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 rom polite society to the musty curiosity shops of antiuarians, had become distressingly prosy and tedious; it VOL. I. |