- This is a List of Works dating from the Ancient World up to 1900 CE. The List includes Works that are considered to be prototypes of the Novel as well as Novels.
- A Novel is defined as a fictitious prose narrative, depicting characters and action in a realistic manner. The first history of the novel was written by Ian Watt in 1957 and is called ‘The Rise of the Novel’.
The Current Definition of Novels and Short Stories
- Novel:
- A work of 40,000 words or more.
- Novella:
- 15-40,000 words.
- Novelette:
- 7,500-15,000 words.
- Short Story:
- Less than 7,500 words.
Literary devices
- The Ancient Greeks used many literary devices to embellish storytelling, such as Allegory and Allusion, and Zeugma and Sillepsis.
Proto Novels from the Ancient World (1300 BCE-500 CE)
- Ancient Sumer
- (1300 BCE) Epic of Gilgamesh is an Epic Poem.
- Ancient Middle East
- The Torah, the Quran and The Bible all contain short stories.
- Ancient Greece
- Ancient Rome
- The Five Greek Romance novels, written in Greece but during the Roman Empire.
- (1st century CE) Callirhoe by Chariton
- (2nd century CE) Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius
- (2nd century CE) Daphnis and Chloe by Longus. Narrated in the first person.
- (2nd century CE) Ephesian Tale by Xenophon of Ephesus. The source of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
- (3rd century CE) Aethiopica by Heliodorus of Emesa
- (50’s CE) Satyricon by Petronius. A satirical novel in prose and verse.
- (125-180 CE) True Story by Lucian. A satirical novel which was also an early work of science fiction.
- (150’s CE) Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass by Apuleius. The only Roman novel to have survived intact.
- (338 CE) The Alexander Romance, a fictional romance novel based on the life of Alexander the Great
- The Five Greek Romance novels, written in Greece but during the Roman Empire.
- Ancient India
- (4th century BCE – 200 CE) Ramayana Sanskrit Epic Poem
- (4th century BCE) Mahabharatta Sanskrit Epic Poem
Proto Novels from around the World (500-1500 CE)
- India
- (6-7th cent CE) Vasavadatta in Sanskrit by Subandhu
- (6-7th cent CE) Dasakumaracarita and Avantisundarikatha by Dandin
- (7th cent CE) Kadambari by Banabhatta
- Anglo Saxon Saga
- (750-1000 CE) Beowulf Epic Poem
- Norse Sagas (13th century)
- (1220 CE Snorri’s Edda
- (1240 CE) Egil’s Saga
- Japan
- (1010 CE) The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. 1882 First English translation.
- Considered to be the World’s first novel.
- (1010 CE) The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. 1882 First English translation.
- China
- The 6 Classic Novels
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (14th cent CE) by Luo Ben
- Water Margin (14th cent CE)
- Journey to the West (16th cent CE)
- Dream of the Red Chamber (18th cent CE)
- Rulin Waishi (1750 CE)
- Jin Ping Mei (1596 CE)
- The 6 Classic Novels
- Persia
- (1048-1131 CE) The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. It is a Poem that depicts a man who escapes from his fears and regrets by experiencing material pleasures.
- Arabia
- (12th cent CE) Hayy ibn Yaqdhan or Philosophus Autodidactus in Arabic by Ibn Tufail in Andalusia. It is about an outcast living on an island.
- (14th cent CE) The One Thousand and One Nights. The first English Translation was in 1706 ‘The Arabian Nights’.
Arrival of the Printing Press: (868-1439 CE)
- The Printing Press is considered to have had a major influence on the Reformation (1517-1648 CE).
- But the spread of novels didn’t occur until the 18th century CE
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- (868 CE) The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist Text, is the world’s first printed book from China using either wood or metal blocks.
- (11th century CE) moveable type invented in China with individual characters by Bi Pi Sheng.
- (1439 CE) the Printing Press is invented in Germany by Johannes Gutenburg..
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Proto Novels from Europe: (1100-1700 CE)
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- The Novella (15,000-40,000 words)
- (1175) Tristan and Iseult by the Poets Thomas of Britain and Berout. It predates Lancelot and Guinevere and forms part of the Medieval concept of Courtly Love.
- (1177-1181) Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by the French poet Chretien de Troyes (1160-1191) Written as a Poem it relates the story of Courtly Love between Lancelot and Guinevere with a beginning, a middle and an end, and is considered to be the first European novel.
- (1190) Perceval, the story of the Grail by Chretien de Troyes (1160-1191) The first mention of the legend of the pursuit of the Holy Grail.
- (1200) Nibelungenlied and the Nibelungenklage. The Song of the Nibelungs is a German Epic Poem in two parts by an anonymous author.
- (1230) Le Roman de la Rose Part I by Guillaume de Loris, 1275 Part II by Jean de Meun. Courtly Love.
- (1240) Prose Tristran by Luce de Gat, written in prose instead of poetry.
- (1270’s) Welsh Triads. A collection of historical stories blending history with legend which mention King Arthur.
- (1283) Blanquerna in Catalan by Ramon Llull.
- (1321) The Divine Comedy a narrative Poem by Dante Alighieri
- (1353) The Decameron in 100 Novellas or Tales by Boccaccio
- (1387-1400) The Canterbury Tales, a Prologue and 25 Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- (1456) Little John of Saintre by Antoine de la Salle. Romance
- (1462) Les Cent Nouvelles collected by Antoine de la Salle. 1899 First English translation.
- (1485) Le Morte d’Arthur, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Sir Thomas Malory
- (1589-1613) William Shakespeare‘s Plays performed. 1589 Henry V Part I by William Shakespeare.
- (1605) Part I Don Quixote, 1615 Part II by Miguel de Cervantes. First European novel.
- (1607) L’Astree by Honore D’Urfe. A Pastoral and First French novel
- First Novel with a Key: (‘Roman a clef’ a Historical novel with the names changed)
- (1648-53) Artamene ou le Grand Cyrus (in 10 volumes) one of the longest novels ever published. (1654-61) Ibrahim, 1661-63 Almahide by Madeleine de Scudery
- (1665) English Rogue by Richard Head
- (1667) Paradise Lost, a Poem by John Milton
- First Castaway Novel
- (1668) Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen
- (1670) Zayde by Marie de la Fayette
- (1678) The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
- First French Historical Novel and psychological novel:
- (1678) La Princess de Cleves by Marie de la Fayette,
- (1688) Fair Jilt, 1688 Agnes de Castro, 1682-7 Love letters between a Nobleman and his Sister by Aphra Behn
- (1699) Les Aventures de Telemaque by Fenelon
- The Novella (15,000-40,000 words)
First True Novels (1700-1800 CE)
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- Novels of 40,000 words or more.
- First Robinsonade Novel (Desert Island, Castaway Novel)
- (1719) Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
- (1722) Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. (But the characters were not yet developed as in later novels).
- (1726) Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
- (1733) Memoirs of the Twentieth Century by Samuel Madden. Epistolary novel.
- First True English Novel: (40,000 words or more) England
- (1740) Pamela, An Epistolary novel considered the first true English novel by Samuel Richardson
- First Erotic Novel:
- (1748) Fanny Hill, by John Cleland
- (1749) Tom Jones, 1742 Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
- (1749) The Governess, or the Little Female Academy by Sarah Fielding, sister of Henry Fielding
- (1751) The adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett
- (1758) Candide. A satirical novella by Voltaire. His Magnus Opus.
- (1759) Tristram Shandy, 1768 Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
- (1764) The castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
- (1766) The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
- (1771) Man of Feeling by Henry Mackenzie
- (1773) Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot
- Sturm und Drang: (‘Storm and Stress’: German Proto-Romantic Movement 1760’s-1780’s)
- (1774) The Sorrows of Young Werther, and 1806 Faust: A Tragedy (Play) by Johann Goethe
- (1777) The old English Baron by Clara Reeve
- (1778) Evelina, 1796 Camilla by Fanny Burney
- (1782) Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Chodelos de Laclos
- (1785) 120 days of Sodom, 1791 Justine by the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) Erotic works with a violent theme. He spent 32 years in prisons or asylums.
- First Gothic Fiction novel, Gothic Horror.
- (1789) The Castles of Athlin and Dunblayne, 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
- First Bildungsroman novel (Novel of education)
- (1795) Wilhelm Meister’s Apprentice by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
- (1796) The Monk by ‘Monk’ Lewis, Gothic Horror Novel.
- Rise of New Romantic Poetry (1798-1827):
- William Wordsworth: Ballads & Poems (1798-1807)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 1798 Lyrical Ballads, 1816 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1816 Khubla Khan
- George Byron: 1819 Don Juan
- Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poetry 1810-1822: 1818 Ozymandias. Married to Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)
- John Keats: 1819 Odes, inc. Ode to a nightingale
- William Blake: Works 1783-1827
Sentimentalism and Romanticism (1800-1900 CE) in England, France, Germany and Russia
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- Rise of the Literary Realism novel
- 1811-15 Jane Austen novels (1775-1817)
- Sense and Sensibility 1811, Pride and Prejudice 1813, Mansfield Park 1814, Emma 1815. Posthumous works, Northanger Abbey 1818, Persuasion 1818, Lady Susan 1871.
- Romantic Novelist. Using ‘using irony, realism and satire’. With Goethe, first to use ‘free, indirect speech.’ Novels of Manners: Intellect and emotions. Critical of the 18th century novels of Sentimentalism.
- 1806 Faust Part I, 1832 Faust Part II Epic Poems by Goethe (1749-1832) Greatest modern German literary figure.
- 1812 Swiss Family Robinson (a Robinsonade novel) by Johann David Wyss
- First Historical novel
- 1814-32 The Waverley novels 1814-32, Rob Roy 1817, Ivanhoe 1820 by Sir Walter Scott, inventor of the historical novel.
- 1815 Die Elixiere des Teufels, The Devil’s Elixirs by E.T.A. Hoffman. An adaptation of The Monk.
- First Science Fiction novel:
- 1818 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- 1826 Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper
- 1826 The boy stood on the burning deck 1826 Poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans
- First Feminist novel:
- 1827 Flowers in the Mirror 1827 by Ju Chen Li. A Chinese novel advocating equal Rights for Men and Women.
- 1827 The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
- Start of the Romantic Realism novel:
- 1828 The Moor of Peter the Great, 1833 Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse, 1836 The Captain’s Daughter by Alexander Pushkin (1788-1837), Founder of Russian literature, Romantic Realism
- Start of Literary Realism
- 1830 The Red and the Black by Stendhal (1783-1842) Forerunner of Literary Realism, in depth analysis of characters.
- 1831 The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1831, 1862 Les Miserables 1862 by Victor Hugo. Romantic.
- 1832 Indiana, 1846 La Mare au Diable, 1848 Francois le Champi, 1849 La Petite Fadette by George Sand (Amantine Lucile, Aurore, Dupin)
- 1833 Eugenie Grandet, 1848 La Cousine Bette by Honore de Balzac.
- 1835 Taras Bulba by Nokolei Gogol.
- 1836 The Captain’s Daughter by Alexander Pushkin.
- Rise of the Social novel:
- 1838 Oliver Twist, 1853 Bleak House, 1861 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Rise of the ‘Social novel’ dealing with social problems of the Industrial Revolution.
- 1838 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allen Poe
- First War Novel:
- 1839 Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal. Describing the Battle of Waterloo.
- 1840 Hero of our Time by Mikhail Lermontov.
- 1841 Mathilde: Memoirs of a young woman, 1843 The mysteries of Paris, 1844 The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue.
- Rise of the Adventure novel:
- 1844 The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.
- 1844 Sybil, 1845 Coningsby, 1870 Lothair by Benjamin Disraeli.
- 1847 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- 1847 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- 1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
- 1848 Vanity Fair, 1844 The luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
- Rise of Literary Realism:
- 1851 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880).
- Rise of the Nature of Good and Evil novel:
- 1851 Moby Dick, 1924 Billy Budd by Hermann Melville.
- 1851 The House of seven gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- 1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- First Fantasy novel: (in the style of the Arabian Nights)
- 1856 The shaving of the Shagpat, 1879 The Egoist, by George Meredith.
- 1857 Barchester Towers, 1864-79 The six Palliser novels, 1875 The way we live now by Anthony Trollope
- 1857 Tom Brown’s S:chool Days by Thomas Hughes
- First Sensation novel:
- 1859 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
- 1860 The Mill on the Floss, 1861 Silas Marner, 1872 Middlemarch, by George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)
- 1862 Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
- First Science Fiction novel:
- 1864 Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 1870 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, 1872 Around the World in 80 days by Jules Gabriel Verne.
- 1864 Alice in Wonderland, 1871 Through the looking glass by Lewis Carroll
- 1865 Hans Brinker by Mary Mapes Dodge
- First Psychological novel:
- 1866 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), describing the Napoleonic Wars, also in 1864 Notes from the Underground, 1868 The Idiot, 1879 The Brothers Karamazov.
- Rise of Novels about Naturalism:
- 1867 Therese Raquin, 1867 Les Mysteres de Marseille, 1880 L’Inondation, 1880 Le Roman Experimental, 1871-93 Les Rougon Macquart: a 20 novel series, by Emile Zola.
- First Detective novel:
- 1868 The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
- 1868 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- 1869 Lorna Doone by Richard Doddridge Blackmore
- 1869 War And Peace, 1877 Anna Karenina 1877, 1899 Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
- 1872 Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
- 1872 The Princess and the Goblin, by George Gissing. Naturalism.
- 1874 Far from the Madding Crowd, 1886 The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1891 Tess, 1895 Jude 1895 by Thomas Hardy. Social and Pastoral novels.
- 1876 Tom Sawyer, 1885 The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- 1877 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
- 1879 Daisy Miller, 1881 Portrait of a Young Lady 1881 by Henry James
- 1880 Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
- 1882 Vice Versa by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, the Black Poodle 1884, the Tinted Venus 1885.
- 1883 The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
- First ‘Lost World’ Novel
- 1885 King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
- 1883 Treasure Island, 1886 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886 Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
- First Sherlock Holmes Detective Novel:
- 1887 A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. First Sherlock Holmes and Watson novel
- 1888 Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. A Utopian novel.
- 1888 The Man who would be King, 1894 Jungle Book, 1897 Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
- 1889 Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
- 1889 The Nether World, 1991 New Grub Street, 1993 The Odd Women by George Gissing. Naturalism, rejected Romanticism.
- 1890 A portrait of Dorian Grey 1890 by Oscar Wilde
- (1894 Arms and the Man, A Play by George Bernard Shaw)
- 1895 The Time Machine by H.G.Wells, Science Fiction novels, 1996 The Island of Doctor Moreau, 1897 The Invisible Man, 1898 The War of the Worlds.
- 1895 Almayers Folly, 1899 Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
- 1895 The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. War Novel
- 1896 Quo Vadis? by Henryk Seinkiewicz (Poland)
- 1897 Dracula by Bram Stoker
- 1899 To Have and to Hold by Mary Johnston
- Rise of the Literary Realism novel
Modern Literature
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- (1900-1945 CE)
Post Modern or Contemporary Literature
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- (1945 onwards)
Fairy Tales and Fables (All periods)
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- 620-564 BCE Aesop's Fables
- 1621 The History of Tom Thumb
- 1668-1695 CE La Fontaine’s Fables (Books 1-6 are Aesop’s Fables. Books 7-12 are from other sources)
- 1697 Contes de ma mere l’oye (Tales of Mother Goose which includes Puss in Boots) by Charles Perrault
- 1697 Les Contes de Fees by Madame D’Aulnoy
- 1734 The History of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean (Jack and the Beanstalk)
- 1812 Grimms’ Fairy Tales (86 stories) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Germany)
- 1835-7 Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection (9 stories) by Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark)
- 1858 Phantasies: A Fairie Romance for Men and Women, 1872 The Princess and the Goblin by George Mcdonald (Scotland)
- 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1876 The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll
- 1890 English Fairy Tales, 1891 Celtic Fairy Tales, 1892 Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
- 1890 Myths and Folklore of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin (America)
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