Novella

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Part of me likes either really long fiction that tries to encompass everything (Ulysses, Underworld, Crime and Punishment) or short and concentrated Novellas. They're easier to re-read obviously - i must have read Melville's "Bartelby the Scrivener" ten times and every time i do i love it more. Other favourites are Dostoyevski's "Notes from Underground"; Beckett's "Company" and Ethan Canin's "Batorsag and Szerelem".

What's your favourite?

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 30 December 2003 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

add Salinger's "Zooey"

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 30 December 2003 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

the only novella I've read is thomas mann's 'death in venice'. i liked it.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

the two I mention in this thread: Emmanuel Carrère - "The Moustache" and other stuff are both really good

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 05:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you really allowed to ready Zooey without Franny too?

― adam michel (adam michel), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose thanks to a friend.

― adam michel (adam michel), Monday, 5 January 2004 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Ever read Goethe's...Novella?

Last thing I read was Kundera's Slowness, which I liked quite a bit. But I usually do with novellas - as they don't have as much to chew, it's easier to let it sit on the palate and appreciate.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 5 January 2004 08:32 (twenty-one years ago)

the prague orgy by phillip roth is a favorite.

― Catty (Catty), Monday, 5 January 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not a massive D.H.Lawrence fan, but "The Virgin and the Gypsy" is wonderful, in my opinion. I'm also a big admirer of J.M.Cain's first two "novels" "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity", which are about 110 pages each.

― R the V (Jake Proudlock), Monday, 5 January 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i think you can read Zooey without reading Franny but theres not much point since Franny is only about 15 pages, i think.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 5 January 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm a sucker for compilations of short stories, where there is overall unity but I can actually finish something while lying in bed at night (lately Borges and Cortazar).

This is also why I like reading comic books at night.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 5 January 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah best short stories would be a good thread - not just "everything caver ever wrote" but specific choices from the best writers.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 5 January 2004 21:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Jim Harrison has written 12 novellas. He is very effective in this format, getting an enormous amount of work done in 75-100 pages. And it's not his fault that a couple of them have been made into really bad moveies ("Legens of the Fall," "Revenge").

― David Westendorp, Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

As far as novellas go:

I'll happily tack on Old Mortality by K.A. Porter, In the Ravine by Chekhov, There Must Be More to Love Than Death by Charles Newman, & The Making of Ashenden by Stanley Elkin.

That last has one of the more interesting sex scenes around, I think, in a trial-by-fire sort of way. Although I'd hate to spoil it with _my_ description.

But it's always such a touchy issue what one calls a novella--for instance, which of James' you'd call a novella, which a long short, which a short novel, or whether you'd include some of Peter Taylor's more sprawling entries like The Old Forest (which, incidentally, is a gorgeous piece.)

― Matthew K (mtk), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Is A Member of the Wedding considered a novella?

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Hated, that book / novella, Scott! "You are the we of me" and all that. Put me right off.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i remember liking it. i think i liked the movie better though. same with the heart is a lonely hunter. my feelings for that book are kinda tied in with my feelings for the movie which i always liked. certainly sondra locke's finest work until her direction of Ratboy! Same with Reflections In A Golden Eye. Loved the movie and the book.
Hey, Matthew brings up Katherine Anne Porter, would Pale Horse, Pale Rider be considered a novella? I loved that one once upon a time as well.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I think, for me, Carson McCullers is one of those sentimental faves from my high school days. I haven't read her stuff in years. I never did read Clock Without Hands(is that the title?). Maybe i should give it a try now and see what i think.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I never got that far. I loved The Heart (as posted elsewhere) and Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Now, there's a novella for you.

Incidentally, I was in a cafe (years ago) and written on the Specials Board was "the salad of the bad cafe". McCullers fans in the unlikeliest of places.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

oh yeah, i forgot about Ballad! That is a good one. and another good movie as well! Is there another author who has received such loving treatment by filmmakers?

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Edith Wharton maybe?

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Jane Austen. In the UK the Jane Austen Society are up in arms if the minutest detail is out of place in any tv / film adaptation.

They are like the militant wing of a pressure group. But with bonnets and social graces.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 6 January 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

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