Levana

Jean Paul says nobly, in his "Levana," that, "before and after being a mother, a woman is a human being, and neither maternal nor conjugal relation can supersede the human responsibility, but must become its means and instrument."

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859 Various

"Levana" is peculiarly adapted to cause those who have to do with children to feel all the emancipating and renovating power of their trust.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 Various

The reader of "Levana" will find much incidental commendation of those true relations of intellectual sympathy and confidence between parents and children which in this country are far rarer than they should be.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 Various

'Levana' is a work on Education, written as Jean Paul alone could write it.

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

In conclusion, we can only repeat, that the greatest charm of "Levana" is its suggestion of a possible household, from what the reader feels was once an actual household.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 Various

"Levana," as we have said, is no iron system for the education of children; it is rather a most readable text-book for the education of parents.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 Various

Upon the subject of religious education "Levana" is finely suggestive.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 Various

No reader of "Levana" can miss the refutation of that poisonous lie, that men of genius, because of their mental endowments, have a natural inaptitude for domestic relations, or are unhappy therein from any other cause than their own foolishness or guilt.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863 Various

Scarcely had we finished our few remarks on the 'Levana' of Jean Paul, when we were called upon to welcome another work from the same loved hand.

The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 1863 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

What he says or implies in "Levana" (the goddess who performed "the earliest office of ennobling kindness" for a newborn child, lifting him from the ground, where he was first laid, and presenting his forehead to the stars of heaven) has potency to awaken two of the great faculties of humanity, the power to think and the power to imagine.

Outlines of English and American Literature : an Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived William Joseph Long 1909