List of novellas

Last updated

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Novellas are works of prose fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. [1] Several novellas have been recognized as among the best examples of the literary form. Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novella's word count to be between 17,000 and 40,000 words. [2] [3]

Contents

Major novellas

Certain novellas have been recognized as the best examples of the literary form, through their appearance on multiple best-of lists. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Novellas appearing on multiple best-of lists
AuthorTitlePublishedReferences
Albert Camus The Stranger 1942 [4] [5] [6] [9] [10]
Truman Capote Breakfast at Tiffany's 1958 [4] [5] [9] [10]
Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness 1899 [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [11]
Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol 1843 [4] [5] [7] [9] [11]
Ernest Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea 1952 [4] [6] [7] [8] [9] [11] [10]
Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis 1915 [4] [5] [7] [8] [9] [11] [10]
Richard Matheson I Am Legend 1954 [6] [7] [9] [11]
Herman Melville Billy Budd 1924 [5] [8]
George Orwell Animal Farm 1945 [4] [5] [7] [8] [9] [11] [10]
Philip Roth Goodbye, Columbus 1959 [6] [8]
John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men 1937 [4] [7] [9] [11] [10]
Robert Louis Stevenson Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 1886 [4] [5] [9] [10]
Edith Wharton Ethan Frome 1911 [5] [6] [9] [10]

Other notable novellas

Additionally, several novellas have been included on at least one best-of list.

Other notable novellas
AuthorTitlePublishedReference
Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending 2011 [6]
Saul Bellow Seize the Day 1956 [8]
Kate Chopin The Awakening 1899 [12] [9] [10]

"Novellas by women, about women" . Retrieved 5 November 2016. </ref>

Paulo Coelho The Alchemist 1988 [6]
Maryse Conde I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem 1986 [12]
Don DeLillo Pafko at the Wall 2001 [6]
Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Gambler 1867 [8]
Joseph von Eichendorff Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing 1826 [13]
George Eliot Silas Marner 1861
Nora Ephron Heartburn 1983 [12]
Penelope Fitzgerald The Bookshop 1978 [12]
Gabriel García Márquez Chronicle of a Death Foretold 1981 [8] [9] [10]
Gabriel García Márquez No One Writes to the Colonel 1961 [8]
Graham Greene The Tenth Man 1985 [6]
M. K. Indira Phaniyamma 1977 [12]
Shirley Jackson We Have Always Lived in the Castle 1962 [12] [10]
Henry James The Aspern Papers 1888 [8]
Henry James Daisy Miller 1879 [8]
Henry James The Turn of the Screw 1898 [8] [9] [11] [10]
Tove Jansson The Summer Book 1972 [12]
Sarah Orne Jewett The Country of the Pointed Firs 1896 [12]
James Joyce " The Dead "1914 [8]
Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon 1959 [4]
Stephen King Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption 1982 [7] [9]
Andrew Krivak The Sojourn 2011 [6]
Nella Larsen Passing 1929 [5] [14] [10]
Nella Larsen Quicksand 1928 [12]
Doris Lessing The Fifth Child 1988 [12] [9] [10]
Janet Lewis The Wife of Martin Guerre 1941 [12]
Johannes Linnankoski The Fugitives 1908 [15]
Penelope Lively The Photograph 2003 [6]
H.P. Lovecraft The Shadow Over Innsmouth 1931 [6]
H.P. Lovecraft At the Mountains of Madness 1931 [6] [9] [11]
David Malouf Fly Away Peter 1982 [6]
Thomas Mann Death in Venice 1912 [8]
Steve Martin Shopgirl 2000 [6] [9] [10]
Valerie Martin Property 2003 [12]
Carson McCullers The Member of the Wedding 1946 [12]
Herman Melville Bartleby, the Scrivener 1853 [8] [10]
Iris Murdoch Something Special 1957 [6]
Joyce Carol Oates Black Water 1992 [6]
Yōko Ogawa The Housekeeper and the Professor 2003 [12]
Stewart O'Nan Last Night at the Lobster 2007 [6]
Charles Portis True Grit 1968
Annie Proulx Brokeback Mountain 1997 [6]
Thomas Pynchon The Crying of Lot 49 1966 [6]
Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea 1966 [12] [9] [10]
Francoise Sagan Bonjour, Tristesse 1954 [12]
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 1962 [8] [9] [10]
Muriel Spark The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 1961 [12] [9] [10]
John Steinbeck The Pearl 1947 [5] [16] [9]
Leo Tolstoy The Death of Ivan Ilyich 1886 [8] [17] [9]
Justin Torres We the Animals 2011 [6]
Voltaire Candide 1759 [6]
Velma Wallis Two Old Women 1993 [12]
H. G. Wells The Time Machine 1895 [6] [9] [10]
Edith Wharton Bunner Sisters 1916 [12]
Edith Wharton Madame de Treymes 1907 [12]
Banana Yoshimoto Kitchen 1988 [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Aldiss</span> British science fiction writer (1925–2017)

Brian Wilson Aldiss was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for occasional pseudonyms during the mid-1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clive Barker</span> English author, film director and visual artist

Clive Barker is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed, and the Candyman series. He was also an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George R. R. Martin</span> American writer and TV producer (born 1948)

George Raymond Richard Martin, also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire, which were adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2019) and its prequel series House of the Dragon (2022–present). He also helped create the Wild Cards anthology series, and contributed worldbuilding for the 2022 video game Elden Ring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Tiptree Jr.</span> American science fiction writer (1915–1987)

Alice Bradley Sheldon was an American science fiction and fantasy author better known as James Tiptree Jr., a pen name she used from 1967 until her death. It was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree Jr. was a woman. From 1974 to 1985 she also occasionally used the pen name Raccoona Sheldon. Tiptree was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Novella</span> Fictional prose narrative form

A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word novella derives from the Italian novella meaning a short story related to true facts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Silverberg</span> American speculative fiction writer and editor (born 1935)

Robert Silverberg is an American author and editor, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and a Grand Master of SF. He has attended every Hugo Award ceremony since the inaugural event in 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Stross</span> British science fiction, horror, and fantasy writer and blogger

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine Computer Shopper and was responsible for its monthly Linux column. He stopped writing for the magazine to devote more time to novels. However, he continues to publish freelance articles on the Internet.

Michael Lawson Bishop was an American author. Over five decades and in more than thirty books, he created what has been called a "body of work that stands among the most admired and influential in modern science fiction and fantasy literature."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Hill (writer)</span> American writer (born 1972)

Joseph Hillström King, better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novels Heart-Shaped Box (2007), Horns (2010), NOS4A2 (2013), and The Fireman (2016); the short story collections 20th Century Ghosts (2005) and Strange Weather (2017); and the comic book series Locke & Key (2008–2013). He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiction</span> Narrative with imaginary elements

Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose – often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games.

<i>Worlds Best Science Fiction: 1971</i>

World's Best Science Fiction: 1971 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, the seventh volume in a series of seven. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in 1971, followed by a hardcover edition issued in September of the same year by the same publisher as a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. It was followed in 1972 by The 1972 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Wollheim, and The Best Science Fiction of the Year, edited by Carr, the first volumes of two separate successor series,

This is a list of the published works of Aliette de Bodard.

This is complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Fred Saberhagen.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2015</i> Anthology of science fiction short works

Nebula Awards Showcase 2015 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by American writer Greg Bear. It was first published in trade paperback by Pyr in December 2015.

<i>Nebula Award Stories 5</i>

Nebula Award Stories 5 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by James Blish. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1970. The first American edition was published by Doubleday in December of the same year. Paperback editions followed from Pocket Books in the U.S. in January 1972, and Panther in the U.K. in December 1972. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Five. The book has also been published in German.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2017</i> Science fiction and fantasy anthology

Nebula Awards Showcase 2017 is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short works edited by Canadian writer Julie E. Czerneda. It was first published in trade paperback and ebook by Pyr in May 2017.

Neon Yang, formerly JY Yang, is a Singaporean writer of English-language speculative fiction best known for the Tensorate series of novellas published by Tor.com, which have been finalists for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Lambda Literary Award, British Fantasy Award, and Kitschie Award. The first novella in the series, The Black Tides of Heaven, was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time Magazine. Their debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first book in The Nullvoid Chronicles, was published in 2022 by Tor Books, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, received a nomination for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and was a Finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel and 2023 Compton Crook Award.

Dexter Gabriel, better known by his pen name Phenderson Djèlí Clark, is an American speculative fiction writer and historian, who is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut. He uses a pen name to differentiate his literary work from his academic work, and has also published under the name A. Phenderson Clark. His pen name "Djèlí", makes reference to the griots – traditional Western African storytellers, historians and poets.

Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She also works as Social Media Manager and Associate Editor for Escape Pod.

References

  1. ↑ "Novella". Merriam Webster Dictionary . Retrieved 20 May 2016. a short novel: a story that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel
  2. ↑ "Differences Between a Short Story, Novelette, Novella, & a Novel". Owlcation.
  3. ↑ "What's the definition of a "novella," "novelette," etc.?". Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America . Archived from the original on 19 March 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Top 10 Novellas". The Novella Award. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "These Amazing Classic Books Are So Short You Have No Excuse Not To Read Them". The Huffington Post . 6 December 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Carswell, Beth (2012). "The Best Novellas: Literature's Middle Child". AbeBooks. Archived from the original on 30 August 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Thorsson, Johann (18 June 2012). "The World's Best Novellas". On Books & Writing. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Haber, Gordon (29 June 2015). "The 20 Best Novellas Ever Published In The History Of Humankind". Thought Catalog. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "The 93 Best Novellas" by Greg Hickey, Greg Hickey Writes. July 7, 2022. Accessed October 9, 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "100 Must-Read Novellas by Teresa Preston, Book Riot. December 20, 2016. Accessed October 9, 2022."
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "The Top 10 Novellas of All Time" by Johann Thorsson, Book Riot. November 30, 2012. Accessed October 9, 2022."
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "Novellas by women, about women" . Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  13. ↑ "Reviewed Work: Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing. / From the German of Joseph Von Eichendorff by Charles Godfrey Leland". The American Art Journal. 5 (10): 152–155. 28 June 1866. JSTOR   25306236.
  14. ↑ Rottenberg, Catherine (2003). "Passing : Race, Identification, and Desire". Criticism. 45 (4): 435–52. doi:10.1353/crt.2004.0025.
  15. ↑ Britannica: Johannes Linnankoski – Finnish author
  16. ↑ Benson, Jackson J. (1990). The Short Novels of John Steinbeck: Critical Essays With a Checklist to Steinbeck Criticism . Duke University Press. pp.  143–. ISBN   9780822309949 . Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  17. ↑ "The Best Novellas Every Book Lover Should Read" by Orrin Grey, Early Bird Books. September 17, 2021. Accessed October 9, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.