The First English Novel Was About Talking Cats
Literary scholars often trace the novel form back to 18th-century, although it depends on how you define "novel." A book called Beware the Cat, written by William Baldwin in 1553, appears to fill the bill.Beware...
https://www.neatorama.com/2018/09/24/The-First-English-Novel-Was-About-Talking-Cats/