Life's Great Mysteries - Who wrote the first novel?

I write novels. I also read novels, as many other people do. But I rarely hear anyone talk about where the concept of a novel came from in the first place. I mean, how did this particular form of expression or storytelling originate?

Think about it. A novel is a rather strange thing—tens of thousands of words painstakingly written to tell a long, convoluted, fictional story about events in a person's life. Adventure, romance, terror, and countless other sequences of events. Many novel lovers would argue that novels allow readers to feel emotions beyond any other form of writing. But what crazy writer came up with the idea of putting themselves through such a daunting task?

First, there are many definitions of a novel. But they all include:
- Considerable length (often 40,000 words or more)
- Written in prose (as opposed to poetry)
- A narrative (a structured account of connected events)
- It must be fiction

Let’s dig into this. As it turns out, it’s not so easy to identify the very first novel because there were many pieces of literature that approached the level of a novel. But most historians agree that the first novel was “The Tale of Genji,” written around the year 1010 AD (1,016 years ago) by a Japanese noblewoman named Murasaki Shikibu. Yes, the first novel was written by a woman. Cool.

Why is “The Tale of Genji” considered the first novel? Because it was more than just a very long piece of prose fiction. This book extensively explored the characters’ states of mind, which allowed readers to understand their inner personalities and motivations. In 1925, Virginia Woolf (the influential English author of the late 1800s and early 1900s) stated that “The Tale of Genji” captured “the intricacies of behaviour, in what men said and women did not quite say.” Scholars agree that Murasaki Shikibu’s “novel” went far beyond the other shorter and less intricate works of fiction before it.

How long was “The Tale of Genji”? Well, it had only fifty-four chapters, but the most common versions translated into English are about 1,200 pages, containing roughly 330,000 words. That’s a long novel even by today’s standards. To compare, my longest novel, “Profusion”, is 115,000 words and most of my others range from 50,000 to 90,000 words.

I guess I should point out that there were long fiction books before “The Tale of Genji.” For example, “One Thousand and One Nights” (sometimes called “The Arabian Nights”) dates back to about 570 AD (1,456 years ago). But it isn’t considered a novel because it’s a loose collection of stories.

So, “The Tale of Genji” meets all the requirements for a novel. Earlier works, despite being long-form prose, do not.

While we’re at it, let’s consider the first science fiction novel. Simply because sci-fi is so awesome.

There is a book titled “A True Story” (or “True History”) written in the second century AD by a Syrian author named Lucian of Samosata. It is the earliest known fictional book that includes travel to outer space, alien lifeforms, and interplanetary war. It’s pretty wild. Lucian and his fellow travelers are blown off course, and their ship is sucked up in a giant whirlwind and carried to the Moon, where they become caught up in a war between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun.

Wait! “A True Story” was written long before “The Tale of Genji”, so why isn’t it considered the first novel? Because many scholars don’t think “A True Story” is a novel because it’s a satire or parody and doesn’t have the sustained character development of a novel.

Then what is the first science fiction novel? That honor typically goes to Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein”, published in 1818. Why? Because “Frankenstein” bases its plot on scientific principles—reanimation through electricity/chemistry—rather than magic or fantasy, and it includes extensive character development.

So, there you go—the first novel and the first sci-fi novel (though it's possible some historians might suggest alternatives).

By the way. If you want to read Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji”, it’s available on Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66057
And “A True Story” by Lucian of Samosata is here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45858

The original 11th century version of "The Tale of Genji" did not survive. Below is a portion of the oldest known "copy" of the hand-drawn, illustrated scroll, created in the 12th century.

Photo Credits:
- Portion of 12th century scroll of The Tale of Genji - Imperial Palace Kyoto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons