I came up with this because I learned from Tumblr that there’s apparently more than a hundred fanfics for The Epic of Gilgamesh on Ao3, and I think it’s poetic in a way how we’ve still never really gotten over the first story ever.

My answer would be Le Roman de Silence, from the early 1200s, which is about the adventures Silence, a boy who was born as a girl (that’s the author’s way of describing him)and who eventually becomes a knight. I just stumbled across it randomly but I fell in love with it after reading it the first time, and I think it’s beautiful how something 1000 years old can still be around and not have lost any of it’s capability for arousing our emotions.

  • PogueBlue@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Beowulf, the Book of the City of Ladies and Gentleman he Exile of the Sons of Uisneach.

  • the-lonely-castle@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Njals Saga is probably the oldest story I’ve loved. Nothing is more entertaining than Icelandic farming drama that turns violent real fast

  • ashensfan123@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I really enjoyed Evelina by Frances Burney, published in 1778. While not the oldest book by any stretch of the imagination, its still a book that I loved when I read it.

  • Tasty-Ad-4602@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Monkey - Wu Cheng’En without it there would be no Dragonball.

    Candide by Voltaire is great too - hilarious satire that challenges the old adage of “everything happens for a reason” i.e God’s plan.

  • Chewbaccafruit@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Don Quixote. I didn’t ever think a 500 year old book would make me have to set it down because I was laughing so hard, but there ya go.

  • ksarlathotep@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I mean there’s a lot of old literature I appreciate. In that I admire the work, and I believe the author was a genius in their time, and I’m fascinated by the historical and artistic importance of the work. But if we’re talking literature that I unambiguously enjoy reading, not because I’m learning something or appreciating something but because the artistry just gets me and I enjoy myself, I would say the oldest is The Robbers by Friedrich Schiller, published 1781.