Talk:Proto-novel

Seeing The Golden Ass, I fail to see how post-2nd-century novels can be forwarded as "first novel". There can be the "first modern novel", "the first Sanskrit novel", etc., but discussion of "first ever" need be restricted to times earlier than the 2nd century. dab (ᛏ) 15:25, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is no clear definition as to what is a novel so this list is going to be tricky, but Don Quixote is one of the books most often cited as the first novel partly because it is a clear break with the past fashion for Romance (genre). A little bit of dividing of the list, as I have done, I think allows a better scope for this page. As such it should probably be back at something like the old name Candidates for the first novel. Waddya think? MeltBanana 16:15, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel. Not, however, the first novella, let alone the first roman. This is beside the point. There is really nothing that would speak against categorizing "The Golden Ass" as a novel. So when looking for the "first novel" not restricted to "modern", there can be no discussion of post 2nd century candidates. In any case, there are many entries listed now that are not "candidates for first novel" at all, but rather "first English novel", "first German novel" etc., and it would be a loss to delete them. Therefore, the present title, with its wider focus, fits the contents better. dab (ᛏ) 19:01, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]