User:Chavey/Ancient

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Ancient Works of Speculative Fiction

This is an attempt to catalog the oldest works of speculative fiction, using ISFDB listings, standard bibliographic sources, WorldCat, and a few other resources. This includes only fiction: It does not include non-fiction, or art; but occasionally includes works that the authors or readers might have viewed as non-fiction, but which are fantastical (see the criteria below). With many of the older works, dates given are best available estimates, and are not claimed to be precise.

Inclusion criteria: Deciding which ancient works justify inclusion includes consideration of certain issues that aren't major concerns with more modern literature. We outline some of those issues here, and how they have been resolved:

  1. Myths and legends: Stories which were believed to be true, either by the writer or by the readers, are not included ("OUT"). This includes stories about, say, Greek and Roman gods during the time that these were viewed as true. By the time of Ovid's Metamorphosis, for example, the Romans no longer believe in such stories, and hence they had become pure fantasy for them. Lester del Rey views The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2150-2000 BCE) as science fiction because it features a flood scene that in some ways resembles works of apocalyptic science fiction, and Wikipedia views it as "fantastic literature". But current scholarship suggests that this flood story is likely to be oral tradition descended from the filling of the Black Sea when the Mediterranean sea flooded into in around 5000 BCE. As such, this story is not included. This criteria eliminates all religious works from consideration, even works such as the Biblical "Revelations" which shares much in common with apocalyptic fantasies.
  2. Magic of the Gods: Magic used by the gods, when the people believe in those gods, is not cause for inclusion in this category. However, when the gods give magical items to humans, or give humans magical powers, that becomes grounds for inclusion.
  3. Wizards, witches, and ghosts: During much of the history covered by this list, "average" people believed in the existence of wizards, witches, and ghosts. The existence of such characters in a story is not grounds for inclusion unless the stories include specific instances of these characters doing "impossible" things. Thus a ghost appearing to someone is generally not enough to justify inclusion, but that ghost showing up and directing the person to the missing location of their body would be.
  4. Fantastic Beasts: Many stories that include strange beasts and people are known to come from distorted tales of imperfectly understood observations. Thus the centaur legend may have come from people who did not ride horses seeing invaders riding horses from a distance. The unicorn may have come from stories of the rhinoceros seen by African travelers, or from misunderstood fossil remains. Headless men carrying their heads in their arms may come from the Indonesian orangutans. Such stories might be excluded if the author appears to be trying to write the truth, or included if it seems that they are trying to write a fantastical story.
  5. Anthropomorphized animals and objects: The use of talking animals, such as in Aesop's Fables and similar stories, or talking objects, such as the clouds in Aristophanes' play "The Clouds" (423-417 BCE), where they are simply stand-ins for human characters or narrators, is not sufficient for inclusion.
  6. They thought it was true: In most cases, if the teller of the story appears to believe it its truth, then we classify it as non-fiction and exclude it. For example, in his poem "On The Nature Of Things", the Roman Lucretius (1st c. BC) accepted that other worlds containing different life forms. A century later, Seneca mentions fellow-Stoics’ belief that the sun was also inhabited. Both are interesting examples of "proto-science fiction", but are not included here. Occasionally, works on alchemy or astrology are included in lists of "fantasies", but are excluded here under this clause. In some cases though, we may include such a story when it is important enough as a precursor to specific themes in speculative fiction. This applies, for example, to Plato's descriptions of Atlantis (360 BCE), and Homer's stories of the Amazons (although there is also debate as to whether Homer viewed his stories as true).

Within these limits, I have attempted to identify bibliographic works that include significant numbers of such ancient works, including those already in the ISFDB, and incorporated them into the listing below. This listing includes all works in the following sources, up to the date listed:


2100 B.C.E. to 1000 C.E. (essentially complete)

  Year     Title Author Notes, e.g. on the speculative fiction content
2100 BCE The Epic of Gilgamesh
  		Unknown The earliest versions of this tale date to c. 2100 B.C.E., the first surviving version dates to the 18th century B.C.E., and the "standard" version to the "13th to the 10th centuries BC" (Wikipedia). While mostly about the interactions between man and the gods, this contains certain speculative fiction elements, including The Great Flood, the giant Humbaba (a mix of lion, vulture, bull, and snake), and the "Bull of Heaven".
1700-1100 BCE Rigveda (Wikipedia entry) Unknown In the first book of this collection of Sanskrit hymns, there is a description of "mechanical birds" that are seen "jumping into space speedily with a craft using fire and water... containing twelve stamghas (pillars), one wheel, three machines, 300 pivots, and 60 instruments." (Wikipedia)
720 BCE The Iliad
  		Homer The "Iliad" has some science fiction elements in book 18: self-propelling wheeled tables and ‘golden maidservants who resemble real girls, not only speaking and moving, but endowed with thought and trained in handiwork,’ constructed by Hephaestus. However, these elements are not quite central to the stories, and they qualify as "magic of the gods", so it is unclear whether this book should be viewed as genre.
700 BCE The Odyssey Homer Circe (the witch, with her man-into-pig enchantments), one-eyed Cyclops, the Sirens, the 12-headed dog-like Scylla, various other monstrous beings, a magic bag containing 3 of the 4 winds, and Odysseus' descent into Hades to converse with the dead.
440 BCE The Amazons Herodotus The earliest form of the Amazon legends, and an important precursor for speculative fiction. Academics argue as to whether Herodotus thought he was writing "history" or knew that he was writing fiction. We classify this as a non-fiction essay.
414 BCE The Birds Aristophanes Two men talk to the birds and convince them to build a great city in the sky, so as to reclaim their role as the original gods. The two men are transformed into birds, and the city is built. The Olympian gods are now starving because the offerings of men no longer reach them, but only reach the great city. After negotiations with the birds, the Olympians declare them gods, and the leader of the men as the inheritor of Zeus.

    Two other plays by Aristophanes have elements of speculative fiction: In "Peace", a war-weary-citizen flies to heaven on a giant dung-beetle to bring Peace down to earth; and in "Frogs", Dionysus descends to Hades to fetch back the best dead poet to earth. We do not view either work as having quite enough speculative fiction elements to justify their inclusion.

380 BCE The Republic Plato Utopian fiction, and very influential on later Utopian works. Includes The Myth of Er, with an account of the cosmos and the afterlife that greatly influenced later thought for many centuries. Twelve days after his death, Er revives on his funeral-pyre and tells others of his journey in the afterlife, including an account of reincarnation and the celestial spheres of the astral plane. (Bleiler; Gunn p.18)
360 BCE Timaeus Plato First known mention of Atlantis. Main story postponed to Critias. (Bleiler; Gunn p.18)
350 BCE Critias Plato Includes the story of Atlantis. (Bleiler; Gunn p.18)
100 BCE Rāmāyaṇa Vālmīki (Wikipedia entry) Dated to c. 500-100 BCE, the Rāmāyaṇa includes stories of the hero, Rama, fighting fantastical beasts and demons. However, as the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, it is unclear whether these exploits should be viewed as the actions of a god (hence not included in the ISFDB) or the actions of a human (hence includable). Apparently, this work also includes mythical Vimana flying machines that were able to fly within the Earth's atmosphere, and able to travel into space and travel submerged under water, along with a weapon which could destroy an entire city, but again we do not know if these are machines of the gods or of humans. To further complicate matters, there are multiple regional versions of the Rāmāyaṇa, and various chapters of it date to different ages, so we would need to be careful to specify which versions are included (if any). To decide if this qualifies for inclusion would take substantial additional research. For now we leave it out of the ISFDB, but note it on this list.
8 C.E. Metamorphoses Ovid Transformation tales. Many Roman myths, which are not generally genre for us. Includes Daedalus & Icarus.
60 C.E. The Satyricon Ovid Often viewed as the earliest extant novel, this contains some speculative fiction. In the 141 extant chapters, we have three stories of speculative fiction: In chapter 48, the Sibyl of Cumae was suspended in a flask for eternity; chapter 62 contains a story about a werewolf, and chapter 63 contains a story about witches.
75 Life of Lycurgus
 (Non-genre) 		Plutarch Included in "Ideal Commonwealths", which has several Utopian works, but this is not a speculative fiction utopian work. It is intended as a historical essay about the early Spartan society, which the author views as having been a utopia in its earliest forms. Bleiler (#1556, p. 521) says this "is not relevant to us".
150 The Book of Marvels
  (Non-genre) 		Phlegon of Tralles (Wikipedia entry) Proto-fantasy. A collection of stories about ghosts, ghost lovers, prophecies by heads, monstrous births (e.g. Siamese twins), births to homosexual men, hemaphrodites, discoveries of real centaurs, and giant skeletons. The earliest, and most important, surviving work of pure sensationalism in Western literature. This type of literature was a genre of its own in ancient Greek and Roman literature, called paradoxographical literature, and was popular from about 300 BCE to 300 CE. While fantastical in nature, their presentation is as if it were non-fiction, hence we count such books as non-genre. William Hansen, in "Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature" tells us that "seven of these works survive to our day more or less complete". This book is included here as a representative of this type. Another important work in this genre, also sometimes included in lists of early speculative fiction, is Ctesias’ Indica (c. 390 BCE), known only through extracts and descriptions in later books, which tells us about the marvels and wonders in India -- some true, some fantastical. The Alexander Romance (3rd century CE) probably fits into this category as well.
170 The True History Lucian of Samosata Women who are part vines. Three-headed vultures. Monstrous sea creatures. Most importantly (for us), a trip to the moon, and many oddities of the people of the moon, inter-planetary war between the kingdoms of the Moon and the Sun (over Venus), creatures as products of human technology (predicting robots), and worlds working by a set of alternate 'physical' laws. (See Barry Baldwin for more details.) (In Bleiler)
175 Icaromenippus, an Aerial Expedition Lucian of Samosata A flight to the moon, and to the Greek heaven. (In Bleiler)
600 Mitologiae (Mythologies) Fulgentius Primarily essays on allegorical meanings within many myths, but includes a full (and influential) version of the Cupid and Psyche myth. Probably written between 550 and 600 C.E.
710 Dashakumaracharita (Wikipedia article). Dandin The Wikipedia article gives wide variation in the possible dating of this Indian epic. We rely on Robert DeCaroli, "An Analysis of Daṇḍin's Daśakumāracarita and Its Implications for Both the Vākāṭaka and Pallava Courts", J. of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 115, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1995), pp. 671-678.
      Dandin was court poet of the Pallava kings c. 682-728 C.E., and the Dashakumaracharita was largely written as a collection of allegorical tales to teach the young Narasimhavarman II how to be a good king. He reigned from 700-728 C.E., and while this makes in likely that the Dashakumaracharita was written c. 690-700, we can be confident it was written by 710. Portions of the existing work were likely added by a later hand, in particular the second story in the Prologue, in which one of the ten Kumara (Sages) and a Brahmana (priest) go through a chasm in the earth in a successful scheme to conquer the underworld. Excluding these later additions though, fantastical elements in this epic include: (1) A nymph who transports one of the Kumara into the palace; (2) a nymph who has been cursed into the form of a chain (which binds one of the Kumara); (3) various sorcerers (generally evil) who must be defeated by our heroes; (4) A ghost, who was the servant of one such sorcerer, and then aids the Kumara who defeated him; and (5) Two Rakshasa, mythological humanoid man-eaters. The first forces him to answer four "Sphinx like" riddles; the second attempts to fly off with his intended bride, forcing a rescue.
720 Urashima Tarō (Wikipedia article). unknown (Japanese folk tale) Originally published in 720 in the "Nihon Shoki". The earliest known "Rip van Winkle" story. Urashima Tarō is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, who was the daughter of the Dragon god. He is given magical gills to see the Dragon god in his palace, and stays there "a few days". When he returns home, 300 years have passed. However, it appears that the 720 CE version includes only the visit to the palace and the "wonders" seen there, while the Rip van Winkle story is added later (probably before 1500). Some modern versions of this story are currently in the ISFDB, but determining the earliest one that should be added requires more research.
"Early 9th Century" The earliest known versions of the Thousand and One Nights. Unknown (Syria). See the Wikipedia article on Fantasy and Science Fiction Elements in the book for more details.
920 Ara Ahl al-Madina al-fadilah (Opinions of the Residents of a Splendid City) Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Tarhan Al-Farabi A very early utopian book, but apparently more of a religious and psychology approach than a fiction approach, and hence not eligible for inclusion. (Additional research might change this status, though.)
980 Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) (Wikipedia article). unknown (Japanese folk tale) 10th century folk tale. A girl called Kaguya-hime is discovered as a baby the size of a thumb inside the stalk of a glowing bamboo plant. She is a princess from the Moon who was sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war. She is later taken back to the Moon by her real extraterrestrial family. A manuscript illustration depicts a round flying machine similar to a flying saucer.
1000 Beowulf uncredited Written between the 8th century and early 11th century, most likely during the reign of Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995 – 12 November 1035). The sole existing manuscript dates to the late tenth or early eleventh century, and "close to AD 1000" (Wikipedia). The epic poem includes the troll-like monster Grendel, her mother, and a dragon.

1000 C.E. to 1500 C.E. (fairly complete)

1070 Katha Sarit Sagara Somadeva Bhatta An early Indian collection of stories, including "Twenty-five tales of a demon", the demon being a vampire. By legend, at least, this is a descendent of a more ancient work, the Brihatkatha, c. 500 C.E. This older work does not (as best as we can tell) include the vampire stories, but it does include the acquisition by Naravāhanadatta of various magical powers from the Vedic gods, which might make it borderline SF, although we do not include it separately here.
1070 The Founding of the City of Páṭalíputra Somadeva Bhatta and C. H. Tawney This is a translation, or re-telling, of one of the main stories from the Katha Sarit Sagara, and hence we list it with the date of the original story. The story focuses on three magical items: shoes of flight; a stick of truth; and a vessel of unending food. Using these, the hero is able to wake a version of "Sleeping Beauty" and create the city of the title.
1135 Prophetiae Merlini Geoffrey of Monmouth The first appearance of Merlin. Here, his magic primarily reveals itself in the many prophecies he gives. The book is written as if it were historical fact, and is fully contained within Geoffrey's 1136 "Historia Regum Britanniae", which is also presented as if it were the history of the kings of England, but is "pseudo-history". This latter book is the earliest non-Welsh reference to King Arthur. In general, due to the presentation as fact, we would not include either of these books. But their historical importance to the Arthurian legends, we have included the first.
c. 1150 Vita Merlini Geoffrey of Monmouth Another variant of the life of Merlin, agains focusing on his prophecies, but with him more of a "madman".
1150 Timarion (Wikipedia) unknown Timarion is snatched from his sick-bed by two black-robed demons who whirl him through the air and down a dark pit to iron-gated Hell. After winning permission to continue living he re-enters his body via his nose and mouth.
1200 The Nibelungenlied (Wikipedia) unknown Siegfried kills a dragon, then bathes in its blood, which renders him invulnerable (save for one spot covered by a linden leaf). Siegfried has an invisibility cloak, which also gives him the strength of 12 men.
1250 Awaj bin Anfaq Ibn al-Nafis (Wikipedia article) Possible science fiction. Primarily a theological treatise, but the last two chapters deal "with various science fiction elements such as spontaneous generation, futurology, apocalyptic themes, eschatology, resurrection and the afterlife, but rather than giving supernatural or mythological explanations for these events, Ibn al-Nafis attempted to explain these plot elements using his own extensive scientific knowledge in anatomy, biology, physiology, astronomy, cosmology and geology. For example, it was through this novel that Ibn al-Nafis introduces his scientific theory of metabolism, and he makes references to his own scientific discovery of the pulmonary circulation in order to explain bodily resurrection." (Wikipedia)
1270 Fādil ibn Nātiq ("Theologus Autodidactus" in English) Zakariya al-Qazwini (Wikipedia article) A man travels to Earth from a distant planet.
1320 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri "On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Includes travels to other planets and Stars, which make up heaven and are inhabitated by different peoples, for example, Mars with the souls of martyrs. The earliest extant manuscript versions are from the 1330's.
1358 The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio Written between 1348 and 1358 (i.e., completed in 1358) revised 1370-1371. Contains 100 stories, a few of which are speculative fiction. These stories are listed below, with links when we have them listed as separate titles. These don't have titles in the original collection, but are known by day (1 to 10) and which tale of that day (1 to 10).
 
  • 4th day, tale 5. Now known as A Story of Ravenna. A female ghost is cursed to be hunted down, killed, and devoured by a pack of hounds every week. (Ashley/Contento)
  • 5th day, tale 8. See Isabella, or The Pot of Basil A ghost of her lover appears to Lisabetta in a dream, and tells here where his body is.
  • 7th day, tale 10. A man dies having promised his comrade to return to him from the other world; which he does, and tells him what sort of life is led there.
  • 9th day, tale 10. Dom Gianni uses an enchantment to transform another man's wife into a mare;
  • 10th day, tale 4. Messer Gentile de' Carisendi disinters a lady that he loves, who has been buried for dead. She, being reanimated, gives birth to a male child; and Messer Gentile restores her to her husband.
  • 10th day, tale 5. Madonna Dianora craves of Messer Ansaldo a garden that shall be as fair in January as in May Messer Ansaldo binds himself to a necromancer, and thereby gives her the garden.
  • 10th day, tale 9. Messer Torello is captured by Saladin while on a crusade, falls sick, and by magic arts is transported in a single night back to Italy.
  • 5th day, tale 1. (Non-genre) Ashley/Contento also include in their list of supernatural works "The Story of Cymon and Iphigenia", from the Decameron, but I see nothing supernatural about that story (aside from love turning "a hopeless imbecile" into a wise and fashionable man).
1371 The Travels and Voyages of Sir John Mandeville John Mandeville "Travels through far-off and fantastic regions full of the most amazing marvels and wonders"
1387 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer We have multiple stories from The Canterbury Tales listed in the ISFDB, mostly non-genre, but included because of their existence in various anthologies. The stories we have are listed below:
 
  • The Nun's Priest's Tale (excerpt). A world of talking animals who reflect both human perception and fallacy, which is thus non-genre. Depending on the portion that's extracted, this may also include the ghosts of the next entry.
  • Murder Will Out Also an excerpt from "The Nun's Priest's Tale". Apparently including ghosts, hence genre.
  • How the Three Young Men Found Death. Non-genre. Adapted from The Pardoner's Tale. Three men set out to kill Death. An old man tells them how to find Death, and sure enough they each die -- hence "meeting death", albeit with no supernatural elements.
  • A Compleynte on Deth of Sir William Thatcher, Sumtyme Ycleped Ulrich Von Liechtenstein Non-genre. A follow-up to "A Knight's Tale", the first tale of The Canterbury Tales. There is nothing supernatural here, and the poem appears not to be by Chaucer but by a modern (anonymous) author writing in Chaucer's style.
1390 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Gawain Poet A mysterious "Green Knight" challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time.
1472 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri The first printed publication of this work, listed above under the original release date of (about) 1320. We have other publications listed under The Inferno, which is the first portion of The Divine Comedy.
1479 Metamorphoses Ovid The first printed publication of this work, listed above under the original release date of 8 C.E. In 1484, both French and English printed versions were released.
1485 Le Morte d'Arthur Sir Thomas Malory The oldest extant version of the King Arthur stories.
1488 The Odyssey Homer The first print publication of this work. The manuscript version is listed above under 440 B.C.
1494 Daß Narrenschyff ad Narragoniam Sebastian Brant In English, called "The Ship of Fools". Speculative fiction contents unknown to us.

1500 C.E. to 1600 C.E. (fairly complete)

1508 Amadís de Gaula Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo Arthurian-style novel of chivalry and the ideal knight. Speculative elements include giants, a sorcerer and sorceress. Amadís is the knight that Don Quixote tries to imitate.
1509 Las Sergas de Esplandián Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo Continuation of the 4 books of Amadís de Gaula. Includes a description of an island in the Pacific named "California" populated exclusively by a race of black Amazon women. The current state of California is named after that imaginary location.
1516 Utopia: or, The Happy Republic, A Philosophical Romance Sir Thomas More Classic utopian fiction. (Gunn p.18)
1516-1532 Orlando Furioso Ludovico Ariosto The first version appeared in 1516, with a second edition containing minor changes in 1521, and a final expanded version in 1532. Includes fantastical and magical elements such as a trip to the moon, and fantastical creatures including a hippogriff and a gigantic sea monster called an orc.
1516 The Palace of Illusions Ludovico Ariosto An extract from "Orlando Furioso".
1549 Belphagor, Or the Marriage of the Devil Niccolò Machiavelli Contents not known to us.
1567 Palmerin d’Angleterre Francisco de Moraes A spin-off of the "Amadís de Gaula" listed under 1508. Two stories from this work are included in the ISFDB:
1570 Beware the Cat William Baldwin These stories feature an Irish werewolf, the Grimalkin, and an underworld society of talking cats, among several other horror and magical/supernatural elements such as an ancient book of forbidden lore and magic potions.
1584 Flyting Against Polwart Alexander Montgomerie Elfland, fairies
1587 Historia von D. Johann Fausten
(See Wikipedia) 		Johann Spies The first publication of the Faust legends. Dr. Fausten uses magic to conjure forth the devil, and to force him to do his bidding. With consequences.
1590 Monkey Wu Ch'êng-ên Monsters, anthropomorphic animals (who interact with humans), a half pig/half human.
1590 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser This extended epic poem deals with the adventures of knights, dragons, ladies in distress, etc. yet it is also an extended allegory about the moral life and what makes for a life of virtue. The first three books were published in 1590; the second three in 1596.
1596 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser The last three volumes of the full 6-volume set; see 1590.

1600 C.E. to 1700 C.E. (fairly complete to 1630)

1600 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare Fairies, Fairyland, and a magical love potion.
1602 La città del Sole (The City of the Sun) Tommaso Campanella A utopian theocratic society where goods, women and children are held in common. Some futuristic inventions, such as "vessels able to navigate without wind and without sails".
1603 Hamlet William Shakespeare Ghosts.
1604 The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Christopher Marlowe Necromancy and the Devil as a character.
1605 Don Quixote and the Cat Demons Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Contents not familiar to us.
1605 Mundus Alter et Idem Joseph Hall Contents not familiar to us.
1606 Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I William Shakespeare Witches.
1607 The Revengers Tragaedie Cyril Tourneur Contents not familiar to us.
1612 The White Devil John Webster Contents not familiar to us.
1621 Nova Typis Transacta Navigatio: Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis Caspar Plautius Various sea-monsters and fantastical creatures. A mass celebrated by St. Brendan on the back of a whale.
1623 The Tempest William Shakespeare Evil magic, from the witch Sycorax; Divine magic from the magician Prospero. The air spirit Ariel, along with various other spirits of the island. A magic staff and book.
1623 The Winter's Tale William Shakespeare The ghost of Queen Hermione appears and, at the end, enters a statue which then comes to life as her.
1624/1627 Nova Atlantis Francis Bacon Utopian novel, in Latin in 1624 and in English in 1627. (Gunn p.18)
1634 Somnium Johannes Kepler A trip to the moon. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have called this the first work of science fiction.
1638 The Man in the Moone Francis Godwin A trip to the moon. The first work of science fiction in English.
1656 Itinerarium Exstaticum (Ecstatic Journey). Athanasius Kircher An imaginary voyage around the planets of the solar system which are undertaken in a dream.
1666 The Blazing World Margaret Cavendish "A fanciful depiction of a satirical, utopian kingdom in another world (with different stars in the sky) that can be reached via the North Pole." "This early version of science fiction criticized and explored such issues as science, gender, and power."
1667 Paradise Lost
(non-genre) 		John Milton The Biblical story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. While this has many fantastical elements, Milton's stated purpose is to "justify the ways of God to men". Thus as fundamentally a religious exposition, we view it as non-genre.
1698 The Celestial World Discover'd Christiaan Huygens What the animals on the other planets must look like.

1700 C.E. to 1800 C.E. (collecting notes)

1764 The Castle of Otranto Horace Walpole The first gothic novel.
1785 Baron Munchausen Rudolph Erich Raspe [as by Baron Munchausen] Developed from Vademecum fur lustige Leute, 1781-83
1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho Ann Radcliffe Largely the founder of the "gothic novel" genre. Developed the technique of explaining the apparently supernatural elements

1800 C.E. to 1850 C.E. (collecting notes)

1806 The Armed Briton William Burke Listed in "SF Timetables". "Brought a libertarian pro-gun conservatism into the forefront of the book world, affecting much future science fiction." Needs more research before inclusion, e.g. does I.F. Clarke mention it in his works.
1815 Beowulf uncredited Written between the 8th century and early 11th century (see 1000 C.E.), this is the first book publication.
1818 Frankenstein Mary Shelley Often viewed as the first "modern" science fiction novel.
1824 Land of Acephals Wilhelm Küchelbecker Often cited, but as far as I can tell this exists only as an unpublished fragment, except possibly in academic articles discussing it. As such, it is not included in the database.


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