# When did the modern concept of a "novel" come into being? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 10, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769 "2021-04-10T21:34:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/1 "2021-04-10T21:34:23Z")
I’m finally getting into seriously tackling “classic literature”, and some old “novels” I’ve read recently and in the past have made me wonder when the concept of the “novel” became formalized in its current form, that is, a book-length story that has a complete, over-arching narrative, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. My reason for asking relates to some of the 19th-century works I’ve read, but goes as far back as a collection of King Arthur stories that was presented (perhaps incorrectly) as a “novel”. Specifically, certain classic “novels” I’ve read, or am reading, don’t seem to fulfill the modern concept of a novel. Examples: Dickens’ first “novel”, _The Pickwick Papers_; Louisa May Alcott’s _Little Women_; a G.K. Chesterton novel, the title of which I can’t recall at the moment. Instead of telling what I would call a complete, book-length story, they instead seem to be a collection of characters who go places, and things happen. In other words, they seem to be more a series of vignettes (not even short stories) that just happen to feature the same characters. Often, the chapters come across as diary or journal entries but written in the third person. I realize that a lot of this is due to the fact that many of these classic books were originally published in serial form in newspapers or magazines. But then I can look at the way a lot of more modern authors also originally published that way (Asimov’s _Foundation_ trilogy, for example), yet there was definitely an overarching narrative when read in “novel” form. So, when did the idea of a “novel” settle into its modern form? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/2 "2021-04-10T21:37:53Z")
Don Quixote is usually cited as the first modern novel. So 1605. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/3 "2021-04-10T21:55:35Z")
I came here to say exactly the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/4 "2021-04-10T21:56:08Z")
Though Don Quixote was pretty episodic, too, wasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/5 "2021-04-10T22:04:59Z")
[This article](https://bookriot.com/the-worlds-first-novel/) makes the case for a number of possibles. Nothing definitive, though. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/6 "2021-04-10T22:26:42Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Don Quixote is usually cited as the first modern novel. So 1605. Except that the OP didn’t ask when the novel came into being, but when the _concept_ of a novel, in its modern form, came into being. When did people start talking about “novels,” referring to certain books as novels, or making a distinction between novels and other works that did not fall into that category? The OP is right that it can be difficult to pin down exactly which books should and should not count as novels. _Don Quixote_ and _The Pickwick Papers_ are perhaps [picaresque novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picaresque_novel), which are more episodic than the classically structured novel with a beginning, middle, and end to its plot. And the OP alluded to “[fix-up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fix-up#:~:text=A%20fix%2Dup%20)s”: novels (if it’s fair to call them that) that were originally made up of separately-published stories. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/7 "2021-04-10T23:37:14Z")
_Robinson Crusoe_ is often cited as the first English novel. Published in 1719. > **[Robinson Crusoe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > Robinson Crusoe\[a\] (/ˈkruːsoʊ/) is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. > Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is presented as an autobiography of the title character (whose birth name is Robinson Kreutznaer) – a castaway who sp... ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/8 "2021-04-11T00:19:55Z")
I always thought it was _ **Pamela** _: > **[Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela;_or,_Virtue_Rewarded)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of conduct literature about marriage. Pamela tells the story of a fifteen-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose employer, Mr. B, a wealthy landowner, makes unwanted and inappropriate advances towards her after the death of his mother. Pamela ... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/9 "2021-04-11T00:58:34Z")
It’s more than just that early novels were serialized. Even when they were compiled into book form, they were often published in two or three volumes. I’d define the modern concept of a novel to be a continuous work intended to be published and read as a whole as a book. That seems to have coalesced around 1850 in Britain. I’m sure you could find many later examples - we’re talking a trend rather than a revolution - and literary novels were just as varied then as now and many wanted to carry readers along a series of highs. Even so, virtually all sensible authors tried to serialize their works before book publication. Magazines paid very well, probably more than publishers, so that was twice the money or greater. This lasted well into the 20th century. Daily newspapers in the interwar period regularly ran serials, though they were usually mysteries or romance rather than high literature. But even Fitzgerald had five books serialized, though they appeared after book publication when he already proved their popularity. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/10 "2021-04-11T01:06:40Z")
I took a class on the history of the novel when I was in university. We were taught that the first novels were: Pamela \<–first big seller, had fan clubs called “Pamelists” Moll Flanders \<–even older, very salacious Tristram Shandy - not first, but very innovative And one more that was written by someone named something like Henry Adams or something. Or the book was called something like Henry Adams. It was notable for having chapters and actually has brief introductions that explain why the author used chapters, a new idea in fictional books. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/11 "2021-04-11T01:16:27Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > And one more that was written by someone named something like Henry Adams or something. Possibly you’re thinking of [Henry Fielding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding). > [@](#): > > Fielding took to novel writing in 1741, angered by [Samuel Richardson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Richardson)’s success with _[Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela;_or,_Virtue_Rewarded)_ . His first success was an anonymous parody of that: _[Shamela](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Apology_for_the_Life_of_Mrs._Shamela_Andrews)_ .[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding#cite_note-14) This follows the model of Tory satirists of the previous generation, notably Swift and Gay. > > Fielding followed this with _[Joseph Andrews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Andrews)_ (1742), an original work supposedly dealing with Pamela’s brother, Joseph.[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding#cite_note-dorset-1) His purpose, however, was more than parody, for as announced in the preface, he intended a “kind of writing which I do not remember to have seen hitherto attempted in our language.” In what Fielding called a “comic epic poem in prouse,” he blended two classical traditions: that of the epic, which had been poetic, and that of the drama, but emphasizing the comic rather than the tragic. Another distinction of _Joseph Andrews_ and of the novels to come was the use of everyday reality of character and action as opposed to the fables of the past.[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding#cite_note-Henry_Fielding_Facts-2) While begun as a parody, it developed into an accomplished novel in its own right and is seen as Fielding’s debut as a serious novelist. > … > His greatest work was _The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_ (1749), a meticulously constructed comic novel with elements of the picaresque novel and the [Bildungsroman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildungsroman) … Fielding’s varied style tempers the basic seriousness of the novel and his authorial comment before each chapter adds a marked dimension to a conventionally straightforward narrative.[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fielding#cite_note-Henry_Fielding_Facts-2) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/12 "2021-04-11T03:07:32Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’d define the modern concept of a novel to be a continuous work intended to be published and read as a whole as a book Yes, this is pretty much what I was getting at. And I wasn’t really going for “what was the first novel”, because I suppose that, in any period, there are going to be individual works that might fit a modern definition but were not “the rule” at the time of their writing/publication. It’s kind of like the question, “who was the first heavy metal band?” You can point to many songs that were released before “heavy metal” became a defined genre that more or less fit the definition of “early heavy metal”, but the bands that recorded them are not really “heavy metal” bands. Rather, I’m going for something more along the lines of, when did it become generally expected by the reading public that a “novel” meant a single, book-length story, intentionally written as such (even if it _was_ originally published in serial form, which seems to me to be a way to publish as the author goes along, rather than doing it all at once). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/13 "2021-04-11T03:21:40Z")
For what it’s worth, novels were a well-known form of writing by the time Jane Austen wrote _Northanger Abbey_ in 1803, although not as respectable as other forms of writing. > [@](#): > > …and if a rainy morning deprived them of other enjoyments, they were still resolute in meeting in defiance of wet and dirt, and shut themselves up, to read novels together. Yes, novels; for I will not adopt that ungenerous and impolitic custom so common with novel-writers, of degrading by their contemptuous censure the very performances, to the number of which they are themselves adding—joining with their greatest enemies in bestowing the harshest epithets on such works, and scarcely ever permitting them to be read by their own heroine, who, if she accidentally take up a novel, is sure to turn over its insipid pages with disgust. Alas! If the heroine of one novel be not patronized by the heroine of another, from whom can she expect protection and regard? I cannot approve of it. Let us leave it to the reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans. Let us not desert one another; we are an injured body. Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our foes are almost as many as our readers. And while the abilities of the nine-hundredth abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens—there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them. “I am no novel-reader—I seldom look into novels—Do not imagine that _I_ often read novels—It is really very well for a novel.” Such is the common cant. “And what are you reading, Miss—?” “Oh! It is only a novel!” replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. “It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda”; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/14 "2021-04-11T04:02:38Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > But then I can look at the way a lot of more modern authors also originally published that way (Asimov’s _Foundation_ trilogy, for example), yet there was definitely an overarching narrative when read in “novel” form. While I might say that Foundation is less obviously serialized than I, Robot, it’s not by much. Yes, there’s an overarching story which one is framed with at the beginning of the series and thus one sees it as a bit more important than each individual story, while the opposite is definitely true in I, Robot, but it’s quite clearly episodic in nature as opposed to a continuous narrative. That said, if you wanted to write a centuries-spanning tale, you have to do it in episodic form; the other options would be to write it way too simplistically for what would be expected of a novel, or simply never be able to finish telling the whole story. – I don’t think there’s a really good answer to the question, as the form was basically continually evolving from antiquity. A great deal of those evolutionary developments were due to the means by which they were transmitted rather than a change in literary ideas. Early long-form stories had to be poetry, because it had to be memorized, with there no good way of writing down and storing tales of epic length, and this meant there had to be some sort of rhythm that made it easier to remember and robust against memory failings. As the cost of reproduction and storing of stories decreased, there was a gradual shift into the ability to present long-form stories in a single portable article, and the cheaper ways of doing this informed the writing of the time. Once it became far more expensive to secure the rights to publish something that the media the stories were told on, it made sense that finally the stories mainly settled down to the length at which a typical writer could actually maintain a single story thread. Novels are still of many different lengths depending on how much material the author can cobble together to present as part of the same story before being forced to publish it to make money off of it. Now that the weight of the book is totally irrelevant, we might see some authors already set for life try to write extremely long and complicated stories that take them decades to put together, and only release them as e-books. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/15 "2021-04-11T12:34:20Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > That said, if you wanted to write a centuries-spanning tale, you have to do it in episodic form; the other options would be to write it way too simplistically for what would be expected of a novel, or simply never be able to finish telling the whole story. While the Foundation series as a whole spans centuries, that’s over the course of multiple complete novels (I’ll leave aside any debate over precisely how many novels count as part of the series). Any single novel of the series is much more condensed in time (the first, and most episodic, covers the greatest span, but it’s still short enough for some characters to be alive for all the episodes). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/16 "2021-04-11T15:37:31Z")
Golden Age science fiction is an extreme case. From the time that Gernsback codified the genre in _Amazing Stories_ in 1926 until after WWII, only a handful of titles from sf magazines were published in hardcover, and those were almost always fantasy rather than sf. Novels were serialized or even advertised as “complete in this issue” but they were generally much shorter than modern f&sf novels or contemporary mysteries. Essentially, neither the novels nor shorter works had any afterlife whatsoever, not even in short story anthologies, which didn’t exist. Mainstream publishers thought sf was idiocy for illiterates and wanted nothing to do with it. The atomic bomb made sf temporarily the hottest thing, pun intended. At least a dozen small presses were founded to bring back classic stories in hardcovers. Hardcovers were, unlike magazines, sold in bookstores, bought by libraries, and reviewed in newspapers and magazines. Over ten years virtually the entirety of John W. Campbell’s pre-war _Astounding Science Fiction_ had been republished. What had originally been published as story series were now repackaged, often with a frame story to connect them, as “novels” even when they were no such thing. Novels sold better than story collections. The Foundation series was supposed to recount the 1000 year plan of Hari Seldon. It ended after 300 years. Asimov got a $50,000 advance in 1981 to continue the saga, a staggering sum at the time. But there’s no possible way to say the classic Foundation Trilogy had an ending. It simply stops. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/17 "2021-04-11T17:01:28Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Pamela \<–first big seller, had fan clubs called “Pamelists” > Moll Flanders \<–even older, very salacious > Tristram Shandy - not first, but very innovative Don’t forget _The Vicar of Wakefield_ by Oliver Goldsmith, or the novels of Henry Fielding, _Tom Jones_, _Jonathan Wild_, etc. Robinson Crusoe was followed in the early 18th century by Eliza Haywood’s many novels, _Love in Excess_, _The Fair Captive_, and many more. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Love_in_Excess%3B_or%2C_The_Fatal_Enquiry_%28title_page%29.gif/274px-Love_in_Excess%3B_or%2C_The_Fatal_Enquiry_%28title_page%29.gif) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/49/Love_in_Excess%3B_or%2C_The_Fatal_Enquiry_%28title_page%29.gif/274px-Love_in_Excess%3B_or%2C_The_Fatal_Enquiry_%28title_page%29.gif) (Note the date, 1719) Certainly, the idea of the novel was well established by the mid 18th century. Later in the 18th century, there were all the Gothic novels, e.g. those of Ann Radcliffe, inspired by Walpole’s _The Castle of Otranto_, the novels of Fanny Burney, starting with _Evelina_ (that were such an inspiration to Jane Austen), etc., etc. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/18 "2021-04-11T18:52:04Z")
When I took the course The Novel through Austen (followed by The Novel through Conrad, both of which were my favorite courses in college), the professor said that _Pamela_ was really the first novel, in his opinion. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/19 "2021-04-11T19:11:35Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > the professor said that _Pamela_ was really the first novel, in his opinion. I guess it depends whether you’re talking about ‘literary’ novels, or fairly trashy and melodramatic romance novels. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2021, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769/20 "2021-04-12T05:39:03Z")
It all depends on the definition you use. Some consider _Oroonoko_, by Aphra Behn, a candidate for first novel in English, from 1688. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-modern-concept-of-a-novel-come-into-being/939769.md?page=2)