Yes! It was explained to me when I studied "the novel" as part of my English Lit degree. When the novel first emerged, they were seen as frivolous because they were fictional (and also because they were popular with women). A lot of authors tried to get around that by framing them as epistolary, retellings of stories they heard from a friend of a friend of a... or cautionary tales.
creaturecomforts13 t1_j7v4tw0 wrote
Reply to comment by runningstitch in Why do some books blank out arbitrary place names? by PangeanPrawn
Yes! It was explained to me when I studied "the novel" as part of my English Lit degree. When the novel first emerged, they were seen as frivolous because they were fictional (and also because they were popular with women). A lot of authors tried to get around that by framing them as epistolary, retellings of stories they heard from a friend of a friend of a... or cautionary tales.
It's one of my favourite little known facts!