Outline the development of the novel form of literature.

In the eighteenth century, the novel became the most important new form of literature. The novel first appeared in world literature in China and Japan. The oldest of the early Japanese novels was The Tale of Genji. In China, where the history of the novel reached back to the twelfth century, prose tales of travel, love, and adventure were popular sources for operas and plays. However, neither Japanese nor Chinese prose fiction had any direct influence on Western forerunners of the genre, such as Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Not referred to as novels until the end of the century, the earliest fictional portrayals of contemporary life were presented as histories. For example, the popular Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe took the form of a counterfeit historical document. In early modern novels, with their graphic accounts of the personalities of lower- and middle-class people, the reading public discovered passions and sentiments much like their own. The novel genre had a mass appeal that made it extremely popular, changing the course of literary history.