List of first novels by language

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A list of first ever novel written in various languages.

LanguageYear of publicationName of the novelName in native languageAuthorCountry
Assamese 1890Bhanumatiভানুমতী Padmanath Gohain Baruah India
Arabic 1160 (approx.) Hayy ibn Yaqdhan حي بن يقظان Ibn Tufayl Al-Andalus
Aromanian 1903Graves Without CrossesMirmintsã fãrã crutsi Nuși Tulliu Romania
Bengali 1857 Alaler Gharer Dulal [1] আলালের ঘরের দুলাল Peary Chand Mitra India
Bhojpuri 1956 Bindiya [2] बिंदियाRamnath Pandey India
Burmese 1904Maung 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] परीक्षागुरूLala Srinivas DasIndia
Japanese 11th century The Tale of Genji 源氏物語 Murasaki Shikibu Japan
Kannada 1899 Indira Bai Gulvadi Venkata RaoIndia
Malayalam 1887Kundalathaകുന്ദലത Appu Nedungadi India
Meitei 1930Madhavi [5] মাধবীLamabam Kamal SinghIndia
Marathi 1857 Yamuna Paryatan [5] यमुना पर्यटनBaba PadamjiIndia
Nepali 1903 Bir Charitra [6] वीर चरित्र Girish Ballabh Joshi Nepal
Northern Ndebele 1956The Ndebele Uprising [7] Umvukela WamaNdebele Ndabaningi Sithole Zimbabwe
Odia 1888Padmamali [8] ପଦ୍ମମାଳୀUmesh Chandra SarkarIndia
Persian 1937 The Blind Owl بوف کور Sadegh Hedayat Iran
Pashto 1912Mah Rukh Rahat Zakheli Pakistan
Punjabi 1898Sundariਸੁੰਦਰੀ Bhai Vir Singh India
Russian 1842 Dead Souls Мёртвые души Nikolai Gogol Russia
Sanskrit 7th century Kadambari [5] कादम्बरी Bāṇabhaṭṭa India
Shona 1956Feso [9] Feso Solomon Mutswairo Zimbabwe
Spanish 1605 Don Quixote [10] 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 SettyIndia
Turkish 1872The Love of Talat and Fitnat [11] Taaşşuk-ı Talat ve Fitnat Sami Frashëri Turkey
Urdu 1869 Mirat-ul-Uroos [5] مراۃ العروس Nazir Ahmad Dehlvi India
Uzbek 1926Bygone Days [12] O’tkan KunlarAbdullah Qodiriy Uzbekistan
Xhosa 1907USamson [13] USamson S.E.K. Mqhayi South Africa

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References

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  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.
  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. 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.
  10. Bloom, Harold (2003-12-13). "Harold Bloom on Don Quixote, the first modern novel". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  11. Arslanbenzer, Hakan (2019-09-14). "Şemsettin Sami Frasheri: The first Turkish novelist and lexicographer". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.