What is the world's oldest novel?

Answer 1

Bible?

Answer 2

A novel (from French "nouvelle" or Italian "novella", = "new") is an extended, generally fictional narrative in prose. The tradition of epic works goes back as far as Virgil and Homer and they were written in verse. Today, we see this tradition as going back even further, to the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, and in Indian epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It is difficult to give a full catalog of the genres that finally culminated — with the The Tale of Genji in the 11th century, followed by the works of Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, Niccolò Machiavelli and Miguel de Cervantes — in the original "novel", the production today generally categorized under the term "novella".

Answer 3

The Vedas The Vedas (Sanskrit: वेद) are the main scriptural texts of Hinduism, also known as the Sanatana Dharma, and are a large corpus of texts originating in Ancient India. The Vedas, regarded as śruti ("that which is heard"), form part of an oral tradition in the form of an ancient teacher-disciple tradition. As per Hindu tradition the Vedas were 'revealed' to the Rishis referred to in the texts, not composed or written by them.[1] Even though many historians have tried to affix dates to the Vedas there is as yet no common consensus as there is for the scriptures of other religions. The Vedas are arguably the oldest surviving scriptures in the world. The Vedanta and Mimamsa schools of Hindu philosophy assert that the Vedas are apaurusheya ("unauthored"), that is, they have neither human nor divine origin, and are eternal in nature.[2] As per Hindu tradition, the sage Vedavyasa divided the Vedas into Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda and Atharva-Veda at the beginning of the Kali Yuga

Answer 4

The Tale of Genji as far as I know. The Bible is not a novel but a collection of tales and I am sure that there are plenty of people out there who would be annoyed to hear it described as fiction. Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales are not not novels but lyric poetry (as were the Iliad etc). A novel must be fictional and prose.

Answer 5

Its not actually a "novel" but, the oldest story known to us is the tale of Gilgamesh....scholars speculate on it actually being the "oldest", but it is certainly listed among the oldest known. The Bible came considerably later.

Answer 6

It depends really on what you mean by "novel".

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest we have, which includes a version of the Flood myth.

Answer 7

What other people have listed are not novels. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605) is most commonly considered to be the first piece of literature to fit the modern definition of a novel.

Answer 8

Good question. The form of the novel, as we now know it, was establised by such authors as Sir Walter Scott in the early 1800's

Answer 9

Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji), the world's oldest novel, is written by Murasaki Shikibu

http://www.taleofgenji.org/

OR IT COULD BE

Daphnis and Chloe by Longus

Answer 10

Gilgamesh - Sumerian, some says wrote near to 4.500 years ago. Probably based on more ancient novel from Akkadian culture. More ancient than Torah (Pentateuch) and Talmud.

I believe that we can find even more ancient literacture in Chine. Art of war from sun Tsu goes to 600BC. (Early Greek Philosofers that had influence from persian and egiptian and other cultures) but our history have focus on Europe and ocidental empire.
:-(

Answer 11

Hmm...Beowulf is the oldest in the English language.