NOVEL (OE norellc, non vale, Fr. IfOurelic, from Lat. novella. fem. of new. diminu tive of norus, new), TILE. To designate modern prose there are current two terms: ro mance and morel. The term romance (from the Latin adverb roma/tie( ). originally employed in Italy, Spain. and France (in other words, in the Romanic lands) to distinguish the common speech, i.e. the //ugly, roman,,. from the Latin of the learned, came in time to denote a c•omposi• thin in the 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 sonic new story, In the and thirteenth centuries it was common among the Provencal poets tor a of intrigue realistic in treatment. It was popu larized in Italy by Boccaccio as the title of a short narrative in prose. When these Italian tales Paine into English, the word came with them. It first occurs (so far as has been dis covered) in Painter's Palace of Pleasure (1566). In the hands of several English writers the Italian novella was by degrees expanded. until by the eighteenth century it filled a dnodee11110 T bell came Richardson and Fielding with their larger of contemporary life, which with some hesitancy they and their called novels. Somewhat after this fashion the word novel became in English the generic term for prose fiction. Up to March, 176(1, the Monthiy Reriew placed works of fiction under the head of 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 explanatory title of the wild (;othie stories of Ann Radcliffe and her school. Since that time it has denoted a novel whic•lr represents men and women in strange. improbable. or impossible situations. Owing to very different literary con ditions on the Continent. romance ( French and I;ernian, roman Italian, is there the generic term, and novel still means a short tale. As its name by chance signifies. the novel as an easily recognizable literary species is a hew thing. It hardly has a date before Defoe. And
yet, in its genesis, the novel is as old as either the (pie or the drama. Common to all peoples is the h(a.st•tal(, in which animals are made to speak and conduct. themselves as men and women. Popular stories of this kind were taken up by scholars of a later period. trimmed. moralized, and preserved in writing. Fairy tales and anecdotes of every-day 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 section Literature and Srienee.) The Sanskrit collection of tales known as the l'ancha 'antra or The Fables of Ifin psi about 300 A.D.), and the fables attributed to A:sop, likewise Eastern in origin, found their way into Western Europe, and, blending with native in chlents, became the basis of many a mediawal fiction in verse and prose. Very interesting is the uriental device for stringing together a long series of tales, as in the Scren Wise Masters, widely diffused in the Aliddle Ages, arid the het ter known .1 rabia n ts. This manner was adopted by Boccaccio in the and by I'hanc•el- in the Canterbury 7'aics.
lir India the novel, in the technieal sense of the word, began probably with the Adventures of the Ten Princes (1)a,:akumaracarita) by Dan din (q.v.) in the latter part of the sixth century AM, is a romanee of roguery. The three remaining novels are in a totally different vein. They are the of Subandhu (q.v.), and two L'011iallees by Edna (q.v.). the Kadam bari and the .tdrentures of llarsha Marsha ea vita), an historical novel. llama's works were influenced and in great part modeled on Su banditti. These three novels all belong probably to the seventh century A.D. in plot they show little action. but they abound in detailed descrip tion. The impresshm of both style and eon tent, although monotonous to Occidentals, is sweet and smooth. The Pahlavi or Middle Persian literature has an interesting romance on the Sassanian hero Ardashir Papakan. See. SASSANID,E.