Miscellaneous - The Novella

A definition

A novella is a fictional narrative longer than a novelette 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 Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000.

Although the novella is a common literary genre in several European languages, it is less common in English. Despite this, many famous works of fiction were novellas, including:

- John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men'

- Franz Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'

- George Orwell's 'Animal Farm'

- Truman Capote's 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

- Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea'

- Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice'

Commonly, longer novellas are referred to as novels; 'The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde' is often called a novel, as are many science fiction works such as 'The War of the Worlds.'

Occasionally, longer works are referred to as novellas, with some academics positing 100,000 words as the novella/novel threshold.

However, since this figure equates 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

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