Thank you for mentioning The Tale of Genji. I was never aware of it. “Published Before 1021”
Malory’s 8 books are
- From the Marriage of King Uther unto King Arthur that reigned after him and did many battles
- The Noble Tale Between King Arthur and Lucius the Emperor of Rome
- The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot of the Lake
- The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney
- The Book of Sir Tristram de Lyones
- The Noble Tale of the Sangreal
- Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenever
- The Death of Arthur
A good one to start with is Sir Gareth of Orkney, Caxton’s Book 7.
Sir Gareth of Orkney - Chapter 1
CHAPTER I.
How Beaumains came to King Arthur’s Court and demanded three petitions of King Arthur.
When Arthur held his Round Table most plenour, it fortuned that he commanded that the high feast of Pentecost should be holden at a city and a castle, the which in those days was called Kynke Kenadonne, upon the sands that marched nigh Wales. So ever the king had a custom that at the feast of Pentecost in especial, afore other feasts in the year, he would not go that day to meat until he had heard or seen of a great marvel. And for that custom all manner of strange adventures came before Arthur as at that feast before all other feasts. And so Sir Gawaine, a little to-fore noon of the day of Pentecost, espied at a window three men upon horseback, and a dwarf on foot, and so the three men alighted, and the dwarf kept their horses, and one of the three men was higher than the other twain by a foot and an half. Then Sir Gawaine went unto the king and said, Sir, go to your meat, for here at the hand come strange adventures. So Arthur went unto his meat with many other kings. And there were all the knights of the Round Table, [save] only those that were prisoners or slain at a recounter. Then at the high feast evermore they should be fulfilled the whole number of an hundred and fifty, for then was the Round Table fully complished.
Right so came into the hall two men well beseen and richly, and upon their shoulders there leaned the goodliest young man and the fairest that ever they all saw, and he was large and long, and broad in the shoulders, and well visaged, and the fairest and the largest handed that ever man saw, but he fared as though he might not go nor bear himself but if he leaned upon their shoulders. Anon as Arthur saw him there was made peace and room, and right so they yede with him unto the high dais, without saying of any words. Then this much young man pulled him aback, and easily stretched up straight, saying, King Arthur, God you bless and all your fair fellowship, and in especial the fellowship of the Table Round. And for this cause I am come hither, to pray you and require you to give me three gifts, and they shall not be unreasonably asked, but that ye may worshipfully and honourably grant them me, and to you no great hurt nor loss. And the first don and gift I will ask now, and the other two gifts I will ask this day twelvemonth, wheresomever ye hold your high feast. Now ask, said Arthur, and ye shall have your asking.
Now, sir, this is my petition for this feast, that ye will give me meat and drink sufficiently for this twelvemonth, and at that day I will ask mine other two gifts.
My fair son, said Arthur, ask better, I counsel thee, for this is but a simple asking; for my heart giveth me to thee greatly, that thou art come of men of worship, and greatly my conceit faileth me but thou shalt prove a man of right great worship. Sir, he said, thereof be as it be may, I have asked that I will ask. Well, said the king, ye shall have meat and drink enough; I never defended that none, neither my friend nor my foe. But what is thy name I would wit? I cannot tell you, said he. That is marvel, said the king, that thou knowest not thy name, and thou art the goodliest young man that ever I saw. Then the king betook him to Sir Kay the steward, and charged him that he should give him of all manner of meats and drinks of the best, and also that he had all manner of finding as though he were a lord’s son. That shall little need, said Sir Kay, to do such cost upon him; for I dare undertake he is a villain born, and never will make man, for an he had come of gentlemen he would have asked of you horse and armour, but such as he is, so he asketh. And sithen he hath no name, I shall give him a name that shall be Beaumains, that is Fair-hands, and into the kitchen I shall bring him, and there he shall have fat brose every day, that he shall be as fat by the twelvemonths’ end as a pork hog. Right so the two men departed and beleft him to Sir Kay, that scorned him and mocked him.
@GreenWyvern thank you for the King Arthur information. I’ve only read the Howard Pyle book many years ago.
The Princess and Curdie is definitely a sequel to The Princess and the Goblin. It’s been awhile since I read it, but I think At the Back of the North Wind is a completely separate, standalone work.
It’s a Japanese bodice ripper. 2000 pages of kimonos coming off, political intrigue, poetry slap downs, seduction, multiple wives, drinking parties, and court religious ceremonies as a subtext for intrique. BTW there’s some stuff in there that would be culturally unacceptable in the modern US.
Start with the Waley translation it’s more accessible to westerners. ~1200 pages or more. Go in for the long haul–the style changes and improves after about chpter 3 or 4.
Yes, thanks for the info. But this sounds kind of like trying to have it both ways. It might count as a series, or it might count as a novel, but surely it can’t be both at the sime time?
H. Rider Haggard started the Allan Quatermain books in 1885 and the Ayesha books in 1886 and eventually combined them. They form a true series. I’d say his Africa was a fantasy world, but it wasn’t otherworldly.
Even earlier, starting in 1876, the pseudonymous Harry Enton wrote four books starting with Frank Reade and His Steam Man of the Plains, proto-science fiction about a boy inventor and what we would now call a robot, although it was essentially a locomotive. The similar Frank Reade Jr. stories ran into the hundreds by the end of the century. And they were all copies of an 1868 dime novel. They were set in our real world, however.
Aesop’s Fables might be candidate but could equally fall outside the OP on several criteria.
Other than not a book series, not a single author, and not recurring characters (recurring species, maybe), how does it fail?
It’s not a sequel to those books but it’s the first book in a series of three, followed by The Seaboard Parish and The Vicar’s Daughter.
Luke and Acts are two books written by the same author; several characters appear in both books. The letters of Paul were mostly written by Paul, though I’m not sure how many characters (other than Paul himself) appear in multiple letters.
You then get into the contested question of to what extent the various NT works are mythology, which is probably best avoided in this thread. Maybe exclude works which are mythological or which are or present themselves as historical?
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey? Hmm, only one sequel AFAIK, and although associated with a single authorial figure his historicity is highly doubtful.
TIL that Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, was actually followed in the next couple of years by two subsequent narratives by the same author about the same character: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
That pre-dates the Leatherstocking Tales by almost 125 years, and I’m proposing it as an official candidate for the title.
I’ll see your 1876 proto-science fiction and raise you Horatio Alger, Jr.'s 1868-1869 sequence of the three Ragged Dick juvenile novels about a New York bootblack. (Not at all a fantasy world setting, though: in fact, Alger was something of an innovator when it came to realism in juvenile literature.)
In fact, I bet the dime-novel (UK “penny dreadful”) industry starting in about 1860 could show some book series that meet the OP’s criteria from an even earlier date. But they were the literary junk food of the day and few of them would be recognized by modern readers.
We might look at periodicals as well as books.
Many of Dickens’ works, and those of many other authors, were published first as weekly or monthly serials in magazines, and then combined into a book and published later.
In short form fiction, the Sir Roger de Coverley sketches in The Spectator might qualify. They are often said to be a precursor to the modern novel.
The Spectator consisted of 555 daily issues of about 2,500 words each, written and published by Addison and Steele in 1711-1712.
A popular feature was a number of ‘short stories’, or ‘sketches’, or whatever you want to call them, about a fictional character, Sir Roger de Coverley. These often contain recurring characters, and later episodes follow sequentially on earlier ones, building on previous incidents.
De Coverley is a humorous character, a pompous and well-meaning country squire.
A pleasant example:
My friend Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing; he has likewise given a handsome pulpit cloth, and railed in the communion table at his own expense.
…As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it besides himself; for, if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and looks about him, and, if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servant to them. Several other of the old knight’s particularities break out upon these occasions: sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing Psalms half a minute after the rest of the congregation have done with it; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of his devotion, he pronounces “Amen” three or four times to the same prayer; and sometimes stands up when everybody else is upon their knees, to count the congregation, or see if any of his tenants are missing.
I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in the midst of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to mind what he was about, and not disturb the congregation.
I don’t know if it’s the earliest candidate, but Goethe’s Faust consists of two parts, usually called “Faust 1” and “Faust 2”, with the recurring main characters Dr. Faust and Mephistopheles. There even is a much earlier version he wrote in his youth that only got published much later, the “Urfaust” (sorry, only German link).
Too late to edit: I only posted the wiki link to Faust 1, but intended to link to the whole work:
Quite likely. Publishers quickly realized that series about a favorite character sold books.
Frank Reade is usually credited with being the first that can be called sf or fantasy, though. And none can be contenders for a first first since they all followed Cooper. Their discussion depends on how much people want to open up the criteria. Which seems to be pretty far, admittedly.