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Genre

The Novel

The Novel and Its Forms

An extended work of prose fiction developing character and plot at a length and level of interior detail the shorter narrative forms do not attempt. Candidates for the earliest novel are debated across traditions rather than settled on one text: Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, composed in early eleventh-century Japan, is widely cited as an early and fully realized example of the form, well before the eighteenth-century European novel of Defoe and Richardson that older, Eurocentric literary histories once treated as the form's point of origin. The novel's subsequent range, from Austen's novel of manners to Dostoevsky's philosophical and psychological fiction to Garcia Marquez's magical realism, is part of why the form resists a single definition beyond its length and its prose.

Facts
Notable Example
Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (c. 1010); Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605); Fyodor Dostoevsky's philosophical fiction; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). 1
Defining Trait
An extended work of prose fiction developing character and plot at a length and level of interior psychological detail the shorter narrative forms do not attempt. 1
Disputed
Place of Origin
Disputed across traditions and centuries. 1
Candidates proposed as the earliest novel come from multiple traditions, including Murasaki Shikibu's eleventh-century Japanese Tale of Genji and the eighteenth-century English novel of Defoe and Richardson; see The First Novel Question, already recorded on this atlas.
Connections

Associated With

Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature

Held Differently

Miguel de Cervantes, Authors

Why this is disputed. Cervantes and Don Quixote (1605) are one of several candidates scholars have proposed for the "first novel," alongside Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, Petronius' Satyricon and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; see The First Novel Question.

Source Novel (Wikipedia)

Encompasses Form

Airport Novel, Genres
Backfischroman, Genres
Campus Novel, Genres
Chick Lit, Genres
Collage Novel, Genres
Comic Novel, Genres
Dime Novel, Genres
Family Saga, Genres
Iyashikei, Genres
Jacobin Novel, Genres
Mashup Novel, Genres
Newgate Novel, Genres
Parallel Novel, Genres
Roman a Clef, Genres
Roman a These, Genres
Sinsoseol, Genres
Sports Novel, Genres
Source Stream of Consciousness (Wikipedia)
Systems Novel, Genres
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Novella, Forms
The Verse Novel, Forms
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Varsity Novel, Genres
War Novel, Genres

Features Author

Albert Camus, Authors
Source Albert Camus (Britannica)
Albert Wendt, Authors
Anna Karenina, Works
Source Anna Karenina (Wikipedia)
Bessie Head, Authors
Chinua Achebe, Authors
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source Confessions of a Mask (Wikipedia)
Source Crime and Punishment (Wikipedia)
Don Quixote, Works
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Germinal, Works
Source Germinal (novel) (Wikipedia)
Source Go Tell It on the Mountain (Wikipedia)
Herta Muller, Authors
Hopscotch, Works
Source Hopscotch (novel) (Wikipedia)
Source In Search of Lost Time (Wikipedia)
Source Invisible Cities (Wikipedia)
Jane Austen, Authors
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Source Jean-Paul Sartre (Britannica)

The Sorrows of Young Werther already in-genre The Novel; Goethe himself carried no in-genre edge to it.

Source Wikipedia: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source Kafka on the Shore (Wikipedia)
Kenzaburo Oe, Authors
Lolita, Works
Source Lolita (Wikipedia)
Madame Bovary, Works
Source Madame Bovary (Wikipedia)
Source Midnight's Children (Wikipedia)
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Mrs Dalloway, Works
Source Mrs Dalloway (Wikipedia)
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature
Nausea, Works
Source Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea (1938)
Norwegian Wood, Works
Source Norwegian Wood (Wikipedia)
Oliver Twist, Works
Source Oliver Twist (Wikipedia)
On the Road, Works
Source On the Road (Wikipedia)
Ralph Ellison, Authors
Siddhartha, Works
Source Siddhartha (Wikipedia)
Source Simone de Beauvoir (Britannica)
Steppenwolf, Works
Source Steppenwolf (Wikipedia)
Swann's Way, Works
Source In Search of Lost Time (Wikipedia)
Sylvia Plath, Authors

The Bell Jar already in-genre The Novel; Plath herself carried no in-genre edge to it. Her Ariel/Lyric Poetry pairing was checked and not written; her own article does not call her or Ariel lyric poetry in so many words.

Source Sylvia Plath (Wikipedia)
Source The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Wikipedia)
The Bell Jar, Works
Source The Bell Jar (Wikipedia)
Source The Book of Disquiet (Wikipedia)
Source The Grapes of Wrath (Wikipedia)
Source The House of the Spirits (Wikipedia)
Source The Magic Mountain (Wikipedia)
The Mandarins, Works
The Plague, Works
Source Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)
The Stranger, Works
Source Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942)
Source The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Wikipedia)
Source The Time of the Hero (Wikipedia)
Thomas Mofolo, Authors
Toni Morrison, Authors
Source The Norton Anthology of World Literature

Mrs Dalloway already in-genre The Novel; Woolf herself carried no in-genre edge to it.

Source Virginia Woolf (Wikipedia)
Weep Not, Child, Works
Source Weep Not, Child (Wikipedia)

Open Questions

Source Novel (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. The Norton Anthology of World Literature
W. W. Norton & Company
  • Associated With: The Picaresque Novel, Introduction, the Novel
  • Associated With: Historical Fiction, Introduction, the Novel
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
  • s.v. Novel
  • Encompasses Form: The Epistolary Form, s.v. Epistolary Novel
  • Features Author: Chinua Achebe
View the Source
Simone de Beauvoir (Britannica)
Features Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea (1938)
Features Author: Nausea
Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942)
Features Author: The Stranger
Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)
Features Author: The Plague
Jean-Paul Sartre (Britannica)
BritannicaFeatures Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Albert Camus (Britannica)
BritannicaFeatures Author: Albert Camus
Novel (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Associated With: Miguel de Cervantes, Origins and history section
  • Open Questions: The First Novel Question, Origins and history section
View the Source
The Bell Jar (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: The Bell Jar, Lead, roman a clef
Quote, Features Author: The Bell Jar, Lead, roman a clef
The protagonist's descent into mental illness parallels Plath's own experiences with what may have been clinical depression.
View the Source
Stream of Consciousness (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Encompasses Form: Stream of ConsciousnessView the Source
Mrs Dalloway (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Mrs DallowayView the Source
Virginia Woolf (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Features Author: Virginia Woolf, Work section, novelist standing
    Woolf is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century novelists.
  • Features Author: Virginia Woolf, Work section, one of the most important 20th-century novelists
    Woolf is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century novelists.
View the Source
Sylvia Plath (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Features Author: Sylvia Plath, Lead section, Bell Jar novel
    She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and her works include The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), Ariel (1965), and The Bell Jar (1963), a semi-autobiographical novel published one month before her suicide.
  • Features Author: Sylvia Plath, Works section, only novel
    Her only novel, The Bell Jar, was published in January 1963 under the pen name Victoria Lucas
View the Source
Wikipedia: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)Features Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Details of selected works section, epistolary novel description
Quote, Features Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Details of selected works section, epistolary novel description
The short epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, or The Sorrows of Young Werther
View the Source
Germinal (novel) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Germinal, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Germinal, Lead section, novel genre
The thirteenth novel in Emile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart, published in 1885.
View the Source
Crime and Punishment (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Crime and Punishment, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Crime and Punishment, Lead section, novel genre
A novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, serialized in twelve monthly installments in The Russian Messenger during 1866 and published as a separate edition in 1867.
View the Source
On the Road (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: On the Road, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: On the Road, Lead section, novel genre
On the Road is a 1957 novel by American author Jack Kerouac, inspired by his travels across the United States.
View the Source
Hopscotch (novel) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Hopscotch, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Hopscotch, Lead section, novel genre
Hopscotch (Spanish: Rayuela) is a novel by Argentine writer Julio Cortazar.
View the Source
The Time of the Hero (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Time of the Hero, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: The Time of the Hero, Lead section, novel genre
The Time of the Hero (Original title: La ciudad y los perros) is a 1963 novel by Peruvian writer and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
View the Source
Weep Not, Child (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Weep Not, Child, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Weep Not, Child, Lead section, novel genre
Weep Not, Child is the 1964 debut novel by Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o, one of the first major English-language novels published by an East African writer.
View the Source
Midnight's Children (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Midnight's Children, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Midnight's Children, Lead section, novel genre
Midnight's Children is the second novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, published in 1981.
View the Source
Anna Karenina (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Anna Karenina, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Anna Karenina, Lead section, novel genre
is a novel, first published in book form in 1878, by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy
View the Source
Confessions of a Mask (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Confessions of a Mask, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Confessions of a Mask, Lead section, novel genre
is the second novel by Japanese author Yukio Mishima
View the Source
Norwegian Wood (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Norwegian Wood, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Norwegian Wood, Lead section, novel genre
is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami
View the Source
In Search of Lost Time (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: In Search of Lost Time, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: In Search of Lost Time, Lead section, novel genre
is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust
View the Source
Lolita (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Lolita, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Lolita, Lead section, novel genre
Lolita is a 1955 novel written by the Russian and American novelist Vladimir Nabokov
View the Source
Go Tell It on the Mountain (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Go Tell It on the Mountain, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Go Tell It on the Mountain, Lead section, novel genre
Go Tell It on the Mountain is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by James Baldwin
View the Source
The Magic Mountain (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Magic Mountain, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: The Magic Mountain, Lead section, novel genre
is a German novel written by Thomas Mann, published in November 1924
View the Source
Siddhartha (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Siddhartha, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Siddhartha, Lead section, novel genre
is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse
View the Source
The Grapes of Wrath (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Grapes of Wrath, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: The Grapes of Wrath, Lead section, novel genre
is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939
View the Source
Oliver Twist (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Oliver Twist, Lead section, genre (infobox)
Quote, Features Author: Oliver Twist, Lead section, genre (infobox)
Serial novel
View the Source
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Lead section, novel genre
a novel by Mark Twain published on June 9, 1876
View the Source
Madame Bovary (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Madame Bovary, Lead section, novel genre
Quote, Features Author: Madame Bovary, Lead section, novel genre
the debut novel of French writer Gustave Flaubert
View the Source
Steppenwolf (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Steppenwolf, Lead section, genre (infobox)
Quote, Features Author: Steppenwolf, Lead section, genre (infobox)
Autobiographical, novel, existential
View the Source
Invisible Cities (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Invisible Cities, Infobox, Genre field
Quote, Features Author: Invisible Cities, Infobox, Genre field
Postmodern novel
View the Source
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Lead section, genre
Quote, Features Author: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Lead section, genre
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion...is a novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima.
View the Source
The Book of Disquiet (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The Book of Disquiet, Wikipedia categories
Quote, Features Author: The Book of Disquiet, Wikipedia categories
Modernist novels
View the Source
In Search of Lost Time (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Swann's Way, Lead section, mirrored from parent work's own in-genre classification
Quote, Features Author: Swann's Way, Lead section, mirrored from parent work's own in-genre classification
Swann's Way (French: Du cote de chez Swann) is the first of the seven volumes making up Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.
View the Source
Kafka on the Shore (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: Kafka on the Shore, Lead section, genre
Quote, Features Author: Kafka on the Shore, Lead section, genre
a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami
View the Source
The House of the Spirits (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFeatures Author: The House of the Spirits, Infobox, Genre field
Quote, Features Author: The House of the Spirits, Infobox, Genre field
Autobiographical novel, Magical realism
View the Source
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University PressEncompasses Form: The Verse Novel
Open Questions (1 open question)
The First Novel Question

The candidates for "first novel" span more than a millennium and several literary traditions, and the disagreement is not a missing fact but a definitional one: scholars do not agree which combination of extended prose, unified plot, and psychologically developed character is required before a work counts as a novel proper rather than a romance, an episodic tale, or a related but distinct earlier form.

What would resolve this No new manuscript discovery would settle this; every candidate work is already well known and studied. The dispute would only narrow if literary scholarship converged on a single, precise definition of "novel" that current comparative and cross-cultural scholarship deliberately declines to fix.
Comparative literary history and the theory of the novelNovel (Wikipedia)
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