Inside the Wild World of Roman Romance Novels

People have been debating the invention of the novel forever. For some, the first novel was the 11th Century Japanese Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikabu, for others the novel truly began when Cervantes published Don Quixote while those one interested in English (language) literature cite Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, pushing the invention of the novel to 1740. Not enough people look back to the ancient world, which is more associated with epic poetry about gods and war than prose compositions.