Novella
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A '''novella''' is a [[writing|written]], [[fiction]]al, [[prose]] [[narrative]] longer than a [[novelette]] but shorter than a [[novel]]. While there is some disagreement as to what length defines a novella, the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]] [[Nebula Award]]s for [[science fiction]] define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000.<ref>[http://www.sfwa.org/awards/faq.htm Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Awards FAQ.] (Accessed 2/21/07)</ref>
Although the novella is a common [[literary genre]] in several [[European language]]s, it is less common in English. English-speaking readers may be most familiar with the novellas of [[John Steinbeck]], particularly ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'' and ''[[The Pearl (novel)|The Pearl]]'', [[Franz Kafka]]'s ''[[The Metamorphosis]]'' and ''[[In the Penal Colony]]'', [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'', [[Truman Capote]]'s ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'', [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'', [[Thomas Mann]]'s ''[[Death in Venice]]'', [[Philip Roth]]'s ''[[Goodbye, Columbus]]'' and [[Joseph Conrad]]'s ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''. [[Jack Kerouac]] has written many novellas such as ''[[Pic (novel)|Pic]]'', ''[[Tristessa]]'', ''[[The Subterraneans]]'', and ''[[Satori in Paris]]''. Most of the best-known works of [[H. P. Lovecraft]] are novellas, including ''[[The Shadow out of Time]]'', ''[[The Dunwich Horror]]'' and ''[[The Shadow Over Innsmouth]]''.
Like the [[English language|English]] word "novel", the English word "novella" is derived from the [[Italian language|Italian]] word "novella" (plural: "novelle"), for ''a tale, a piece of news''. As the [[etymology]] suggests, novellas originally were news of town and country life worth repeating for amusement and edification.
==History==
As a literary [[genre]], the novella's origin lay in the early [[Renaissance]] literary work of the Italians and the [[France|French]]. Principally, by [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] (1313–1375), author of ''[[The Decameron]]'' (1353)—one hundred novelle told by ten people, seven women and three men, fleeing the [[Black Death]] by escaping from [[Florence]] to the Fiesole hills, in 1348; and by the French [[Queen regnant|Queen]], [[Marguerite of Navarre|Marguerite de Navarre]] (1492–1549), [aka Marguerite de Valois, et. alii.], author of ''[[Heptameron|Heptaméron]]'' (1559)—seventy-two original French tales (structured like ''The Decameron'').
Not until the late [[18th century|eighteenth-]] and early [[19th century|nineteenth]] centuries did [[writer]]s fashion the novella into a literary genre structured by precepts and rules. Contemporaneously, the [[Germany|Germans]] were the most active writers of the ''Novelle'' (German: "Novelle"; plural: "Novellen"). For the German writer, a novella is a fictional narrative of indeterminate length—a few pages to hundreds—restricted to a single, suspenseful event, situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point (''Wendepunkt''), provoking a [[logical]], but surprising end; ''Novellen'' tend to contain a concrete symbol, which is the [[narrative|narration's]] steady point.
==Novella versus novel==
[[German language|German]] uses the word ''Novelle'' for "novella" to distinguish this prose form from ''Kurzgeschichte'' ("short story") and ''Roman'' ("novel"). In [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]], the word for "novella" is ''novelle'' and the word for "novel" is ''Roman''. In [[French language|French]] "novella" is ''nouvelle'' (but a "nouvelle" is actually a short story, not a novella) and "novel" is ''roman''; in [[Italian language|Italian]] too "short story" is ''novella'' and "novel" is ''romanzo'', while "novella" rather corresponds to ''romanzo breve''. In [[Romanian language|Romanian]] "novella" is ''nuvelǎ'' and "novel" is ''roman''. In [[Swedish language|Swedish]] "short story" is ''novell'' and "novel" is ''roman''. In [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]"novella"/"short story" is ''novelle'' and "novel" is ''roman''. In [[Finnish language|Finnish]] "short story" is ''novelli'' and "novel" is ''romaani''. In [[Russian language|Russian]], novella is "povest" (повесть), while "novel" is "roman" (роман); short story is "rasskaz" (рассказ) and it is the extremely brief form that is called "novella" ('новелла'). In [[Polish language|Polish]] "short story" is ''opowiadanie'', "novella" is "nowela" and "novel" is ''powieść''. This etymological distinction avoids confusion of the [[literature]]s and the forms, with the novel being the more important, established fictional form. The [[Austria]]n writer [[Stefan Zweig]]'s (1881–1942) ''[[The Royal Game|Die Schachnovelle]]'' (1942) (literally, "The Chess Novella", but translated in 1944 as ''The Royal Game'') is an example of a title naming its genre.
Commonly, longer novellas are referred to as novels; ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'' and ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'' are sometimes called novels, as are many [[science fiction]] works such as ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' and ''[[Armageddon 2419 A.D.]]'' Occasionally, longer works are referred to as novellas, with some academics positing 100,000 words as the novella‒novel threshold. However, since this figure extrapolates to about 500 pages, such an interpretation would only be made by someone who believes that no literary work of less than 500 pages can rightly be called a novel. Conversely, an interpretation of a novella as being 10,000 words or longer means a limit of about 50 pages, which is far more commonly thought of as short-story territory. A better set of parameters is this: 1-99 pages/short story. 100-199 pages (or approximately 20,000-40,000 words)/novella. 200 or more pages/novel. This difficulty in defining the empirical parameters of the novella genre is indicative of its shifting and diverse nature as an art form.
[[Stephen King]], in his introduction to ''[[Different Seasons]]'', an anthology of four of his novellas, has called the novella "an ill-defined and disreputable literary banana republic"<ref>King, Stephen. ''Different Seasons''. Viking Adult, 1982. ISBN 978-0670272662</ref>; King notes the difficulties of selling a novella in the commercial publishing world, since it does not fit the typical length requirements of either magazine or book publishers. Despite these problems, however, the novella's length provides unique advantages; in the introduction to a novella anthology titled ''Sailing to Byzantium'', [[Robert Silverberg]] writes:
<blockquote>[The novella] is one of the richest and most rewarding of literary forms...it allows for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the elaborate structural demands of the full-length book. Thus it provides an intense, detailed exploration of its subject, providing to some degree both the concentrated focus of the short story and the broad scope of the novel. <ref>Silverberg, Robert. ''Sailing to Byzantium''. New York: ibooks, inc., 2000. ISBN 0786199059</ref></blockquote>
In his essay "Briefly, the case for the novella", Canadian author George Fetherling (who wrote the novella ''Tales of Two Cities'') said that to reduce the novella to nothing more than a short novel is like "saying a pony is a baby horse." <ref> Fetherling, George. [http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/commentary/94_comm1.html ''Briefly, the case for the novella'']. </ref>
== See also ==
*[[List of novellas]]
*[[Novelette]]
==References==
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[[Category:Fiction]]
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