Novalis was born into a minor aristocratic family inElectoral Saxony. He was the second of eleven children; his early household observed a strictPietist faith. He studied law at theUniversity of Jena, theUniversity of Leipzig, and theUniversity of Wittenberg. While at Jena, he published his first poem and befriended the playwright and fellow poetFriedrich Schiller. In Leipzig, he then metFriedrich Schlegel, becoming lifelong friends. Novalis completed his law degree in 1794 at the age of 22. He then worked as a legal assistant inTennstedt immediately after graduating. There, he metSophie von Kühn. The following year Novalis and Sophie became secretly engaged. Sophie became severely ill soon after the engagement and died just after her 15th birthday. Sophie's early death had a life-long impact on Novalis and his writing.
Novalis enrolled at theFreiberg University of Mining and Technology in 1797, where he studied a wide number of disciplines including electricity, medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics,mineralogy andnatural philosophy. He conversed with many of the formative figures of the Early Germanic Romantic period, includingGoethe,Friedrich Schelling,Jean Paul andAugust Schlegel. After finishing his studies, Novalis served as a director of salt mines inSaxony and later inThuringia. During this time, Novalis wrote major poetic and literary works, includingHymns to the Night. In 1800, he began showing signs of illness, which is thought to have been either tuberculosis orcystic fibrosis, and died on 25 March 1801 at the age of 28.
Novalis's early reputation as a romantic poet was primarily based on his literary works, which were published by his friends Friedrich Schlegel andLudwig Tieck shortly after his death, in 1802. These works include the collection of poems,Hymns to the Night andSpiritual Hymns, and his unfinished novels,Heinrich von Ofterdingen andThe Novices at Sais. Schlegel and Tieck published only a small sample of his philosophical and scientific writings.
The depth of Novalis's knowledge in fields like philosophy and natural science came to be more broadly appreciated with the more extensive publication of his notebooks in the twentieth century. Novalis was not only well read in his chosen disciplines; he also sought to integrate his knowledge with his art. This goal can be seen in his use of thefragment, a form that he wrote in alongside Friedrich Schlegel, and published in Schlegel's journalAthenaeum. The fragment allowed him to synthesize poetry, philosophy, and science into a single art form that could be used to address a wide variety of topics. Just as Novalis's literary works have established his reputation as a poet, the notebooks and fragments have subsequently established his intellectual role in the formation of Early German Romanticism.
Novalis, baptized Georg Philipp Friedrich, was theFreiherr (Baron) vonHardenberg, born in 1772 at his family estate in theElectorate of Saxony, the Schloss Oberwiederstedt, in the village ofWiederstedt,[2]: 24 which is now located in the present-day town ofArnstein. Hardenberg descended from ancient,Lower Saxon nobility. Novalis's father was Heinrich Ulrich Erasmus Freiherr von Hardenberg (1738–1814), the estate owner and a salt-mine manager. His mother was Auguste Bernhardine (née vonBöltzig) (1749–1818), who was Heinrich's second wife. Novalis was the second of eleven children.[3]: 5–7 Although Novalis had an aristocratic pedigree, his family was not wealthy.[4]
Novalis's early education was strongly influenced byPietism. His father was a member of theHerrnhuter Unity of Brethren branch of theMoravian Church[5] and maintained a strict pietist household. Until the age of nine, Novalis was taught by private tutors who were trained in pietist theology; subsequently, he attended a Herrnhut school inNeudietendorf for three years.[3]: 6–7
Between 1790 and 1794, Novalis went to university to study law. He first attended theUniversity of Jena. While there, he studiedImmanuel Kant's philosophy underKarl Reinhold,[1] and it was there that he first became acquainted withFichte's philosophy.[2]: 27 He also developed a close relationship with playwright and philosopherSchiller. Novalis attended Schiller's lectures on history[3]: 11 and tended to Schiller when he was suffering from a particularly severe flare-up of his chronictuberculosis.[6] In 1791, he published his first work, a poem dedicated to Schiller, "Klagen eines Jünglings" ("Lament of a Youth"), in the magazineDer Neue Teutsche Merkur, an act that was partly responsible for Novalis's father withdrawing him from Jena and looking into another university where Novalis would attend more carefully to his studies.[7] In the following year, Novalis's younger brother, Erasmus, enrolled at theUniversity of Leipzig, and Novalis went with him to continue his legal studies. In 1792, he met the literary criticFriedrich Schlegel, the younger brother of August.[3]: 13 Friedrich became one of Novalis's closest lifetime friends.[8][9]: 97 A year later, Novalis matriculated to theUniversity of Wittenberg where he completed his law degree.[10]
After graduating fromWittenberg, Novalis moved toTennstedt to work as anactuary for a district administrator,[10] Cölestin August Just, who became both his friend and biographer.[2] While working for Just in 1795, Novalis met the 12-year-oldSophie von Kühn, who at that time was considered old enough to receive suitors.[11]: 17 He became infatuated with her on their first meeting, and the effect of this infatuation appeared to transform his personality.[3]: 19 In 1795, two days before Sophie turned thirteen they got secretly engaged. Later that year Sophie's parents gave their consent for the two to become engaged:[12]: 128 Novalis's brother Erasmus supported the couple, but the rest of Novalis's family resisted agreeing to the engagement due to Sophie's unclear aristocratic pedigree.[11]: 25
Novalis remained intellectually active during his employment at Tennstedt. It is possible that Novalis met Fichte, as well as the poetFriedrich Hölderlin, in person while visiting Jena in 1795.[13] Between 1795 and 1796, he created six sets of manuscripts, posthumously collected under the titleFichte Studies, that primarily address Fichte's work but cover a range of philosophical topics.[14] Novalis continued his philosophical studies in 1797, writing notebooks responding to the works of Kant,Frans Hemsterhuis, andAdolph Eschenmayer.[15]
Novalis's ongoing reflections upon Fichte's ideas, particularly those in theWissenschaftslehre (Foundations of the Science of Knowledge) formed part of the foundation for his later philosophical and literary works:[16] Novalis focused on Fichte's argument that the concept of identity assumes a tension between self (i.e., "I") and object (i.e., "not-I").[17] Novalis's critique of Fichte arose from Novalis's literary commitments:[18] Novalis suggests that the tension between self and object that Fichte asserts is actually a tension between language and imagination.[19] Later, Novalis would take his critique further, suggesting that identity is not the separation of subject and object, but a dynamic process of equal partners in mutual communication. Novalis's viewpoint is summarized in his aphorism "Statt Nicht-Ich -- Du!" ("Instead of 'not-I', you").[17]
In the final months of 1795, Sophie began to suffer declining health due to a liver tumor[20] that was thought to be caused by tuberculosis.[21] As a result, she underwent liver surgery in Jena, which was performed without anesthesia.[11]: 24 In January 1797, Novalis was appointedauditor to the salt works at Weissenfels. To earn a stable income for his intended marriage, he accepted the position and moved to Weissenfels to assume his duties. Sophie, on the other hand, stayed with her family.[2]: 31 Sophie once more became gravely ill, during which time Novalis's parents finally relented and agreed to the couple's engagement. However, two days after her fifteenth birthday, Sophie died, while Novalis was still in Weissenfels. Four months later, Novalis's brother Erasmus, who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, also died.[21] The death of Sophie, as well as his younger brother, affected Novalis deeply. Their deaths catalyzed his more intensive commitment to poetic expression.[11]: 1–2 Sophie's death also became the central inspiration for one of the few works Novalis published in his lifetime,Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night).[22][9]: 143
At the end of 1797, Novalis entered theMining Academy of Freiberg inSaxony to become qualified as a member of the staff for the salt works at Weissenfels. His principal mentor at the academy was the geologist,Abraham Werner.[2]: 49 While at the academy, Novalis immersed himself in a wide range of studies, including electricity, galvanism, alchemy, medicine, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and natural philosophy.[23] He was also able to expand his intellectual social circle. On his way to Freiberg, he metFriedrich Schelling, and they later went on an art tour ofDresden together. He visitedGoethe and Friedrich Schlegel's older brother, August, inWeimar and met the writerJean Paul in Leipzig.[3]: 27
In December 1798, Novalis became engaged for the second time. His fiancée was Julie von Charpentier, a daughter of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Toussaint von Charpentier, the chair of mining studies at the University of Leipzig.[2]: 41 Unlike his relationship with Sophie, Novalis's affection for Julie developed more gradually. He initially saw his affection for Julie as a more "earthly" passion compared to his "heavenly" passion for Sophie, though he gradually softened this distinction with time. Eventually his feelings for Julie became the subject of some of his poetry, including theSpiritual Songs written in the last years of his life.[24] Novalis and Julie remained engaged until Novalis's death in 1801, and she tended him during his final illness.[2]: 43
In Freiberg, he remained active with his literary work. It was at this time that he began a collection of notes for a project to unite the separate sciences into a universal whole.[25] In this collection,Das allgemeine Brouillon (Notes for a General Encyclopedia), Novalis began integrating his knowledge of natural science into his literary work. This integration can be seen in an unfinished novel he composed during this time,Die Lehrlinge zu Sais (The Novices at Sais), which incorporated natural history from his studies as well as ideas from his Fichte studies into a meditation on poetry and love as keys to understanding nature.[26] More specifically, he began thinking about how to incorporate his recently acquired knowledge of mining to his philosophical and poetic worldview. In this respect, he shared a commonality with other German authors of the Romantic age by connecting his studies in the mining industry, which was undergoing then the first steps to industrialization, with his literary work.[27] This connection between his scientific interest in mining, philosophy and literature came to fruition later when he began composing his second unfinished novel,Heinrich von Ofterdingen.[28]
Novalis's grave in Weissenfels
Novalis also began to be noticed as a published author at this time. In 1798, Novalis's fragments appeared in the Schlegel brother's magazine,Athenaeum.[9]: 163 These works includedBlüthenstaub (Pollen),Glauben und Liebe oder der König und die Königin (Faith and Love or the King and the Queen), andBlumen (Flowers).[5] The publication ofPollen saw the first appearance of hispen name, "Novalis". His choice of pen name was taken from his 13th-century ancestors who named themselvesde Novali, after their settlementGrossenrode, which is calledmagna Novalis in Latin.[29]Novalis can also be interpreted as "one who cultivates new land", which connotes the metaphoric role that Novalis saw for himself.[11]: 7 This metaphoric sense of his pen name can be seen in theepigraph ofPollen, the first work he published as Novalis: "Friends, the soil is poor, we must scatter seed abundantly for even a moderate harvest".[30]
In early 1799, Novalis had completed his studies at Leipzig and returned to the management of salt mines in Weissenfels.[3]: 29–30 By December, he became an assessor of the salt mines and a director, and at the end of 1800, the 28-year-old Novalis was appointed anAmtmann for thedistrict of Thuringia,[2]: 42 a position comparable to a contemporarymagistrate.
While on a trip to Jena in the summer of 1799, Novalis metLudwig Tieck, who became one of his closest friends and greatest intellectual influences in the last two years of his life.[3]: 30–34 They became part of an informal social circle that formed around the Schlegel brothers, which has been come to be known as theJena Romantics orFrühromantiker ("early romantics").[31] The interests of the Jena Romantics extended to philosophy as well as literature and aesthetics,[32] and has been considered as a philosophical movement in its own right.[33] Under the influence of Tieck, Novalis studied the works of the seventeenth-century mystic,Jakob Böhme, with whom he felt a strong affinity.[34] He also became deeply engaged with thePlatonicaesthetics of Hemsterhuis,[35] as well as the writings of the theologian and philosopherFriedrich Schleiermacher.[3]: 32 Schleiermacher's work inspired Novalis to write his essay,Christenheit oder Europa (Christianity or Europe),[36] a call to return Europe to a cultural and social unity whose interpretation continues to be a source of controversy.[37] During this time, he also wrote his poems known asGeistliche Lieder (Spiritual Songs)[5] and began his novelHeinrich von Ofterdingen.[12]
From August 1800, Novalis began to cough up blood. At the time, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. However, recent research suggests that he may have suffered fromcystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that may have been responsible for the early death of many of his siblings, including his brother Erasmus.[21] After a severe hemorrhage in November, he was temporarily moved to Dresden for medical reasons. In January, he requested to be with his parents in Weissenfels. He died there on 25 March 1801 at the age of twenty-eight.[12] He was buried in Weissenfels'sAlter Friedhof (Old Cemetery).
When he died, Novalis had only publishedPollen,Faith and Love,Blumen, andHymns to the Night. Most of Novalis's writings, including his novels and philosophical works, were neither completed nor published in his lifetime. This problem continues to obscure a full appreciation of his work.[39] His unfinished novelsHeinrich von Ofterdingen andThe Novices at Sais and numerous other poems and fragments were published posthumously by Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel. However, their publication of Novalis's more philosophical fragments was disorganized and incomplete. A systematic and more comprehensive collection of Novalis's fragments from his notebooks was not available until the twentieth century.[20]
During the nineteenth century, Novalis was primarily seen as a passionate love-struck poet who mourned the death of his beloved and yearned for the hereafter.[40] He was known as the poet of theblue flower, a symbol of romantic yearning from Novalis's unfinished NovelHeinrich von Ofterdingen that became an key emblem for German Romanticism.[41] His fellow Jena Romantics, such as Friedrich Schlegel, Tieck, and Schleiermacher, also describe him as a poet who dreamt of a spiritual world beyond this one.[42] Novalis's diagnosis of tuberculosis, which was known as thewhite plague, contributed to his romantic reputation.[41] Because Sophie von Kühn was also thought to have died from tuberculosis, Novalis became the poet of the blue flower who was reunited with his beloved through the death of the white plague.[21]
The image of Novalis as romantic poet became enormously popular. When Novalis's biography by his long-time friend August Cölestin Just was published in 1815, Just was criticized for misrepresenting Novalis's poetic nature because he had written that Novalis was also a hard-working mine inspector and magistrate.[11] Even the literary criticThomas Carlyle, whose essay on Novalis played a major role in introducing him to the English-speaking world and took Novalis's philosophical relationship to Fichte and Kant seriously,[43] emphasized Novalis as amystic poet in the style ofDante.[44] The author and theologianGeorge MacDonald, who translated Novalis'sHymns to the Night in 1897 into English,[45] also understood him as a mystic poet.[46]
In the twentieth century, Novalis's writings were more thoroughly and systematically collected than previously. The availability of these works provide further evidence that his interests went beyond poetry and novels and has led to a reassessment of Novalis's literary and intellectual goals.[47] He was deeply read in science, law, philosophy, politics andpolitical economy and left an abundance of notes on these topics. His early work displays his ease and familiarity with these diverse fields. His later works also include topics from his professional duties. In his notebooks, Novalis also reflected on the scientific, aesthetic, and philosophical significance of his interests. In hisNotes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia, he worked out connections between the different fields he studied as he sought to integrate them into a unified worldview.[48]
Novalis's philosophical writings are often grounded in nature. His works explore how personal freedom and creativity emerge in the affective understanding of the world and others. He suggests that this can only be accomplished if people are not estranged from the earth.[49]: 55 InPollen, Novalis writes "We are on a mission: Our calling is the cultivation of the earth",[30] arguing that human beings come to know themselves through experiencing and enlivening nature.[49]: 55 Novalis's personal commitment to understanding one's self and the world through nature can be seen in Novalis's unfinished novel,Heinrich von Ofterdingen, in which he uses his knowledge of natural science derived from his work overseeing salt mining to understand the human condition.[28] Novalis's commitment to cultivating nature has even been considered as a potential source of insight for a deeper understanding of the environmental crisis.[50]
Philipp Otto Runge'sDer kleine Morgen (Little Morning) (1808) was also inspired by Novalis's ideas.[51]
Novalis's personal worldview—informed by his education, philosophy, professional knowledge, and pietistic background—has become known asmagical idealism, a name derived from Novalis's reference in his 1798 notebooks to a type of literary prophet, themagischer Idealist (magical idealist).[52] In this worldview, philosophy and poetry are united.[25] Magical idealism is Novalis's synthesis of theGerman idealism of Fichte and Schelling with the creative imagination.[53] The goal of the creative imagination is to break down the barriers between language and world, as well as the subject and object.[52] Themagic is the enlivening of nature as it responds to our will.[25]
Another element of Novalis's magical idealism is his concept oflove. In Novalis's view, love is a sense of relationship and sympathy between all beings in the world,[53] which is considered both the basis of magic and its goal.[25] From one perspective, Novalis's emphasis on the termmagic represents a challenge to what he perceived as thedisenchantment that came with modern rationalistic thinking.[54]: 88 In modern interpretation from the rationalistic perspective, however, Novalis's use ofmagic andlove in his writing is aperformative act of his philosophical and literary goals. These words are meant to startle readers into attentiveness, making them aware of his use of the arts, particularly poetry with its metaphor and symbolism, to explore and unify various understandings of nature in his all-embracing investigations.[55]
Magical idealism also addresses the idea of health.[53] Novalis derived his theory of health from the Scottish physicianJohn Brown'ssystem of medicine, which sees illness as a mismatch between sensory stimulation and internal state.[56] Novalis extends this idea by suggesting that illness arises from a disharmony between the self and the world of nature.[53] This understanding of health is immanent: the "magic" is not otherworldly, it is based on the body and mind's relationship to the environment.[57] According to Novalis, health is maintained when we use our bodies as means to sensitively perceive the world rather than to control the world: the ideal is where the individual and the world interplay harmoniously.[33] It has been argued that there is an anxiety in Novalis's sense of magical idealism that denies actual touch, which leads inevitably to death, and replaces it with an idea of "distant touch".[58]
Novalis's religious perspective remains a subject of debate. Novalis's early rearing in a Pietist household affected him through this life.[2]: 25 The impact of his religious background on his writings are particularly clear in his two major poetic works.Hymns to the Night contains many Christian symbols and themes.[3]: 68–78 And, Novalis'sSpiritual Songs, which were posthumously published in 1802 were incorporated into Lutheran hymnals; Novalis called the poems "Christian Songs", and they were intended to be published in theAthenaeum under the titleSpecimens From a New Devotional Hymn Book.[3]: 78 One of his final works, which was posthumously namedDie Christenheit oder Europa (Christianity or Europe) when it was first published in full in 1826, has generated a great deal of controversy regarding Novalis's religious views.[37] This essay, which Novalis himself had simply entitledEuropa, called for European unity in Novalis's time by poetically referencing a mythical Medieval golden age when Europe was unified under the Catholic Church.[60]
One view of Novalis's work is that it maintains a traditional Christian outlook. Novalis's brother Karl writes that during his final illness, Novalis would read the works of the theologiansNicolaus Zinzendorf andJohann Kaspar Lavater, as well as theBible.[8] On the other hand, during the decades following Novalis's death, German intellectuals, such as the authorKarl Hillebrand and the literary criticHermann Theodor Hettner thought that Novalis was essentially a Catholic in his thinking.[42] In the twentieth century, this view of Novalis has sometimes led to negative assessments of his work.Hymns to the Night has been described as an attempt by Novalis to use religion to avoid the challenges of modernity,[61] andChristianity or Europe has been described variously as desperate prayer, a reactionary manifesto or a theocratic dream.[37]
Another view of Novalis's work is that it reflects a Christian mysticism.[3] After Novalis died, the Jena Romantics wrote of him as a seer who would bring forth a new gospel:[42] one who lived his life as one aiming toward the spiritual while looking at death as a means of overcoming human limitation[62] in a revolutionary movement toward God.[22] In this more romantic view, Novalis was a visionary who saw contemporary Christianity as a stage to an even higher expression of religion[63] where earthly love rises to a heavenly love[64] as death itself is defeated by that love.[65] At the end of the nineteenth century, the playwright and poetMaurice Maeterlinck also described Novalis as a mystic. However, Maeterlinck acknowledged the impact of Novalis's intellectual interests on his religious views, describing Novalis as a "scientific mystic" and comparing him to the physicist and philosopherBlaise Pascal.[66]
More recently, Novalis's religious outlook has been analysed from the point of view of his philosophical and aesthetic commitments.[67] In this view, Novalis's religious thought was based on his attempts to reconcile Fichte's idealism, in which the sense of self arises in the distinction of subject and object, withBaruch Spinoza'snaturalistic philosophy, in which all being is one substance. Novalis sought a single principle through which the division between ego and nature becomes mere appearance.[67] As Novalis's philosophical thinking on religion developed, it became influenced by the Platonism of Hemsterhuis, as well as theNeoplatonism ofPlotinus. Accordingly, Novalis aimed to synthesize naturalism and theism into a "religion of the visible cosmos".[68] Novalis believed that individuals could obtain mystic insight, but religion can remain rational: God could be a Neoplatonic object of intellectual intuition and rational perception, thelogos that structures the universe.[67] In Novalis's view, this vision of the logos is not merely intellectual, but moral too, as Novalis states "god is virtue itself".[49]: 78 This vision includes Novalis's idea of love, in which self and nature united in a mutually supportive existence.[69] This understanding of Novalis's religious project is illustrated by a quote from one of his notes in hisFichte-Studien (Fichte Studies): "Spinoza ascended as far as nature- Fichte to the 'I', or the person, I ascend to the thesis of God".[68]
According to this Neoplatonic reading of Novalis, his religious language can be understood using the "magic wand of analogy",[70] a phrase Novalis used inEurope and Christianity to clarify how he meant to use history in that essay.[71] This use of analogy was partly inspired by Schiller, who argued that analogy allows facts to be connected into a harmonious whole,[53] and by his relationship with Friedrich Schlegel, who sought to explore the revelations of religion through the union of philosophy and poetry.[72] The "magic wand of analogy" allowed Novalis to use metaphor, analogy and symbolism to bring together the arts, science, and philosophy in his search for truth.[55] This view of Novalis's writing suggests that his literary language must be read carefully. His metaphors and images- even in works likeHymns to the Night- are not only mystical utterances,[73] they also express philosophical arguments.[74] Read in this perspective, a work like Novalis'sChristianity or Europe is not a call to return to a lost golden age. Rather, it is an argument in poetic language, phrased in the mode of a myth,[60] for acosmopolitan vision of a unity[37] that brings together past and future, ideal and real, to engage the listener in an unfinished historical process.[36]
Novalis is best known as a German Romantic poet.[25] His two sets of poems,Hymns to the Night andSpiritual Songs, are considered his major lyrical achievements.[20]Hymns to the Night were begun in 1797 after the death of Sophie von Kühn. About eight months after they were completed, a revised edition of the poems was published in theAthenaeum. TheSpiritual Songs, which were written in 1799, were posthumously published in 1802. Novalis called the poemsChristian Songs, and they were intended to be entitledSpecimens From a New Devotional Hymn Book. After his death many of the poems were incorporated into Lutheran hymn-books.[3]: 78–87 Novalis also wrote a number of other occasional poems, which can be found in his collected works.[20] Translations of poems into English include:
Hymns to the Night
"Hymns to the Night".Hymns and Thoughts on Religion by Novalis. Translated byW. Hastie. Edinburgh, Scotland: T. & T. Clark. 1888.
"Hymns to the Night".Novalis: His Life, Thoughts and Works. Translated by Hope, M. J. Chicago: McClurg. 1891.
Hymns to the Night. Translated byHiggins, Dick. Kingston, NY: McPherson & Company. 1988. This modern translation includes the German text (with variants)en face.
Spiritual Songs
"Spiritual Songs".Hymns and Thoughts on Religion by Novalis. Translated byHastie, W. Edinburg, Scotland: T. & T. Clark. 1888.
"Spiritual Hymns".The Disciples at Saïs and Other Fragments. Translated by F. V. M. T;U. C. B. London: Methuen. 1903.
Novalis wrote two unfinished novel fragments,Heinrich von Ofterdingen andDie Lehrlinge zu Sais (The Novices at Sais), both of which were published posthumously by Tieck and Schlegel in 1802. The novels both aim to describe a universal world harmony with the help of poetry.The Novices at Sais contains the fairy tale "Hyacinth and Rose Petal".Heinrich von Ofterdingen is the work in which Novalis introduced the image of theblue flower.Heinrich von Ofterdingen was conceived as a response to Goethe'sWilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, a work that Novalis had read with enthusiasm but judged as being highly unpoetical.[66] He disliked Goethe making the economical victorious over the poetic in the narrative, so Novalis focused on makingHeinrich von Ofterdingen triumphantly poetic.[75] Both of Novalis's novels also reflect human experience through metaphors related to his studies in natural history from Freiburg.[26] Translations of Novels into English include:
Novalis's handwriting (excerpt fromHeinrich von Ofterdingen)
The Novices of Sais. Translated byManheim, Ralph. Brooklyn, NY:Archipelago Books. 2005. This translation was originally published in 1949 and includes illustrations byPaul Klee.
Together with Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis developed the fragment as a literary artform in German. For Schlegel, the fragment served as a literary vehicle that mediated apparent oppositions. Its model was the fragment from classical sculpture, whose part evoked the whole, or whose finitude evoked infinite possibility, via the imagination.[77] The use of the fragment allowed Novalis to easily express himself on any issue of intellectual life he wanted to address,[35] and it served as a means of expressing Schlegel's ideal of a universal "progressive universal poesy", that fused "poetry and prose into an art that expressed the totality of both art and nature".[78] This genre particularly suited Novalis as it allowed him to express himself in a way that kept both philosophy and poetry in a continuous relationship.[55] His first major use of the fragment as a literary form,Pollen, was published in theAthenaeum in 1798.[35] English translations include:
Pollen
"Pollen" .Writings of Novalis, Volume 2 – viaWikisource. This and subsequent wikisource references are translations fromMinor, Jakob (1907).Novalis Schriften, Volume 2 [Writings of Novalis, Volume 2] (in German). Jena, Germany: Eugene Diederichs. pp. 110–139. This version ofPollen is the one published in theAthenaeum in 1798, which was edited by Schlegel.[79] and includes four of Schlegel's fragments in fine print.
Gelley, Alexander (1991). "Miscellaneous Remarks (Original Version of Pollen)".New Literary History.22 (2):383–406.doi:10.2307/469045.JSTOR469045.(registration required) This version is translated from Novalis's unpublished original manuscript.
"Pollen".Novalis: Philosophical Writings. Translated by Stoljar, Margaret Mahoney. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 1997. This version is also translated from Novalis's unpublished original manuscript.
During his lifetime, Novalis wrote two works on political themes,Faith and Love or the King and the Queen and his speechEuropa, which was posthumously namedChristianity or Europe. In addition to their political focus, both works share a common theme of poetically arguing for the importance of "faith and love" to achieve human and communal unification.[37] Because these works poetically address political concerns, their meaning continues to be the subject of disagreement. Their interpretations have ranged from being seen as reactionary manifestos celebrating hierarchies to utopian dreams of human solidarity.[80]
Faith and Love or the King and the Queen was published inYearbooks of the Prussian Monarchy in 1798 just after KingWilhelm Frederick III and his popular wifeQueen Louise ascended to the throne of Prussia.[35] In this work, Novalis addresses the king and queen, emphasizing their importance as role models for creating an enduring state of interconnectedness both on the individual and collective level.[81] Though a substantial portion of the essay was published, Frederick Wilhelm III censored the publication of additional installments as he felt it held the monarchy to impossibly high standards. The work is also notable in that Novalis extensively used the literary fragment to make his points.[37]
Europa was written and originally delivered to a private group of friends in 1799. It was intended for theAthenaeum; after it was presented, Schlegel decided not to publish it. It was not published in full until 1826.[37] It is a poetical, cultural-historical speech with a focus on a political utopia with regard to the Middle Ages. In this text Novalis tries to develop a new Europe which is based on a new poetical Christendom which shall lead to unity and freedom. He got the inspiration for this text from a book written by Schleiermacher,Über die Religion (On Religion). The work was a response to the French Revolution and its implications for the French enlightenment, which Novalis saw as catastrophic. It anticipated the growing German and Romantic critiques of the then-current enlightenment ideologies in the search for a new European spirituality and unity.[3]: 87–98 Below are some available English translations, as well as two excerpts that illustrate howEuropa has variously been interpreted.
Faith and Love or the King and the Queen
"Faith and Love or the King and the Queen" .Writings of Novalis, Volume 2 – viaWikisource. This version follows the published version in that it treats the first six fragments as part of a prelude, so it is numbered differently than later versions. Page links in wikisource document can be used to compare the English translation to German original.
"Faith and Love or the King and the Queen".Novalis: Philosophical Writings. Translated by Stoljar, Margaret Mahoney. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 1997.
Additional works that have been translated into English are listed below. Most of the works reflect Novalis's more philosophical and scientific sides, most of which were not systematically collected, published, and translated until the 20th century. Their publication has called for a reassessment of Novalis and his role as a thinker as well as an artist.[79]
Philosophical and political works
"Monologue".Earlham College. Translated by Güven, Fervit. Archived fromthe original on 29 January 2020. InMonologue, Novalis discuss the limits and nature of language.[82]
Writings of Novalis, Volume 2 – viaWikisource. This translation of Jacob Minor's version of Novalis's collected works includesPollen,Faith and Love or the King and Queen, andMonologue. It also includesKlarisse, Novalis's brief description Sophie von Kühn.
Bernstein, Jay, ed. (2003).Classic and Romantic German Aesthetics. Translated by Crick, Joyce P. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. This collection contains a selection of Novalis's fragments, as well as his workDialogues. This volume also has collections of fragments by Friedrich Schlegel and Hölderlin.
Stoljar, Margaret Mahoney, ed. (1997).Novalis: Philosophical Writings. Translated by Stoljar, Margaret Mahoney. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. This volume contains several of Novalis' works, includingPollen orMiscellaneous Observations, one of the few complete works published in his lifetime (though it was altered for publication by Friedrich Schlegel);Logological Fragments I andII;Monologue, a long fragment on language;Faith and Love or The King and Queen, a collection of political fragments also published during his lifetime;On Goethe; extracts fromDas allgemeine Broullion orGeneral Draft; and his essayChristendom or Europe.
Beiser, Frederick C., ed. (1996).The Early Political Writings of the German Romantics. Translated by Beiser, Frederick C. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. This volume includesPollen,Faith and Love or the King and Queen,Political Aphorisms,Christianity or Europe: A Fragment. It also has works by Friedrich Schlegel and Schleiermacher.
Notebooks
Kellner, Jane, ed. (2003).Fichte Studies. Translated by Kellner, Jane. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. This book is in the same series as theClassic and Romantic German Aesthetics. Contains Novalis's notes as he read and responded to Fichte'sThe Science of Knowledge.
Wood, David W., ed. (2007).Novalis: Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia (Das Allgemeine Brouillon). Translated by Wood, David W. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.(The first 50 of the 1151 entries are available online.) This is an English translation of Novalis's unfinished project for a "universal science". It contains his thoughts on philosophy, the arts, religion, literature and poetry, and his theory of "Magical Idealism". The Appendix contains substantial extracts from Novalis'Freiberg Natural Scientific Studies 1798/1799.
Novalis's works were originally issued in two volumes by his friends Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel (2 vols. 1802; a third volume was added in 1846). Editions of Novalis's collected works have since been compiled by C. Meisner andBruno Wille (1898), byErnst Heilborn (3 vols., 1901), and by J. Minor (4 vols., 1907).Heinrich von Ofterdingen was published separately by J. Schmidt in 1876.[83] The most current version of Novalis's collected works, a German-language, six-volume edition of Novalis worksHistorische-Kritische Ausgabe - Novalis Schriften (HKA), is edited by Richard Samuel, Hans-Joachim Mähl & Gerhard Schulz. It is published byKohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1960–2006.
Novalis's Collected Works (Available online.)
Novalis Schriften (Novalis's Writings) (edited by Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel; in German withFraktur font), Berlin, Germany: G. Reimer, 1837 (fifth edition). This is the collection that originally established Novalis's reputation.
Novalis Schriften (edited byJakob Minor; in German withFraktur font) Jena, Germany: Eugene Diederiche, 1907. This a more comprehensive and better organized collection than Tieck and Schlegel's.
Novalis'sCorrespondence was edited byJ. M. Raich in 1880. SeeR. HaymDie romantische Schule (Berlin, 1870); A. Schubart,Novalis' Leben, Dichten und Denken (1887); C. Busse,Novalis' Lyrik (1898); J. Bing,Friedrich von Hardenberg (Hamburg, 1899), E. Heilborn,Friedrich von Hardenberg (Berlin, 1901).[83]
The political philosopherKarl Marx's metaphorical argument that religion was theopium of the people was prefigured by Novalis's statement inPollen where he describes "philistines" with the following analogy, "Their so-called religion works just like an opiate: stimulating, sedating, stilling pain through innervation".[24]: 145
Hungarian philosopherGyörgy Lukács derived his concept of philosophy astranscendental homelessness from Novalis. In his 1914–15 essayTheory of the Novel quotes Novalis at the top of the essay, "Philosophy is really homesickness—the desire to be everywhere at home."[84] The essay unfolds closely related to this notion of Novalis—that modern philosophy "mourns the absence of a pre-subjective, pre-reflexive anchoring of reason"[85] and is searching to be grounded but cannot achieve this aim due to philosophy's modern discursive nature. Later, however, Lukács repudiated Romanticism, writing that Novalis's "cult of the immediate and the unconscious necessarily leads to a cult of night and death, of sickness and decay."[86]
The musical composerRichard Wagner's libretto for the operaTristan und Isolde contains strong allusions to Novalis's symbolic language,[87] especially the dichotomy between the Night and the Day that animates hisHymns to the Night.[88]
The literary criticWalter Pater includes Novalis's quote,"Philosophiren ist dephlegmatisiren, vivificiren" ("to philosophize is to throw off apathy, to become revived")[18] in his conclusion toStudies in the History of the Renaissance.
The literary critic, philosopher and photographer'sFranz Roh termmagischer Realismus that he coined in his 1925 bookNach-Expressionismus, Magischer Realismus: Probleme der neuesten europäischen Malerei (Post-expressionism, Magic Realism: Problems in Recent European Painting) may have been inspired by Novalis's termmagischer Realist.[56]
André Breton and theSurrealists were greatly influenced by Novalis.[90] Breton cited Novalis extensively in his study of art history,L'Art Magique, as well.
The 20th-century philosopherMartin Heidegger uses a Novalis fragment, "Philosophy is really homesickness, an urge to be at home everywhere" in the opening pages ofThe Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics.[91]
The UK Charity "Novalis Trust" which provides care and education for individuals with additional needs.[92]
The authorHermann Hesse's writing was influenced by Novalis's poetry,[93] and Hesse's last full-length novelGlasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game) contains a passage that appears to restate one of the fragments in Novalis'sPollen.[94]
The artist and activistJoseph Beuys's aphorism "Everyone is an artist" was inspired by Novalis,[95] who wrote "Every person should be an artist" inFaith and Love or the King and the Queen.
The artist and animator Chris Powell created the award-winning animated filmNovalis. The title character is a robot named after Novalis.
Novalis has also influencedfilm theory by way ofJacques Rancière, who employs various elements of German Idealism and Romanticism in his philosophical work on critical philosophy and the regimes of art.[96]
The composer, guitarist, and electronic music artistErik Wøllo titled one of his songs "Novalis".
Penelope Fitzgerald based her historical novelThe Blue Flower on Novalis's love affair with Sophie and her influence on his art.
^abcdefghijkJust, Cölestin August (1891) [1805]."Life of Novalis".Novalis: His Life, Thoughts, and Works. Translated by Hope, Margaret Jane. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. pp. 23–50.
^abcPick, Bernhard (1910).Introduction.Devotional Songs of Novalis. ByNovalis. Pick, Bernard (ed.). Chicago: Open Court. pp. 3–18.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^Snell, Robert (2012)."Psychoanalysis and Mysticism".Uncertainties, Mysteries, Doubts: Romanticism and the Analytic Attitude. New York: Routledge. p. 31.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^abvon Hardenberg, Karl (2007) [1802]."Karl von Hardenberg: Biography of His Brother Novalis". In Donehower, Bruce (ed.).The Birth of Novalis: Friedrich Von Hardenberg's Journal of 1797, with Selected Letters and Documents. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 106.ISBN9780791480687.
^abcWulf, Andrea (2022).Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of Self. Knopf Doubleday Publishing.ISBN9780525657118.
^abcdefDonehower, Bruce (2007) [1802]."Introduction". In Donehower, Bruce (ed.).The Birth of Novalis: Friedrich von Hardenberg's Journal of 1797, with Selected Letters and Documents. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. 1–34.ISBN9780791480687.
^Newman, Gail (1989). "The Status of the Subject in Novalis'sHeinrich von Ofterdingen andKleist's Die Marquise von O...".The German Quarterly.62 (1):59–71.doi:10.2307/407036.JSTOR407036.(registration required)
^abSeyhan, Azade (2012)."Representation and Criticism".Representation and Its Discontents: The Critical Legacy of German Romanticism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. pp. 90–92.
^Johnson, Laurie (1998). ""Wozu überhaupt ein Anfang?" Memory and History in "Heinrich von Ofterdingen"".Colloquia Germanica.31 (1): 33.JSTOR23981057.(registration required)
^abMahoney, Dennis F. (1992). "Human History as Natural History in "The Novices of Sais" and "Heinrich von Ofterdingen"".Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques.18 (3):111–124.JSTOR41292842.(registration required)
^Mahoney, Dennis F. (7 September 2004)."Novalis". In Knapp, Gerhard P. (ed.).The Literary Encyclopedia. United Kingdom: The Literary Dictionary Company.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^Rush, Fred (2005). "Review of The Romantic Imperative: The Concept of Early German Romanticism".Mind.114 (455):709–713.JSTOR3489014.(registration required)
^Mayer, Paola (1999)."An Interrupted Reception: Novalis".Jena Romanticism and Its Appropriation of Jakob Böhme: Theosophy, Hagiography, Literature. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 82.ISBN9780773518520.
^abcdStoljar, Margaret Mahoney (1997).Introduction.Novalis: Philosophical Writings. By Novalis. New York: Routledge. pp. 1–22.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^abSmith, John H. (2011). "Living Religion as Vanishing Mediator: Schleiermacher, Early Romanticism, and Idealism".The German Quarterly.84 (2): 143.JSTOR41237070.(registration required)
^Haase, Donald (1979). "Romantic Facts and Critical Myths: Novalis' Early Reception in France".The Comparist.3:23–31.JSTOR44366652.(registration required)
^Partridge, Michael (2014)."George MacDonald & Novalis".The George MacDonald WWW Page: Home to the George MacDonald Society. Archived fromthe original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved23 October 2020.
^Becker, Christian; Manstetten, Reiner (2004). "Nature as a You: Novalis' Philosophical Thought and the Modern Ecological Crisis".Environmental Values.13 (1):101–118.JSTOR30301971.(registration required)
^Miller, Phillip B. (1974). "Anxiety and Abstraction: Kleist and Brentano on Caspar David Friedrich".Art Journal.33 (3):205–210.JSTOR775783.(registration required)
^Schaber, Steven C. (1974). "Novalis' "Monolog" and Hofmannsthal's "Ein Brief": Two Poets in Search of a Language".The German Quarterly.47 (2):204–214.doi:10.2307/403360.JSTOR403360.(registration required)
^Novalis, 1772-1801. (2007).Notes for a romantic encyclopaedia : Das Allgemeine Brouillon. Wood, David W., 1968-. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 155.ISBN978-1-4294-7128-2.OCLC137659435.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Gjesdal, Kristin (2014),"Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenberg [Novalis]", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2014 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved15 September 2020
^Scott, Jill (1998). "Night and Light in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Novalis's Hymnen an die Nacht: Inversion and Transfiguration".University of Toronto Quarterly.67 (4):774–780.doi:10.3138/utq.67.4.774.S2CID170123721.
^Mileck, Joseph (1983). "Hermann Hesse and German Romanticism: An Evolving Relationship".The Journal of English and Germanic Philology.82 (2):168–185.JSTOR27709146.(registration required)
Ameriks, Karl (ed.).The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000
Arena, Leonardo Vittorio,La filosofia di Novalis, Milano: Franco Angeli, 1987 (inItalian)
Behler, Ernst.German Romantic Literary Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993
Beiser, Frederick.German Idealism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. Argues that the early romantics should be understood as serious philosophical thinkers. Novalis's philosophical commitments are discussed in detail.
Fitzgerald, Penelope.The Blue Flower. Boston, MA: Mariner Books, 1995. A novelization of Novalis' early life, development and relationship with Sophie von Kühn.
Haywood, Bruce.Novalis, the veil of imagery; a study of the poetic works ofFriedrich von Hardenberg, 1772–1801, 's-Gravenhage, Mouton, 1959; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959.
Krell, David Farrell.Contagion: Sexuality, Disease, and Death in German Idealism and Romanticism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. First part addresses what Krell calls Novalis's "Thaumaturgic Idealism".
Kuzniar, Alice.Delayed Endings. Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1987. Explores Novalis's and Hölderlin's use of nonclosure to create a new Romantic sense of narrative time.
Lacoue-Labarthe, Phillipe and Jean-Luc Nancy.The Literary Absolute: The Theory of Literature in German Romanticism.. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
Molnár, Geza von.Novalis' "Fichte Studies".
O’Brien, William Arctander.Novalis: Signs of Revolution. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.ISBN0-8223-1519-X
Pfefferkorn, Kristin.Novalis: A Romantic's Theory of Language and Poetry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
Prokofieff, Sergei O.Eternal Individuality. Towards a Karmic Biography of Novalis. Temple Lodge Publishing, London 1992.
Oberwiederstedt Manor, birthplace of Novalis and home to the International Novalis Society and the Novalis Foundation (inGerman)
Aquarium: Friedrich von Hardenberg im Internet – a multi-lingual website for information on Novalis, including translations, reviews, general discussions, odd trivia and scholarly articles. (Last updated in 2007.)
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