NOVEL, a fictitious narrative in prose, which professes to exhibit the natural workings of the human heart, the happiness and misery of private life, and, above all, the nature of the affection called love, and the consequences of indulging it in certain circumstances. A critic, by no means too indulgent to works of fancy, and amongst whose failings laxity of morals has never been numbered, thus expresses himself on the subject of novel-writing. “These familiar histories,” says Dr Johnson, “may perhaps be made of greater use than the solemnities of professed morality, and convey the knowledge of vice and virtue with more efficacy than axioms and definitions. But if the power of example is so great as to take possession of the memory by a kind of violence, and produce effects almost without the intervention of the will, care ought to be taken, that, when the choice is unrestrained, the best examples only should be exhibited; and that what is likely to operate so strongly, should not be mischievous or uncertain in its effects.”

We have said that the novel professes above all things to exhibit the nature of love, and its consequences. Whether this be essential to such performances, may perhaps be reasonably questioned; but it has been made an important part of the drama in most novels, and, we think, with great propriety. It is the object of the novellist to give a true picture of life, diversified only by accidents that daily happen in the world, and influenced by passions and qualities which are really to be found in conversing with mankind. To accomplish this object, he conceives a hero or heroine, whom he places in a certain rank of life, endows with certain qualities of body and mind, and conducts, through many vicissitudes of fortune, either to the summit of happiness or to the abyss of misery, according to the passion which he wishes to excite in his readers. In the modern novel, this hero or heroine is never placed on a throne or buried in a cottage; because to the monarch and the cottager no difficulties occur which can deeply interest the majority of readers. But amongst the virtuous part of the intermediate orders of society, that affection which we call love seldom fails, at some period of life, to take possession of the hearts of both sexes; and wherever it has place, it must be productive of happiness or of misery. In the proper management of this passion consists much of the difficulty of the novel writer. He must exhibit his hero as feeling all the pangs and pleasures of love, as sometimes animated with hope, and sometimes ready to sink into despair, but always exerting himself to obtain the gratification of his wishes. In doing this, care should be taken, either that he never transgress the laws of virtue, or that at least he never transgress them with impunity.

“It is justly considered,” says the writer above quoted, “as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot perceive of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination. It is therefore not a sufficient vindication of a character, that it is drawn as it appears; for many characters ought never to be drawn: nor of a narrative, that the train of events is agreeable to observation; for that observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good. The purpose of these writings is surely not only to show mankind, but to provide that they may be seen hereafter with less hazard; to teach the means of avoiding the snares which are laid by treachery for innocence, without insuring any wish for that superiority with which the betrayer flatters his vanity; to give the power of counteracting fraud, without the temptation to practise it; to initiate youth, by mock encounters, in the art of necessary defence; and to increase prudence without impairing virtue.

“Many writers, for the sake of following nature, so mingle good and bad qualities in their principal personages, that they are both equally conspicuous; and as we accompany them through their adventures with delight, and are led by degrees to interest ourselves in their favour, we lose the abhorrence of their faults, because they do not hinder our pleasures, or perhaps regard them with some kindness for being united with so much merit. There have been men indeed splendidly wicked, whose endowments threw a brightness on their crimes, and whom scarce any villany made perfectly detestable, because they never could be wholly divested of their excellencies: but such have been in all ages the great corrupters of the world; and their resemblance ought no more to be preserved than the art of murdering without pain.

“In narratives, where historical veracity has no place, there should be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability (for what we cannot credit we shall never imitate), but the highest and purest that humanity can reach, which, exercised in such trials as the various revolutions of things shall bring upon it, may, by conquering some calamities and enduring others, teach us what we may hope, and what we can perform. Vice (for vice is necessary to be shown) should always disgust; nor should the graces of gaiety, or the dignity of courage, be so united with it as to reconcile it to the mind. Wherever it appears, it should raise hatred by the malignity of its practices, and contempt by the meanness of its stratagems; for while it is supported by either parts or spirit, it will seldom be heartily abhorred.”

It is farther observed by Johnson, that the task of the novel writer “requires, together with that learning which is to be gained from books, that experience which can never be attained by solitary diligence, but must arise from general converse and accurate observation of the living world. Their performances have, as Horace expresses it, plus oneris quantum variae minus, little indulgence, and therefore more difficulty. They are engaged in portraits of which every one knows the original, and can detect any deviation from exactness of resemblance. Other writings are safe, except from the malice of learning, but these are in danger from every common reader; as the slipper ill executed was censured by a shoemaker who happened to stop in his way at the Venus of Apelles.

“But the fear of not being approved as a just copier of human manners, is not the most important concern that an author of this class ought to have before him. Novels are written chiefly to the young, the ignorant, and the idle, to whom they serve as lectures of conduct and introduction[7:16:291] into life. In every such work, it should therefore be carefully inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness; and that vice is the natural consequence of narrow thoughts; that it begins in mistake, and ends in ignominy; and since love must be introduced, it should be represented as leading to wretchedness whenever it is separated from duty or from prudence.”

For some striking and profound observations on the effects of novel-reading, the reader is referred to what Mr Stewart has written upon that subject in his Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind. See the article Romances.

Novel, in the civil law, a term applied to the constitutions of several emperors (novellae constitutiones) , more particularly those of Justinian. See Civil Law.