Who Wrote the First Worldwide Novel?

You may be surprised when I tell you who wrote the first worldwide novel.

But before I do, I'll give you a clue. It wasn't Daniel DeFoe's Robinson Crusoe written in 1719. That classic is considered to be the first English novel ever published. Remember we're talking the very first worldwide novel.

The first widely considered novel was written 1,000 years ago and was titled, The Tale of Genji. Its author was Murasaki Shikibu, a woman. The stage for her epic novel was set in 11th Century Japan following the life and romances of Hikaru Genji.

What made her novel special (besides being written by a woman) was it that it was fiction which was considered to be at the lower rung of the scales of the genre hierarchies at the time. 

What we do know about Shikibu is that she was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court during the Heian period. 

Both in 11th-century Japan and 15th-century Europe, prose fiction created intimate reading situations. Some of the storyline in these romance novels had some pretty explicit sex in them but were written in such a flowery way the reader wasn't grossed out.

Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman and Occitan, later, in English. The Tale of Genji inspired more writers to associate popular stories with serious histories traditionally composed in prose.

It's fair to say Murasaki Shikibu opened Pandora's Box for a new genre of writing. Nearly every country in the world has a translation of her groundbreaking novel. 

It's important to note that the definition of the word "novel" changes on who you talk to, even among the experts. The majority of academics cite The Tale of Genji as the first worldwide novel.

Scholar and East Asian literature and language expert Dennis Washburn argues in his personal translation that classifying The Tale of Genji as a novel means applying a set of Western-specific standards and Shikibu's work tends to transcend genre.

As it Stands, a novel can incorporate other genres and techniques as long as the narrative, and characterization, is uniform and distinct.