Do you remember the first NOVEL?

[mercy_mankind]

I am sure if this has been done yet, However i couldn't find it in "search the forum" .
Do you remember the first NOVEL?


The first Novel I had read was Robinson Crusoe. This novel made me like English Literature , It was the first one to read in English Literature ,but it was a great surprise to know that Robinson Crusoe is the first novel in the history of English fiction .:thumbs_up
And Defoe is The Father of English Literature .
About the Novel , I like the Idea of being alone on an Island , treating with nature . It is a difficult life , but also it is full of adventure and enjoyment.
:) :)

[johann cruyff]

I think the first novel I read was White Fang.Can't remember much of it though,I should probably reread it.

[LadyW]

I think my first was Bram Stoker's Dracula

[mercy_mankind]

I think my first was Bram Stoker's Dracula

:) Dracula :thumbs_up !!! , you are so romantic LadW :(

[LadyW]

:) Dracula :thumbs_up !!! , you are so romantic LadW :(
I loved that book :thumbs_up; I think I read it when I was eleven.
Thank you :) I'm not entirely sure whether that will pan out to be a curse or a blessing :lol:

[mercy_mankind]

I loved that book :thumbs_up; I think I read it when I was eleven.
Thank you :) I'm not entirely sure whether that will pan out to be a curse or a blessing :lol:
:) :) :)
It is a blessing:thumbs_up don't worry but it is on your special way!
have a look on this picture and you will know the special romance. romance mixed with fantasy and horror.
http://www.moq3.com/img/17012008/PLC64794.jpg (http://www.moq3.com/img/)
Thanks LadyW

[LadyW]

:) :) :)
It is a blessing:thumbs_up don't worry but it is on your special way!
have a look on this picture and you will know the special romance. romance mixed with fantasy and horror.
http://www.moq3.com/img/17012008/PLC64794.jpg (http://www.moq3.com/img/)
Thanks LadyW

No, thank you :)
Oh wow, that image is on the cover of my copy!
I've just been inspired to re-read it :thumbs_up

[Dori]

My first novel? I want to say Tolkien's The Hobbit, but I know that's not entirely true. I think I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis before that. Those, at least, are the more memorable novels that I read early on in my life.

[superunknown]

Not the slightest clue.

[bazarov]

Šegrt Hlapić :lol:

[kandaurov]

It's amazing how you people remember...!

[Niamh]

I'm not really sure... I think (if enid Byton counts!) one of the first full novels i read was The Twins at St Clares....Or was it the magic of the faraway tree.... I think i was around seven
First classic i read was Jane Eyre when i was about nine... not sure

[Ryduce]

Mine was Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray,when I was 15 or 16.That opened the flood gates as far as my reading was concerned.

Before that however,I saw an episode of the Simpsons where they did a reading of Poe's The Raven,which got me into Poe's work.This was the first real literary writer I was into.I remember reading some of his short stories in the sixth grade.

[LadyWentworth]

Well, I guess it would be the "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I don't know if it would count, though. When I was really little my mother used to read them to me. I really don't recall how old I was when I finally read them myself. I don't know if they can count because she read them to me first and I already knew the stories. :) Otherwise, I was only 11 when I read E. M. Forster's Maurice. I followed that at 12 with Gone With The Wind. :)

[aeroport]

I can't remember. How embarassing... It hasn't been that long!
I know the first book I really cared about was The Scarlet Letter, but that was obviously not the first I read.

[Dori]

It's amazing how you people remember...!

Photograghic memories. ;)

Actually, it's not that difficult considering that I'm still young and I haven't read too much early in my life. I only recently focused my energies towards reading (about a year or so ago I should say).

[Rogers_68]

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. I still love it.

[emimoi]

Mine was Anne Of Green Gables... totally changed my life!

[SirRaustusBear]

My first book of real literature was Call of the Wild, which was a natural transition I guess since I was obsessed with Animorphs in elementary school. It's funny how I failed to realize that every book in the series was exactly the same: kids are warned of new yeerk threat, aquire new morph to fight yeerks, fight them, neither side wins, move on to next book and repeat. Throw in some thought speak screams <AAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH> and you've got yourself a successful kids book series.

People who haven't read Animorphs probably won't get the argh but oh well.

[Takeahnase]

Animorphs, I remember those! I don't think I ever read one but I do remember seeing them all on the school library shelf, with those odd morphing covers.

I don't think I can remember what the first novel I read was... I read a lot when I was little but only really discovered the classics and the ''good stuff'' in my mid-teens. Although, I do remember the three books that got me back into reading after I'd drifted away to computer games instead of books... they were The Red and the Black, Wuthering Heights and Lolita if I recall correctly. Suddenly I was hooked again and started ravaging the library for all I could find. Prior to that though, I can't seem to remember much at all of what I was reading, let alone the very first novel I picked up.

[mercy_mankind]

johann cruyff & LadW : I hope you enjoy the "Re-reading" . :)

kandaurov :I remember because it is not my mother tongue , If you asked me about the Arabic novels , sorry I don't remember at all . :)

Niamh: you are a good reader , It is nice to read in an early age , but it is more wonderful to remember . :)

Ryduce : I've read Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray , but It was boring.

LadyWentworth : I Love Gone With The Wind , but I have never read it . :)

[Whifflingpin]

"but it was a great surprise to know that Robinson Crusoe is the first novel in the history of English fiction .
And Defoe is The Father of English Literature . "

Hmmm, that is a surprise.
For example, Mrs Aphra Behn's second novel, Oroonoko, was published in 1688, whereas Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719 a generation later.

So, if Defoe were the Father of the English Novel, then Behn might be the Grandmother of the English Novel. Except that there were many, mostly forgotten or suppressed, novels written in the 1660s to 1680s - as stated in the preface to a 1777 edition of Oroonoko,
"Decency and good fenfe, the natural characteriftics of the Englifh, though for a time inebriated with joy on the reftoration of Religion, Liberty and Law, at length fhook off the fafcinating flumber; 'Then Shame regained the poft that Wit betrayed, And Virtue called Oblivion to her aid.' Accordingly, moft of the literary productions of thofe days are now forgotten, with their authors; and the few that remain, partcularly of the Novel kind, have long been profcribed to the Youth of Great Britain, by every fenfible Parent and Preceptor."

.

[Nossa]

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen.

[aeroport]

Hmmm, that is a surprise.
For example, Mrs Aphra Behn's second novel, Oroonoko, was published in 1688, whereas Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719 a generation later.
.

Is Oroonoko considered a novel though? The Longman Anthology refers to this work as a "novella" - and I had actually thought that the majority of the text is based on her own experiences - though it does say she is responsible for "one of the earliest epistolary novels". Who knows...
That's interesting about the supression of previous works. Thanks for the quote.

[mercy_mankind]

Hmmm, that is a surprise.
For example, Mrs Aphra Behn's second novel, Oroonoko, was published in 1688, whereas Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719 a generation later.

So, if Defoe were the Father of the English Novel, then Behn might be the Grandmother of the English Novel. Except that there were many, mostly forgotten or suppressed, novels written in the 1660s to 1680s - as stated in the preface to a 1777 edition of Oroonoko.

.

Actually it is not my opinion that Defoe was the father of English novel .


Robinson Crosoe is, by common concent, regarded as the First Novel In The History of English Fiction.It is primarily on the basis of this book that Defoe is considered to be The Father of the English novel.In this connection, a critic has the following observations to make:"But Defoe's genius as an originator culminated in his invention of the novel.Defoe is the Father of all novelists Strictly speaking, Robinson Crosoe,Moll Flanders, and the rest are brilliant autobiographical adventure stories, and not novels as we now understand the term.


so I think that he is as they described.
thank you,

[Whifflingpin]

"Is Oroonoko considered a novel though? The Longman Anthology refers to this work as a "novella" - and I had actually thought that the majority of the text is based on her own experiences - though it does say she is responsible for "one of the earliest epistolary novels". Who knows...
That's interesting about the supression of previous works. Thanks for the quote."

The definition of "novel" shifts and changes, so Oroonoko might equally be described as a novel or a novella. Behn's epistolary novel is no doubt one of those "proscribed to the youth of Great Britain" as it was, I understand, a racy novel, titled "Letters of a Nobleman to his Sister," or something like that.

Novels were clearly being written in English long before Defoe. Using a very broad definition, some claim Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" to be a novel, and novels were being written in sixteenth century England. Any definition that was broad enough to cover the range of literature included under the heading of "novel" in the last hundred years, would have to acknowledge the existence of English novels before the eighteenth century.

[Whifflingpin]

"Actually it is not my opinion that Defoe was the father of English novel .

Quote:
Robinson Crosoe is, by common concent, regarded as the First Novel In The History of English Fiction.It is primarily on the basis of this book that Defoe is considered to be The Father of the English novel.In this connection, a critic has the following observations to make:"But Defoe's genius as an originator culminated in his invention of the novel.Defoe is the Father of all novelists Strictly speaking, Robinson Crosoe,Moll Flanders, and the rest are brilliant autobiographical adventure stories, and not novels as we now understand the term.

so I think that he is as they described.
thank you,"

For exam purposes, by all means follow the (unnamed) authority that you have quoted.
Since, however, I have quoted the titles of two English novels written thirty years before Robinson Crusoe, and shown the existence of many others, it is obvious that Robinson Crusoe could not have been the first.
Defoe may have been the greatest English novelist up to 1700, and he may have shaped the way in which the novel form developed for the next two centuries. He did not invent the novel, and was not the first person to write novels in English.

[jasons123451]

The first novel I read was Roald Dahl's "The BFG." I read a lot of books when I was younger. A lot of choose your own adventure books and the such. I was in my early twenties before I took a World Lit class and got hooked on the classics.

[mercy_mankind]

For exam purposes, by all means follow the (unnamed) authority that you have quoted.
Since, however, I have quoted the titles of two English novels written thirty years before Robinson Crusoe, and shown the existence of many others, it is obvious that Robinson Crusoe could not have been the first.
Defoe may have been the greatest English novelist up to 1700, and he may have shaped the way in which the novel form developed for the next two centuries. He did not invent the novel, and was not the first person to write novels in English.

I want to understand something , Is it your personal opinion, or the Critics opinions?
as I quoted from my faculty book . And the professor told us that Robison Crosoe is considered to be the First English Novel .
If it was not true why critics said that? I don't understand.anyway thank you .
but you didn't say what was the first novel you read?:)

[Whifflingpin]

"I want to understand something , Is it your personal opinion, or the Critics opinions?
as I quoted from my faculty book . And the professor told us that Robison Crosoe is considered to be the First English Novel .
If it was not true why critics said that? I don't understand.anyway thank you ."

My statements about Aphra Behn were not opinion, but were statements of fact. In 1684 she published the first part of "Love Letters between a Nobleman and his sister" - an epistolary novel. In 1688 she published several short novels: The Fair Jilt; Agnes de Castro; and Oroonoko.

What becomes an opinion is the definition of a novel. As Jamesian pointed out, Oroonoko is short enough for some people to call it a novella. Others have called it "the first novel of ideas" because, rather than being a rambling adventure story as most (English or European) novels were, Oroonoko also had a clear anti-slavery theme.

My 1777 copy of Oroonoko is part of (according to its title page) "a collection of Novels selected and revised by Mrs Griffith." Mrs Elizabeth Griffith was herself a novelist and critic, and the quotation that I included above, to show that novels were written in England in the seventeenth century, was by her.

I think (and this is purely my opinion) that the basis of your authorities' arguments is that Defoe's novels dominated English novel writing for two centuries, including the nineteenth century when "Critics" started to treat novels as serious literature. The nineteenth century definition of the novel may have been narrow enough to say that Defoe was the first novelist. Another reason might be (as my 1777 quotation above suggests) that English novels before Defoe were so immoral that the critics preferred to deny their existence.

My opinion again, is that the novel took such a variety of forms in the twentieth century that a narrow definition is no longer valid, if it ever was. Pre-Defoe prose fiction, then, has to be accepted as part of the canon of novels. Some would extend that to include even verse forms, like "The Wife of Bath's Tale," because some novelists have written works in verse that are clearly intended to be novels.

My advice is - make up your own mind but do not argue with your teachers.



"but you didn't say what was the first novel you read"
The first that I remember was "The Coral Island" by Ballantyne. I remember plagiarizing it shamelessly in a composition when I was about 10.

[mercy_mankind]

"I want to understand something , Is it your personal opinion, or the Critics opinions?
as I quoted from my faculty book . And the professor told us that Robison Crosoe is considered to be the First English Novel .
If it was not true why critics said that? I don't understand.anyway thank you ."

My statements about Aphra Behn were not opinion, but were statements of fact. In 1684 she published the first part of "Love Letters between a Nobleman and his sister" - an epistolary novel. In 1688 she published several short novels: The Fair Jilt; Agnes de Castro; and Oroonoko.

What becomes an opinion is the definition of a novel. As Jamesian pointed out, Oroonoko is short enough for some people to call it a novella. Others have called it "the first novel of ideas" because, rather than being a rambling adventure story as most (English or European) novels were, Oroonoko also had a clear anti-slavery theme.

My 1777 copy of Oroonoko is part of (according to its title page) "a collection of Novels selected and revised by Mrs Griffith." Mrs Elizabeth Griffith was herself a novelist and critic, and the quotation that I included above, to show that novels were written in England in the seventeenth century, was by her.

I think (and this is purely my opinion) that the basis of your authorities' arguments is that Defoe's novels dominated English novel writing for two centuries, including the nineteenth century when "Critics" started to treat novels as serious literature. The nineteenth century definition of the novel may have been narrow enough to say that Defoe was the first novelist. Another reason might be (as my 1777 quotation above suggests) that English novels before Defoe were so immoral that the critics preferred to deny their existence.

My opinion again, is that the novel took such a variety of forms in the twentieth century that a narrow definition is no longer valid, if it ever was. Pre-Defoe prose fiction, then, has to be accepted as part of the canon of novels. Some would extend that to include even verse forms, like "The Wife of Bath's Tale," because some novelists have written works in verse that are clearly intended to be novels.

My advice is - make up your own mind but do not argue with your teachers.



"but you didn't say what was the first novel you read"
The first that I remember was "The Coral Island" by Ballantyne. I remember plagiarizing it shamelessly in a composition when I was about 10.

I understand now , Thank you for the explanation and for the Advice. :)

[mortalterror]

I can't remember the very first, something about a cat in like first grade. I do remember certain benchmarks. Like When Washington Danced was the first book I read over 300 pages long. The Three Musketeers was the first 700+ page novel I read. The first classic was probably The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

[sun & sky]

my first was pride and prejudice and I love it ,, I`ll read it again and again ..


and now I read Robinson Crusoe in college ,, the teacher is not that good and she hates the novle ! that`s why she cann`y teach us well !!

but I think it`s a good one ,, but I donn`t understand any point of it ..!


like now I`m working to find why R.C. used good & evil and I cann`t know !


GOSH !

[PeterL]

I'm working on it right now. I expect to finis h it sometime this summer.

[DapperDrake]

I can't remember my first novel either but I can certainly remember my first classic novel - The old curiosity shop by Dickens, wonderful characterisation and a good story too boot. I still vaguely remember the thrill at having discovered a new genre that I enjoyed.

[cipherdecoy]

I can't remember my first, but Robinson Crusoe was one of the first novels I attempted to read, then came Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.

[Bakiryu]

I can't remember, it was too long ago (over 8 years ago or so!)

[Pyrrho]

My first novel was Pride and Prejudice too. And I think I reread it about five times until I started reading my second novel...

[kasie]

I can't remember exactly which novel I read first but we moved house when I was eight and I know I took with me Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, (I know that was originally a play but I had it in novel form at the time) Little Women, Tom Sawyer, The Wind in the Willows and The Coral Island, all well thumbed and re-read several times by then. Books were still quite scarce in the early 1950s in UK, so these were very precious - I still have them tho they are at the point of falling to pieces now! I can't remember the books I borrowed from the school and public libraries but I remember surprising my English teacher in the first year of secondary school (age eleven) when I told him I had just finished reading John Halifax, Gentleman. The first book I borrowed from the Adult section of the public library was The Scarlet Pimpernel - I was twelve and had exhausted the Children's library, you were supposed to be fourteen to use the Adult section but I was very tall and just walked in, looking as if I were supposed to be there and no-one challenged me! After that I moved on to Buchan, Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh - and have not stopped since.

[sofia82]

I did not remeber the first novel i read in english, but as i remember it was Great Expectation by Dickens (a translation) as it was my birthday present :D

[valleyjune]

I am not sure about the first, it's been "some" time :blush: . One of the first ones, which I remember because it really impressed me at that time, was Little Women. I identified with Beth, and was desperate when she died, which made her seem even more like the ideal heroine I had in mind. Probably it was the beginning of my interest in gothic :brow: To be serious, I really loved it...

[bounty]

i cant say for certain but, high school english, it was likely either ethan frome, silas marner or great expectations.

[Sir Bartholomew]

mine was white fang

[jikan myshkin]

um the hobbit or watership down when i was 8 i think. but i can't say for sure as i read all the time then but i think they're the first 'adult' novels

[jikan myshkin]

...by adult i don't mean pornographic...bunnies and hobbits naked...ohhh...

[Hank Stamper]

I'm not sure - I used to read loads of books when I was younger but not that you would classify as proper novels, I know I read To Kill A Mockingbird when I was at school so I guess that was the first 'proper' novel I read. Can't really remember though! I used to love reading Roald Dahl, Wilbur Smith, Penelope Lively, etc. Anybody remember the Tales from the Land of Erin? I remember spending one summer engrossed in those books. Wish I still had them actually!

[bree]

I can't remember but, I think it was Little Women

[Trystan]

I remember it well because I didn't read that much as a young kid. It was 'The Hobbit'. I loved it very much.

[coolestnerdever]

To be perfectly honest, the first novel I ever read was probably Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. However, the first book I read that got me interested in classic literature was Gone With the Wind. Maybe it's not the best as far as literature goes, but it got me going.

[EricP]

The first novel I remember reading was Mario Puzo's "The Godfather."

[applepie]

I can't say the first ever that I read, but I remember the few that hooked me as a lifelong lover of books. They were "The Hobbit", "Night", and "Lord of the Flies".

[grace86]

I remember posting this in the old thread that asked the same question. It is not the first novel per se, because I always read as a kid. But the first novel I read that really got me into my literature quest was Robinson Crusoe. My brother in the army had been reading the cheap mass market paperback edition from Barnes and Noble. He mentioned what it was about, and I picked it up for myself. I have been consuming literature since then.

[Equality72521]

My first novel was Gone With the Wind, in the seventh grade. I only remember this because my friend, in the sixth grade, read it for AR points, which of course she got all thirty something from or whatever. Either way, she ended up liking it. So, I thought I would try it. It took me a year. I would read the first twelve pages and put it back down for a few months, then try and read the first twelve pages again, but put it back down. I ALWAYS stopped on page twelve. Then finally, I forced myself to get past it, read it, and ended up loving it. After followed Little Women and I didn't really start reading more novels until high school, so if any followed those, I don't remember.

[blackbird_9]

hmmm Does 'Charlie and he Chocolate Factory' count? If not then it would have to be 'A Separate Piece'

[Sorceress]

Mine is Oliver Twist

[kelby_lake]

The Lost Prince, when I was about 8

[Nostalgie]

Le Petit Prince