WorkNovalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg)
Novalis (Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg) (1772–1801) · posth. 1802
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Documented 1832–1840
Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)
Letters • Journals • Manuscripts
Selected engagements, in chronological order.
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“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) re523 (L-2 Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth, letter_1006.txt; tier A; same passage) — counted once here. Same explicit reading statement names 'Heinrich von Ofterdingen'.
“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.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
“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.
“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.
“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.
Inferred Fuller 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).
“I build on our friendship now with trust, for I think it is redeemed from "the search after Eros”
Inferred Fuller 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.”
Inferred Fuller'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.
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“I shall in my next give an account of the most important of these his Heinrich von Ofterdingen.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1833–1842." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (83); Box 5 (83).
“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.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Translations from German." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086; Box 5 (101).
Inferred Section labeled 'From Novalis' (p. 30) containing the 'blue flower' vision, meditations on history, poetry, and nature, and the Klingsohr portrait — passages from Heinrich von Ofterdingen (published posthumously by Tieck, 1802).
“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.”
Inferred Margaret 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.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.