Presenting the case of the introduction of a series of ‘New Novels’ in 1909, this article analyzes the early beginning of literary midcult in the Netherlands. The ‘New Novels’ were initiated by the Dutch publisher Leo Simons who in 1905 founded ‘the World Library’, a publishing house aimed at offering education to the increasing readership in the early twentieth century. Simons asked the Dutch husband-and-wife writers team Carel and Margo Scharten-Antink to write the first volume of the ‘New Novels’, and together they introduced the Netherlands to the middlebrow novel, which should not be seen as merely a new genre, but as a product of new cultural practices. The major goal of the middlebrow novel was, by way of ‘fictional modelization’, to provide the readers with life-lessons and role models.