hesitancy they and their
public called novels. Somewhat after this fashion
the word novel became in English the generic
term for prose fiction. Up to March, 17(i6, the
Moiilhli/ Ucvieic placed works of fiction under
the head of "^Miscellaneous Publications." In
that month it made the subdivision "Novels."
From the Renaissance down to the eighteenth
century the word 'romance' was not much used
in English. Then it began to appear as the
explanatoiv title of the wild Gothic stories of
.
n Kadciitle and her school. Since that time
it has denoted a novel which represents men
and women in strange, improbable, or impossible
situations. Owing to very dilVerent literary con-
ditions on the Continent, romance (French and
German, roman; Italian, romanzo) is there the
generic term, and novel still means a short tale.
As its name bv chance signifies, the novel
as an casilv recognizable literary species is a new
thing. It'hardlv has a date before Pefoe. And
yet, "in its genesis, the novel is as old as either
the' epic or the drama. Common to all peoples
is the bea.st-tale, in which animals are made
to speak and conduct them-selves as men and
women. Popular stories of this kind were taken
uj) by scholars of a later period, trimmed,
moralized, and preserved in writing. Fairy talcs
and anecdotes of everyday life undergo a similar
process until transformed into the verse or the
prose story possessing an art of its own. In
Egypt story-telling belongs to the oldest times.
Indeed. Egypt was the source of many a tale
that long afterwards charmed Europe. (See
Egypt, section I.itrrnlnrr and firicncr.) The
Sanskrit collection of tales known as the Panrha-
tnntra or The Fables of Hirlpni (composed about
300 A.D.), and the fables attributed to /Esop,
likewise Eastern in origin, found their way into
Western Europe, and, blending with native in-
cidents, became the basis of many a luediieval
fiction in verse and prose. Very interesting is
the Oriental device for stringing together a long
series of tales, as in the iievcn ll'i'se Masters,
widely difl'used in the Middle Ages, and the
better known Arahian XiijUls. This manner
was adopted by Boccaccio in the Decameron and
by C'liauccr in "the Canterbury Talcs.
' In India the novel, in the technical sense of
the word, began probably ith the Adrcniures
of the Ten Princes { DasuLunHtraciirita) by Dan-
din (q.v.) in the latter part of the sixtli century
A.D. This is a romance of roguery. The three
remaining novels are in a totally different vein.
They are the Vasaradattu of Subandhu (q.v.),
and' two romances by Bana (q.v.), the Kfidam-
ban and the Adrcntiires of Ilarsha tllarsha-
carita). an historical novel. Bana's works were
infiueneed and in great part modeled on Su-
bandhu. These three novels all belong probably
to the seventh century ..n. In |)lot they show
little action, but they abound in detailed descrip-
tion. The impression of both style and content,
although monotonous to Occidentals, is sweet
and smooth. Tlie Pahlavi or Middle Persian
literature has an interesting romance on the j
early Sassanian hero Ardashir Papakan. See. 1
SASSANlniE.
In China the novel did not develop until the
ilongol dvnastv (c.l2i;0-13ii8) . The Chinese clas-
sify their novels under four heads: iisiir|)ation
anil plot; intrigue and love; superstition: and
ro'niery. These romances abound in action, but
characterization is less developed. As examples
of Chinese fiction, which is of vast extent, there
may be mentioned the Han kuo chih yen i of
Lo Kuan-chung. which is historical; the Shui
JJu Chuan of Shih Xai-an( ?), a picaresciue novel;
and the Hsi yii Chi, which is based on the travels
of Iliouen-fhsang (q.v.) in In.lia. The Min"
dynastv, which followed the Mongol, produced
niaiiy romances, most of which are by unknown
authors.
Fiction developed in Japan earlier than m
China. The first iiovel of imi)0itancc is the
(Icnji Monoyatari. a long romance of love, con-
taining much valuable information regarding so-
cietv about A.i). 1000. Before this there had been
a number of Monoyatari. or narratives, many of
them novelistic in character, such as the Tnh-rtori.
/.5e. Vtsubo, and Yamnto. In the seventeenth
century .Ia])anese fiction revived after a long
period of decline, and though pornographic in
the writings of Saikaku. was purified in the
romantic novels of Kioden. Bakin. and Tanehiko.
The masterpiece of Kioden is the Inadziima
nioshi. a romance of roguery. Greatest of all
was Bakin, who achieved his best in his Tumi-
baritsuki. published in ISO:",, although his work
is disfigured bv extravagancies and impossibili-
ties—a'" statemi^nt which holds good of another
work of his. perhaps the most famous of all
.Tapanes.. novels, the llalchenden. which recounts
the adventures of eight heroes of semi-canino
birth, who tvpifv the eight cardinal virtues.
The ancient Greeks had their popular tales,
about which little is known. After the glor.V
of their art had departed, there arose in the
first centuries of the Christian Era a class of
rhetoricians who composed long romances in
prose. They belonged not to Greece proper, but
Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/776
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