Hamlet: the first novel
1. Several years ago, while ruminating upon the question of who wrote Shakespeare, I realized that Hamlet is not a play, but a novel.
This is why it’s all but impossible to satisfactorily stage and perform.
And why, nevertheless, with its bounty of psychology and its inviting hero (the stuff of novels), it’s so popular and beguiling (provoking more commentary over the centuries since Gutenberg than any piece in English aside from the bible).
2. The first part of Don Quixote was offered for publication in 1604, according to this (oft dubious) source.
Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, pub’d in 1719, is often named as the first novel in English.
Same source observes “The era of “romances” had ended before 1719 and “novels” had been appreciated as an alternative as early as 1613, the date when the Novelas Exemplares were published.”
It would seem, then, that Hamlet was the first novel.
Wonder who wrote it …
