Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg)(1772–1801)
Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg) is documented in Fuller’s letters, published essays, journals, and manuscripts (1832–1846). 10 distinct works are named, most often in Letter to James F. Clarke, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “excerpted”.
Engagement
ExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned
Present in
Letters · Essays · Journals · Manuscripts
Documented
1832–1846
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Confirmed reading
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg)’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
Dated
1832Work not namedPossiblePosthumous testimony
“Korner, Novalis, and something of Richter”
Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli · within the year [1832]
Continuation of the same dated (1832) memoir reading list, naming Novalis.
1832Work not namedPossiblePosthumous testimony
“with the writings of Tieck, Korner, Bichter, and Novalis”
Mem-3 Reminiscences of Edna Cheney · She began the study of German in 1832 ... within the year
Same dated 1832-1833 claim regarding Novalis.
1832Die Lehrlinge zu SaisAttested
“I have read, thoroughly, only two of his pieces, "Die Lehrlinge zu Sais," and "Heinrich von Ofterdingen.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · 7 August 1832
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re522 (L-2 Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth, letter_1006.txt; tier A; same passage); re526 (Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections), Mem-2-02 l.4925-4927; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. Explicit first-person statement 'I have read, thoroughly, only two of his pieces..."Die Lehrlinge zu Sais"'.
In Fuller’s words
“From Novalis. / The voice of his mother roused him and the blue flower vanished. Too happy to be angry he bid her a kind good-morrow. [...] 'Klingsohr was strongly built; his motions few and calm, but very expressive If you saw him standing, you felt as if he would stand there always.' / Streams are the eyes of a landscape! [...] 'Poets inhale the aroma of Earth's most exquisite fruits. Common men devour them and are thenceforth chained to her service.”
Heinrich von Ofterdingen [Henry of Ofterdingen] · Translations from German
When Fuller engaged with Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg)
I. Childhood
II. Adolescence
III. Self-Directed9records
IV. Transcendentalist4records
V. New York
VI. Europe1record
✦. Memoirs (1852)3records
1810
1820
1832
1836
1844
1846
1850
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
“About Novalis!- a wondrous youth- and who has only written one volume... one-sidedness, imperfection and glow of a mind like Novalis's seem refreshingly human to me.”
InferredFuller explicitly names Novalis and describes currently re-reading "his one volume" chapter by chapter—a clear active-reading signal; Hudspeth identified she had discovered the poetry of Friedrich, Freiherr von Hardenberg (Novalis), and the volume is almost certainly the Tieck-Schlegel Novalis Schriften (first collected edition 1802; expanded edition 1826–46).
“I have read thoroughly (that is to say according to my present Ich) only two of his pieces- "Die Lehrlinge zu Sais" and Heinrich von Ofterdingen- From the former I have only brought away piecemeal impressions”
“Die Lehrlinge zu Sais" and Heinrich von Ofterdingen- From the former I have only brought away piecemeal impressions, but the plan and treatment of the latter, I believe I understand.”
“T'is the spirit of Navalis's Lehrling zu Sais which I have just been reading...”
Fuller names Die Lehrlinge zu Sais twice and quotes directly from it in German, stating "I have just been reading," and recognizes the work's "spirit" in Clarke's sermon, confirmed in Hudspeth's translation of the German passage.
“Then Navalis says "Philosophy is the art of discovering the place of truth in every encountered event and circumstance; to attune all relations to truth.”
Fuller quotes Novalis's well-known aphorism "Philosophy is peculiarly homesickness" and engages with it analytically; Hudspeth identified the source as Novalis's Fragmente und Studien, confirming Fuller has it accurately.
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
1832—
Letter to James F. Clarke
p177
analyzed · read
“I wish to talk about such an uncommon person,—about Novalis! a wondrous youth, and who has only written one volume.”
Fuller, Margaret. Letter 77 ([ca. 1 August 1832]). In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817-1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Hudspeth identified the edition as the 1826 one-volume Schriften (edited by Tieck and Schlegel), a reissue of the original 1802 Berlin edition, which contained Hymnen an die Nacht, aphorisms, and the two fragmentary novels Die Lehrlinge zu Sais and Heinrich von Ofterdingen.
1832—
Letter to James F. Clarke
p178
analyzed · read3 selected passages
“I felt very new about Novalis,—'the good Novalis,' as you call him after Mr. Carlyle.”
“I have read, thoroughly, only two of his pieces, 'Die Lehrlinge zu Sais,' and 'Heinrich von Ofterdingen.' From the former I have only brought away piecemeal impressions”
“I have read, thoroughly, only two of his pieces, 'Die Lehrlinge zu Sais,' and 'Heinrich von Ofterdingen.' [...] the plan and treatment of the latter, I believe, I understand.”
Fuller, Margaret. Letter 78 (7 August 1832). In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817-1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
1833—
Letter to James F. Clarke
p182
excerpted · analyzed · quoted · read
“Then Novalis says, ‘Philosophy is the art of discovering the place of truth in every encountered event and circumstance, to attune all relations to truth.’ Philosophy is peculiarly home-sickness; an overmastering desire to be at home.”
Fuller, Margaret. Letter 84 ([ca. 20 May 1833]). In The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. I: 1817-1838, edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
InferredFuller quotes Novalis directly, paraphrasing rather than translating exactly two aphorisms from his Fragmente und Studien. Hudspeth identified the canonical aphorism 'Die Philosophie ist eigentlich Heimweh—Trieb überall zu Hause zu sein' (Philosophy is properly homesickness; the wish to be everywhere at home), which Fuller renders as 'Philosophy is peculiarly home-sickness; an overmastering desire to be at home.' She also cites Novalis's characterizations of unbelievers and dismissals of philosophy as mere system.
Hudspeth identified the canonical aphorism 'Die Philosophie ist eigentlich Heimweh—Trieb überall zu Hause zu sein' (Philosophy is properly homesickness; the wish to be everywhere at home), which Fuller renders as 'Philosophy is peculiarly home-sickness; an overmastering desire to be at home.' She also cites Novalis's characterizations of unbelievers and dismissals of philosophy as mere system.
1833—
Letter to Frederic H. Hedge
p189
read
“Why will you not continue Novalis's novel, I should think your experiences might suffice.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Vol. I: 1817-1838. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
1834—
Fragmentary Reading Notes and Autobiographical Reflections
“Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship is, in a certain sense thoroughly prosaic and modern_ The Romantic is completely levelled in it — so is the poetry of Nature, the Wonderful.”
InferredFuller quotes at length from Novalis's criticism of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, explicitly attributing it twice to 'Novalis'.
Fuller quotes Novalis's criticism of Wilhelm Meister and attributes it explicitly to 'Novalis'. Fuller responds: 'I should think there were many half meanings in all this.' She likely encountered the passage in a secondary source (Conversation's Lexicon or Menzel) rather than directly in Novalis's Schriften, but the attribution is explicit.
1836—
Letter to Unknown Recipient
p254
quoted · read
“I am rather of the opinion of Novalis, that "Wer sich der hochsten Lieb ergeben Genest von ihnen Wunden nie.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Fuller names Novalis explicitly and quotes his German lines, which Hudspeth identified as from "Astralis," the opening poem of the second part of Heinrich von Ofterdingen.
“I have never found any response to the psychological history of my childhood except in Novalis. I do think I am not ignorant of his emblematic carbuncle.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Entry August 1838." Houghton Library, Harvard University; MS Am 1086; Box 5.
InferredFuller explicitly names Novalis and refers to 'his emblematic carbuncle' — a specific symbol from his work. The carbuncle (a glowing red gem) is a symbol within Klingsohr's Märchen, the allegorical fairy tale embedded in Novalis's unfinished Romantic novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen (published posthumously 1802 by Tieck and Schlegel).
1840—
Letter to Caroline Sturgis
p107
analyzed · read2 selected passages
“I build on our friendship now with trust, for I think it is redeemed from "the search after Eros”
InferredFuller alludes to Klingsohr's tale of Eros from Novalis's Heinrich von Ofterdingen, placing "the search after Eros" in quotation marks to invoke the novel's exploration of passionate love—Hudspeth identified which identify the reference as the fairy tale in Part Two where Fabel searches for and ultimately redeems Eros.
“I live, I am— The carbuncle is found And at present the mere sight of my talisman is enough. The hour may come when I wish to charm with it, but not yet.”
InferredFuller's language ('The carbuncle is found,' 'my talisman') directly echoes this episode from Novalis's novel. Heinrich von Ofterdingen was written 1799-1800 and published posthumously in 1802, edited by Ludwig Tieck and Friedrich Schlegel.
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
“As says Novalis / No angel can ascend to heaven / till the whole heart has fallen / to the earth in ashes. / Might these be the right lines. I cannot remember what they are.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. IV. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
InferredFuller explicitly attributes these lines to Novalis but immediately qualifies: "Might these be the right lines.
1845—
Letter to James Nathan
p83
quoted · read
“As says Novalis: / No angel can ascend to heaven / Till the whole heart has fallen to the earth in ashes. / Might these be the right lines? I cannot remember what they are.”
Fuller, Margaret. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845-1846. With an introduction by Julia Ward Howe. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903.
InferredAn exact verbatim match was not found in Hymnen an die Nacht (1800) or in standard collections of Novalis's Fragmente.
Fuller explicitly attributes these lines to Novalis, noting "Might these be the right lines?
Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Passages surviving only in the posthumous Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, compiled by Emerson, Channing, and Clarke.
1852—
Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
p147
analyzed · quoted · read5 selected passages
“Körner, Novalis, and something of Richter... I have not anybody to speak to... about Novalis, a wondrous youth, and who has only written one volume...”
“Heinrich von Ofterdingen.' From the former I have only brought away piecemeal impressions, but the plan and treatment of the latter, I believe, I understand.”
“I am rather of the opinion of Novalis, that 'Wer sich der hochsten Lieb ergeben Genest von ihren Wunden nie.”
InferredMargaret Fuller engages with Novalis's Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802) through a quotation from its second part, "Wer sich der hochsten Lieb ergeben / Genest von ihren Wunden nie," which she presents in contrast to Goethe's Lebensregel.
“I could engage, however, to furnish at least two articles on Novalis and Korner.”
InferredAlthough a specific Novalis text is not named in this passage, Fuller's intention to write about him suggests a considered assessment of his contribution to literary thought.
“she had read German books... Novalis... As in Helene, as in Novalis, I recognised, with delight, the eye that gazed, the ear that listened, till the spectres came.”
InferredMargaret Fuller engaged with the writings of Novalis, a seminal figure in German Romanticism, identifying his mystical inclinations with a shared sensibility.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.