The History of Novel

The modern concept of the novel (a sustained work of prose fiction in one or more volumes) derives from the ancient Italian, novella, which means 'a work of the imagination grounded in reality'. Among the forerunners to the modern novel were the Satyricon by the Roman writer Petronius (first century A.D.) and The Tale of Genji by Japanese noblewoman Lady Murasaki (eleventh century). However, most scholars consider Don Quixote (1605 and 1615) by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) to be the first true novel. The story represents the first extended prose narrative in which characters and events are depicted in a realistic manner. It influenced such works as Madame Bovary (1857) by French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), The Idiot (1868) by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by Mark Twain.