20 Brilliant Novellas You Should Read

The novella is the stepchild of literary genres. It's too long for a short story and too short for a novel. Publishers look down on them because they are hard to sell. There is even confusion about what the word really means. Literally, it's Italian for a "little novelty." Originally the word was used for tales in frame stories like the Arabian Nights and Boccaccio's Decamerone. However, in its modern meaning it's a prose narrative of intermediate length. Although there is no consensus, this length ranges roughly from 20,000 to 40,000 words, or in an average publication something between 60 and 120 pages. You can finish a novella in one or two days without reading diagonally or skipping pages. Compared to a short story there is more room to develop round characters and an interesting plot. The main difference with a novel is that it centers around one main character and it has no subplots.Some of the greats of world literature have one or more novellas among their best titles.