List of first novels by language

Last updated July 15, 2025

A list of first ever novel written in various languages.


Language	Year of publication	Name of the novel	Name in native language	Author	Country
Assamese	1890	Bhanumati	ভানুমতী	Padmanath Gohain Baruah	India
Arabic	1160 (approx.)	Hayy ibn Yaqdhan	حي بن يقظان	Ibn Tufayl	Al-Andalus
Aromanian	1903	Graves Without Crosses	Mirmintsã fãrã crutsi	Nuși Tulliu	Romania
Bengali	1857	Alaler Gharer Dulal ^[1]	আলালের ঘরের দুলাল	Peary Chand Mitra	India
Bhojpuri	1956	Bindiya ^[2]	बिंदिया	Ramnath Pandey	India
Burmese	1904	Maung Yin Maung, Ma Me Ma^[3]	မောင်ရင်မောင် မမယ်မ	James Hla Kyaw	Myanmar
Catalan	1283	Romance of Evast and Blaquerna	Romanç d'Evast e Blaquerna	Ramon Llull	Majorca (Crown of Aragon)
Chinese	14th century	Romance of the Three Kingdoms	三國演義	Luo Guanzhong	China
French	1607	L'Astrée	L'Astrée	Honoré d'Urfé	France
Hindi	1882	Pariksha Guru ^[4]	परीक्षागुरू	Lala Srinivas Das	India
Japanese	11th century	The Tale of Genji	源氏物語	Murasaki Shikibu	Japan
Kannada	1899	Indira Bai		Gulvadi Venkata Rao	India
Latin	1st century	Satyricon		Petronius	Roman Empire
Malayalam	1887	Kundalatha	കുന്ദലത	Appu Nedungadi	India
Meitei	1930	Madhavi^[5]	মাধবী	Lamabam Kamal Singh	India
Marathi	1857	Yamuna Paryatan ^[5]	यमुना पर्यटन	Baba Padamji	India
Nepali	1903	Bir Charitra ^[6]	वीर चरित्र	Girish Ballabh Joshi	Nepal
Northern Ndebele	1956	The Ndebele Uprising^[7]	Umvukela WamaNdebele	Ndabaningi Sithole	Zimbabwe
Odia	1888	Padmamali^[8]	ପଦ୍ମମାଳୀ	Umesh Chandra Sarkar	India
Persian	1937	The Blind Owl	بوف کور	Sadegh Hedayat	Iran
Pashto	1912	Mah Rukh		Rahat Zakheli	Pakistan
Polish	1776	The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom ^[9]	Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki	Ignacy Krasicki	Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Punjabi	1898	Sundari	ਸੁੰਦਰੀ	Bhai Vir Singh	India
Russian	1842	Dead Souls	Мёртвые души	Nikolai Gogol	Russia
Sanskrit	7th century	Kadambari ^[5]	कादम्बरी	Bāṇabhaṭṭa	India
Shona	1956	Feso^[10]	Feso	Solomon Mutswairo	Zimbabwe
Spanish	1605	Don Quixote ^[11]	Don Quijote de la Mancha	Miguel de Cervantes	Spain
Tamil	1879	Prathapa Mudaliar Charitram ^[5]	பிரதாப முதலியார் சரித்திரம்	Samuel Vedanayagam Pillai	India
Telugu	1867	Sri Rangaraju Charitra ^[5]		Narahari Gopalakrishnama Setty	India
Turkish	1872	The Love of Talat and Fitnat^[12]	Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat	Sami Frashëri	Turkey
Urdu	1869	Mirat-ul-Uroos ^[5]	مراۃ العروس	Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi	India
Uzbek	1926	Bygone Days^[13]	O’tkan Kunlar	Abdullah Qodiriy	Uzbekistan
Xhosa	1907	USamson^[14]	USamson	S.E.K. Mqhayi	South Africa

References

↑ "আলালের ঘরের দুলাল - বাংলাপিডিয়া". bn.banglapedia.org (in Bengali). Retrieved 2022-04-19.
↑ Bhojapurī nibandha nikuñja: Bhojapurī ke taintālīsa go cunala nibandha (in Bihari). Akhila Bhāratīya Bhojapurī Sāhitya Sammelana. 1977.
↑ Pe, U. On (1958-02-01). "Modern Burmese Literature". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
↑ Kalsi, A. S. (1992). "Parīksāguru (1882): The First Hindi Novel and the Hindu Elite" . Modern Asian Studies. 26 (4): 763–790. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00010064. ISSN 1469-8099. S2CID 144281907.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Venkatesh, Karthik (2017-01-01). "The maiden novels of Indian languages". mint. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
↑ Dhakal, Ashish (26 December 2021). "The story of books in Nepal" . Retrieved 2022-03-23.
↑ Kamusella, Tomasz; Ndhlovu, Finex (2017-11-21). The Social and Political History of Southern Africa's Languages. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-137-01593-8.
↑ Mohanty, S (25 April 2011). Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India. Springer. p. 106. ISBN 9780230118348.
↑ Mieczysław Klimowicz. 1973. Wstęp. In: Ignacy Krasicki. Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, p. XXV.
↑ Mutasa, D. E. (1999-03-01). "Allegory, realism and fantasy in Feso" . South African Journal of African Languages. 19 (4): 245–249. doi:10.1080/02572117.1999.10587403 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
↑ Bloom, Harold (2003-12-13). "Harold Bloom on Don Quixote, the first modern novel". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
↑ Arslanbenzer, Hakan (2019-09-14). "Şemsettin Sami Frasheri: The first Turkish novelist and lexicographer". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
↑ Reese, Mark. "Bygone Days, the first Uzbek novel, is a political love story set in the colonial past | Calvert Reads". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
↑ Opland, Jeff (2007). "The First Novel in Xhosa". Research in African Literatures. 38 (4): 87–110. doi:10.2979/RAL.2007.38.4.87. ISSN 0034-5210. JSTOR 20109540. S2CID 153584010.

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[1] "আলালের ঘরের দুলাল - বাংলাপিডিয়া". bn.banglapedia.org (in Bengali). Retrieved 2022-04-19.

[2] Bhojapurī nibandha nikuñja: Bhojapurī ke taintālīsa go cunala nibandha (in Bihari). Akhila Bhāratīya Bhojapurī Sāhitya Sammelana. 1977.

[3] Pe, U. On (1958-02-01). "Modern Burmese Literature". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

[4] Kalsi, A. S. (1992). "Parīksāguru (1882): The First Hindi Novel and the Hindu Elite" . Modern Asian Studies. 26 (4): 763–790. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00010064. ISSN 1469-8099. S2CID 144281907.

[:0-5] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Venkatesh, Karthik (2017-01-01). "The maiden novels of Indian languages". mint. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

[6] Dhakal, Ashish (26 December 2021). "The story of books in Nepal" . Retrieved 2022-03-23.

[7] Kamusella, Tomasz; Ndhlovu, Finex (2017-11-21). The Social and Political History of Southern Africa's Languages. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-137-01593-8.

[8] Mohanty, S (25 April 2011). Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India. Springer. p. 106. ISBN 9780230118348.

[9] Mieczysław Klimowicz. 1973. Wstęp. In: Ignacy Krasicki. Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, p. XXV.

[10] Mutasa, D. E. (1999-03-01). "Allegory, realism and fantasy in Feso" . South African Journal of African Languages. 19 (4): 245–249. doi:10.1080/02572117.1999.10587403 – via Taylor & Francis Online.

[11] Bloom, Harold (2003-12-13). "Harold Bloom on Don Quixote, the first modern novel". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

[12] Arslanbenzer, Hakan (2019-09-14). "Şemsettin Sami Frasheri: The first Turkish novelist and lexicographer". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

[13] Reese, Mark. "Bygone Days, the first Uzbek novel, is a political love story set in the colonial past | Calvert Reads". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

[14] Opland, Jeff (2007). "The First Novel in Xhosa". Research in African Literatures. 38 (4): 87–110. doi:10.2979/RAL.2007.38.4.87. ISSN 0034-5210. JSTOR 20109540. S2CID 153584010.

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