<P> The genre has been described as having `` a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years , '' with its origins in classical Greece and Rome , in medieval and early modern romance , and in the tradition of the novella . The latter , an Italian word for a short story to distinguish it from a novel , has been used in English since the 18th century for a work that falls somewhere in between . Ian Watt , in The Rise of the Novel , suggested in 1957 that the novel first came into being in the early 18th century . </P>
<P> The genre has been described as having `` a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years , '' with its origins in classical Greece and Rome , in medieval and early modern romance , and in the tradition of the novella . The latter , an Italian word for a short story to distinguish it from a novel , has been used in English since the 18th century for a work that falls somewhere in between . Ian Watt , in The Rise of the Novel , suggested in 1957 that the novel first came into being in the early 18th century . </P>
the novel emerged as a distinct form of literature in europe during the
the novel emerged as a distinct form of literature in europe during the
the early 18th century
the early 18th century