All 17 Uses of

novel

in

War and Peace

Anna Pavlovna's "At Home" was like the former one, only the novelty she offered her guests this time was not Mortemart, but a diplomatist fresh from Berlin with the very latest details of the Emperor Alexander's visit to Potsdam, and of how the two august friends had pledged themselves in an indissoluble alliance to uphold the cause of justice against the enemy of the human race.†
Chpt 3 (definition 1)

The novelty Anna Pavlovna was setting before her guests that evening was Boris Drubetskoy, who had just arrived as a special messenger from the Prussian army and was aide-de-camp to a very important personage.†
Chpt 5 (definition 1)

For some time he engrossed the general attention, and Anna Pavlovna felt that the novelty she had served up was received with pleasure by all her visitors.†
Chpt 5 (definition 1)

The novelty of Truth endowed her with special strength, but now we need much more powerful methods.†
Chpt 6 (definition 1)

"Your Majesty," replied Balashev, "my master, the Emperor, does not desire war and as Your Majesty sees…." said Balashev, using the words Your Majesty at every opportunity, with the affectation unavoidable in frequently addressing one to whom the title was still a novelty.†
Chpt 9 (definition 1)

On seeing these peasants, who were evidently still amused by the novelty of their position as soldiers, Pierre once more thought of the wounded men at Mozhaysk and understood what the soldier had meant when he said: "They want the whole nation to fall on them."†
Chpt 10 (definition 1)

…of the first of September, after his interview with Kutuzov, Count Rostopchin had returned to Moscow mortified and offended because he had not been invited to attend the council of war, and because Kutuzov had paid no attention to his offer to take part in the defense of the city; amazed also at the novel outlook revealed to him at the camp, which treated the tranquillity of the capital and its patriotic fervor as not merely secondary but quite irrelevant and unimportant matters.
Chpt 11 (definition 1)

novel = new and original

Pierre was greatly surprised by his wife's view, to him a perfectly novel one, that every moment of his life belonged to her and to the family.
Chpt 15 (definition 1) *

At the basis of the works of all the modern historians from Gibbon to Buckle, despite their seeming disagreements and the apparent novelty of their outlooks, lie those two old, unavoidable assumptions.†
Chpt 15 (definition 1)

Uses with a very common or rare meaning:

His servant handed him a half-cut novel, in the form of letters, by Madame de Souza.†
Chpt 5 (definition 2)

Natasha felt so lighthearted and happy in these novel surroundings that she only feared the trap would come for her too soon.†
Chpt 7 (definition 2)

Chernyshev was sitting at a window in the first room with a French novel in his hand.†
Chpt 9 (definition 2) *

…simple idea never occurred to any of them that they could not know the disease Natasha was suffering from, as no disease suffered by a live man can be known, for every living person has his own peculiarities and always has his own peculiar, personal, novel, complicated disease, unknown to medicine—not a disease of the lungs, liver, skin, heart, nerves, and so on mentioned in medical books, but a disease consisting of one of the innumerable combinations of the maladies of those organs.†
Chpt 9 (definition 2)

A novel feeling of anger against the foe made him forget his own sorrow.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)

Again he embraced and kissed Prince Andrew, but before the latter had left the room Kutuzov gave a sigh of relief and went on with his unfinished novel, Les Chevaliers du Cygne by Madame de Genlis.†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)

And above all," thought Prince Andrew, "one believes in him because he's Russian, despite the novel by Genlis and the French proverbs, and because his voice shook when he said: 'What they have brought us to!' and had a sob in it when he said he would 'make them eat horseflesh!'†
Chpt 10 (definition 2)

Definitions:

(1) (novel as in: a novel situation)
new and original -- typically something considered good

(2) (meaning too common or rare to warrant focus)
More commonly, novel is used as a noun to refer to work of fiction that is published as a book. In the form novelty, the word can refer to an inexpensive, mass-produced item of interest such as a toy, trinket, or item given away to advertise.