Difference between revisions of "Novella" - New World Encyclopedia

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A novella is a narrative work of prose fiction shorter in both length and breadth than a novel, but longer than a short story. Typically, novellas dramatize individual events, or a short series of events, such as a day in the life, or an important turning point in a character’s life. While most literary designations typically do not have specific requirements in terms of length, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America award their Nebula Science Fiction Prize for novellas with length 60 to 130 pages or 17,500 to 40,000 words.

Like its counterpart “novel”, the English word “novella” is derived from the Italian word “novella” (plural: “novelle”) meaning a tale; piece of news. Novellas as a literary form emerged in the early 14th century in Italian Renaissance literature. Some famous and popular novellas include Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

History

The novella as a literary form largely did not exist until fourteenth century Italy, where it began due primarily to the work of Giovanni Boccaccio and his Decameron (1353). The Decameron was a collection of 100 brief novelle—ten stories each by ten different characters all traveling from Florence to the Fiesole Hills to escape the Black Death—following the strict etymology of a tale or piece of news. His form was mimicked by the French Queen Margerite de Navarre, whose Heptameron (1559) consisted of 72 short tales. In the English language, the earliest well-known example is Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, which, though composed mainly of verse and not prose, was a late fourteenth century homage to the Decameron.

However noteworthy these achievements were, the novella did not take off as a repeated literary form until the eighteenth century, when German writers began to formulate regulations regarding the novella—none of which concerned length. According to those Germans, the ‘’novelle’’ (as opposed to the novel, ‘’Roman’’) is a story of indeterminate length focusing specifically on one event or conflict. Most often these led to Wendepunkt, an unexpected turning point in the tale, which resulted in a logical, provocative conclusion. Though this format is not universally replicated by all authors and literary academics, the designation of a single conflict has particular significance to the novella as an individual form.

Novella versus Novel

In German, the word for ‘novel’ is Roman, while the word for ‘novella’ is Novelle. Similarly, the word roman translates as the English ‘novel’ in Dutch, French, Swedish, Danish, and Romanian languages, giving it particular significance over the novella as the established, premier literary form. As opposed to the novel’s unlimited complexity, especially when introducing conflicts, themes, and events, the novella’s focus on a singular moral significance or climactic event tends to make it less structurally complex and shorter in length. The advantages of this are described by Robert Silverberg in the introduction to his anthology Sailing to Byzantium (2000):

“[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.”

Sometimes novellas are easy to spot thanks to declarative titling by the authors, for example Steve Martin’s 2000 book Shopgirl: A Novella or Don DeLillo’s 2001 book Pafko at the Wall: A Novella. However, some popular novellas are often referred to in practice—incorrectly—as novels. The following well-known works are examples of novellas mistakenly referred to as novels:

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1902)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1897)

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (1912)

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1898)

Armageddon 2419 C.E. by Philip Francis Nowlan (1928)

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References
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-A '''novella''' is a narrative work of [[prose]] [[fiction]] longer than a [[short story]] but shorter than a [[novel]]. While there is some disagreement of what length defines a novella, the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]] [[Nebula Award|Nebula]] awards for [[science fiction]] define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000 or 60 to 130 pages.<ref>http://www.sfwa.org/awards/faq.htm Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Awards FAQ.  (Accessed 2/21/07)</ref>
+A '''novella''' is a narrative work of prose fiction shorter in both length and breadth than a novel, but longer than a short story.  Typically, novellas dramatize individual events, or a short series of events, such as a day in the life, or an important turning point in a character’s life.  While most literary designations typically do not have specific requirements in terms of length, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America award their Nebula Science Fiction Prize for novellas with length 60 to 130 pages or 17,500 to 40,000 words.
-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 [[Franz Kafka]], particularly ''[[The Metamorphosis]]'' and ''[[In the Penal Colony]]'', [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Animal Farm]]'', [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'', [[Philip Roth]]'s ''[[Goodbye, Columbus]]'' and [[Joseph Conrad]]'s ''[[Heart of Darkness]]''.
+Like its counterpart “novel”, the English word “novella” is derived from the Italian word “novella” (plural: “novelle”) meaning ''a tale; piece of news.''  Novellas as a literary form emerged in the early 14th century in Italian Renaissance literature.  Some famous and popular novellas include Franz Kafka’s ''The Metamorphosis'', George Orwell’s ''Animal Farm'', and Joseph Conrad’s ''Heart of Darkness''.
-Like the [[English language|English]] word "novel," the English word "novella" derives 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==
+The novella as a literary form largely did not exist until fourteenth century Italy, where it began due primarily to the work of Giovanni Boccaccio and his ''Decameron'' (1353).  The ''Decameron'' was a collection of 100 brief novelle—ten stories each by ten different characters all traveling from Florence to the Fiesole Hills to escape the Black Death—following the strict etymology of a tale or piece of news.  His form was mimicked by the French Queen Margerite de Navarre, whose ''Heptameron'' (1559) consisted of 72 short tales.  In the English language, the earliest well-known example is Chaucer’s ''Canterbury Tales'', which, though composed mainly of verse and not prose, was a late fourteenth century homage to the ''Decameron''.
+However noteworthy these achievements were, the novella did not take off as a repeated literary form until the eighteenth century, when German writers began to formulate regulations regarding the novella—none of which concerned length.  According to those Germans, the ‘’novelle’’ (as opposed to the novel, ‘’Roman’’) is a story of indeterminate length focusing specifically on one event or conflict.  Most often these led to ''Wendepunkt'', an unexpected turning point in the tale, which resulted in a logical, provocative conclusion.  Though this format is not universally replicated by all authors and literary academics, the designation of a single conflict has particular significance to the novella as an individual form.
+==Novella versus Novel==
-==History==
+In German, the word for ‘novel’ is ''Roman'', while the word for ‘novella’ is ''Novelle''.  Similarly, the word ''roman'' translates as the English ‘novel’ in Dutch, French, Swedish, Danish, and Romanian languages, giving it particular significance over the novella as the established, premier literary form.  As opposed to the novel’s unlimited complexity, especially when introducing conflicts, themes, and events, the novella’s focus on a singular moral significance or climactic event tends to make it less structurally complex and shorter in length.  The advantages of this are described by Robert Silverberg in the introduction to his anthology ''Sailing to Byzantium'' (2000):
-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&ndash;1375), author of ''[[The Decameron]]'' (1353)&mdash;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&ndash;1549), [aka Marguerite de Valois, et. alii.],  author of ''[[Heptameron|Heptaméron]]'' (1559)&mdash;seventy-two original French tales (structured like ''The Decameron''). Her psychological acuity and didactic purpose outweigh the unfinished collection's weak literary style.
+<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.”</blockquote>
+Sometimes novellas are easy to spot thanks to declarative titling by the authors, for example Steve Martin’s 2000 book ''Shopgirl: A Novella'' or Don DeLillo’s 2001 book ''Pafko at the Wall: A Novella''.  However, some popular novellas are often referred to in practice—incorrectly—as novels.  The following well-known works are examples of novellas mistakenly referred to as novels:
+* ''Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
+* ''Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph Conrad (1902)
+* ''The Turn of the Screw'' by Henry James (1897)
+* ''Death in Venice'' by Thomas Mann (1912)
-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&mdash;a few pages to hundreds&mdash;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 [[narration|narration's]] steady point.
+* ''The War of the Worlds'' by H.G. Wells (1898)
-==Novella versus novel==
+* ''Armageddon 2419 A.D.'' by Philip Francis Nowlan (1928)
-In [[German language|German]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]], the word for "novella" is ''Novelle'' (German) and ''novelle'' (Dutch), and the word for "novel" is ''Roman'' (German) and ''roman'' (Dutch). In [[French language|French]] "novella" is ''nouvelle'' and "novel" is ''roman''. 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]] "novella"/"short story" is ''novelle'' and "novel" is ''roman''. This [[etymological]] distinction avoids confusion of the literatures and the forms, with the novel being the more important, established fictional form. The [[Austria|Austrian]] 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;  ''[[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 C.E.]]''. Occasionally, longer works are referred to as novellas, with some academics positing 100,000 words as the novella‒novel threshold.
-[[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, Steven. ''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:
+==Links==
-<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>
+* [http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/resource/novella.htm The Novella: A Guide]
+* [http://www.sfwa.org/awards/faq.htm Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Awards FAQ]
-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."
 ==References==
-<references/>
+*
 == See also ==
-*[[List of Novellas]]
 *[[Literature]]
 *[[Novel]]