A novella is a book that tells a story in prose, and it is shorter than most novels but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word "novella" comes from the Italian word "novella," which means a short story based on real (or seems to be real) events.

Definition

The Italian word "novella" comes from "novello," which means "new," similar to the English word "news." Merriam-Webster describes a novella as "a work of fiction that falls between a short story and a novel in length and how complex the story is." People disagree about how many pages or words a story needs to be called a novella, short story, or novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association says a novella has between 17,500 and 40,000 words. At 250 words per page, this is 70 to 160 pages. Other organizations have different definitions, as shown below.

History

The novella, a type of short story, began to develop in Italian literature during the early Renaissance, mainly through the work of Giovanni Boccaccio. His book, The Decameron (1353), includes 100 short stories (called novellas) told by ten people—seven women and three men—who fled the Black Death in Florence, escaping to the Fiesole hills in 1348. This format was later copied by other writers, such as French queen Marguerite de Navarre, who wrote Heptaméron (1559), a collection of 72 French novellas inspired by The Decameron.

The Italian novella developed from medieval short stories. Its first major form appeared in an anonymous book from the late 13th century, Il Novellino, and reached its peak with The Decameron. Writers who followed Boccaccio, like Giovanni Fiorentino, Franco Sacchetti, Giovanni Sercambi, and Simone de' Prodenzani, continued this tradition into the early 15th century. The Italian novella influenced later writers, including Shakespeare.

Novellas were also written in Spain. Miguel de Cervantes' book Novelas ejemplares (1613) brought new ideas to the genre, focusing more on showing characters and their social backgrounds.

Writers did not create clear rules for the novella as a genre until the late 18th and early 19th centuries, often writing in a realistic style. During this time, German writers were most active in writing Novelle (plural: Novellen). For German writers, a novella is a fictional story of varying length—short or long—that centers on a single, exciting event or conflict leading to an unexpected but logical ending. These stories often include a specific symbol that is the story’s main focus.

The novella influenced the development of the short story and the novel across Europe. In the late 19th century, Henry James was among the first English-language critics to use the term novella to describe a story longer and more complex than a short story but shorter than a novel.

In English-speaking countries, the modern novella is rarely considered a separate literary genre. Instead, it is often used to describe a short novel.

Characteristics

A novella usually has fewer conflicts than a novel but more complex conflicts than a short story. These conflicts have more time to develop compared to those in short stories. Novellas may or may not have chapters. Examples of novellas with chapters include Animal Farm by George Orwell and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. White space is often used to separate sections in novellas, which is less common in short stories. Novellas may be intended to be read in one sitting, like short stories, creating a unified effect for the reader. According to Warren Cariou, "The novella is generally less formally experimental than the long story or novel and usually lacks subplots, multiple points of view, and the ability to adapt to different genres that are common in novels. It often focuses on personal and emotional growth rather than large social issues. The novella keeps the unity of impression seen in short stories but includes more developed characters and detailed descriptions."

The term "novel" comes from the Italian word "novella," which originally meant "a short story or tale" and was often used in the plural, as in The Decameron. The term "novella" became more common in English later. The distinction between "novel" and "novella" became clearer in the 19th century, influenced by German literature. In 1834, John Lothrop Motley still referred to works as "novels" in the original sense of the word. However, when "novella" was used, it often described a short and witty story. In 1902, William Dean Howells noted that many novellas have a beauty of form that longer novels sometimes lack.

Sometimes, the genre name appears in a work's title, such as The Divine Comedy or Das Märchen by Goethe. Austrian writer Stefan Zweig’s Die Schachnovelle (1942), translated as The Royal Game, is an example of a title naming its genre. This practice reflects the genre’s historical development.

Longer novellas are sometimes called novels. For example, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad are sometimes classified as novels, as are works like The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells and Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan. Shorter works are less often called novellas. The lack of clear rules for defining novellas shows how the genre has evolved over time. Ingrid Norton, in her 2010 essay, criticized relying on length alone to classify works, saying such distinctions can be misleading.

Stephen King, in his introduction to Different Seasons (1982), a collection of four novellas, noted the challenges of publishing novellas, as they do not fit typical length requirements for magazines or books. However, the novella’s length offers unique benefits. Robert Silverberg, in an anthology titled Sailing to Byzantium, wrote: "The novella is one of the richest literary forms…it allows for more detailed character and theme development than short stories without the complexity of full-length novels. It combines the focus of a short story with the scope of a novel."

Canadian author George Fetherling, who wrote the novella Tales of Two Cities, compared reducing a novella to a short novel to calling a pony a baby horse. The unclear line between novels and novellas sometimes causes debate. For example, Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach (2007) was described by the author as a novella but classified as a "short novel" by the Man Booker Prize panel. Similarly, Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903), now considered short enough to be a novella, was historically viewed as a novel.

Dictionaries often define "novelette" similarly to "novella," though sometimes with a slight negative tone, suggesting it is trivial or sentimental. Some literary awards use word counts to distinguish between novellas and novelettes. A novella typically ranges from 17,500 to 40,000 words, while a novelette is usually between 7,500 and 17,500 words. According to The Writer, a novelette is approximately 7,000 to 20,000 words, with shorter works classified as short stories.

Notable examples

This list includes novellas that are often seen as the top examples of their type because they are listed on many best-of lists.

Word counts

Some literary awards have a category for "best novella" and sometimes a separate category for "best novelette," which are different from the "best short story" or "best novel" categories. The difference between these categories is often determined by the number of words in the story.