One of my favorite forms of literary fiction is the novella. Starting at approximately 19,000 words (and running as long 40,000 words) it gives the literary fiction reader a little more meat than a short story but requires less commitment than a full blown novel.

Like short stories it is not unheard of for them to be published as a collection or in literary magazines. If a novella is extremely well received it will get a cover of its own. Some publishers try to pass them off as a full length novel while others clearly state "novella" either in the title or in the description. Individually packaged novellas can range from 130 pages to 250 and generally have larger print than the standard novel.

The novella is not limited to the genre of literary fiction and is quite commonly used in science fiction and mini mysteries.

Keep an eye out for these literary fiction gems:

Ten Classic Novellas

* The Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis)
* Animal Farm (George Orwell)
* The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
* Breakfast at Tiffany's (Truman Capote)
* Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
* The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
* Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
* Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
* The Touchstone (Edith Wharton)
* Mathilda (Mary Shelley)

Five Modern Novellas

* Legends of the Fall (Jim Harrison)
* The Uncommon Reader (Alan Bennet)
* Everyman (Philip Roth)
* Shopgirl (Steve Martin)
* Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

For an excellent series with over thirty classic novellas (as well as a series of contemporary) check out Melville House Publishing's The Art of the Novella.

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M. E. Wood lives in Eastern Ontario, Canada. If you are going to find this eclectic reader and writer anywhere it is probably at her computer. For more information visit her official website.