Answer:
False.
Explanation:
By early novels, most, not without some controversy, would refer to the modern novel that, without a doubt, was inaugurated by Cervantes´ Don Quixote, and followed by many others ever since. What characterizes these early novels is the indiscriminate use of fiction, up to a point where, like the narrator of the Quixote, reality, authorship, and fictionalized narrative are indistinguishable (which is what makes this genre so enticing and fascinating). Although this indiscriminate use of fiction and reality led to a specific genre of novels called “epistolary novel”, this could hardly be credited with the rise in popularity that the novel genre saw in the 17th century.
