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]

Major novellas

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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
Author Title Published References
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

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

Other notable novellas
Author Title Published Reference
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.

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]

References

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  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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Top 10 Novellas". The Novella Award. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Carswell, Beth (2012). "The Best Novellas: Literature's Middle Child". AbeBooks. Archived from the original on 30 August 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thorsson, Johann (18 June 2012). "The World's Best Novellas". On Books & Writing. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Haber, Gordon (29 June 2015). "The 20 Best Novellas Ever Published In The History Of Humankind". Thought Catalog. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "The 93 Best Novellas" by Greg Hickey, Greg Hickey Writes. July 7, 2022. Accessed October 9, 2022.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "100 Must-Read Novellas by Teresa Preston, Book Riot. December 20, 2016. Accessed October 9, 2022."
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Top 10 Novellas of All Time" by Johann Thorsson, Book Riot. November 30, 2012. Accessed October 9, 2022."
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "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.