Starting from a general definition which relies on the main novelistic texts and on their perception in Antiquity, this contribution takes an updated look at the ancient novel, which expanded during the twentieth century thanks to the discovery of papyrus fragments and the study of narrative fragments in demotic. It makes use of recent discoveries and ancient evidence (such as those on the Milesiaká of Aristides), to show how the distinction between “serious novel” and “comic novel” – often disregarded due to the thematic variety observed in the papyri – is of primary importance in the approach to ancient fiction. A serious or comic spirit distinguishes each work and determines the character of stories which are notably different even when formally similar, and which are made up of recurring themes that are transferable to virtually any kind of narration. The genres of the serious novel and the comic novel begin to spread, probably, in late Hellenistic times. Like tragedy and comedy, they probably have different origins: the former shows significant similarities with historiography, the latter is characterized by episodic narration and amusing inserted tales. Both these traditions came into contact and influenced each other, exchanging narrative techniques and motifs: the results of this development are already entirely evident in the 1st century A.D.