novella
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About Our Definitions: All forms of a word (noun, verb, etc.) are now displayed on one page.no·vel·la
noun \nō-ˈve-lə\Definition of NOVELLA
See Examples of NOVELLA
- <pressed for time, many English teachers have their students read the one novella among the novelist's works>
Origin of NOVELLA
Other Literature Terms
novella
noun (Concise Encyclopedia)Story with a compact and pointed plot, often realistic and satiric in tone. Originating in Italy during the Middle Ages, it was often based on local events; individual tales often were gathered into collections. The novella developed into a psychologically subtle and structured short tale, with writers frequently using a frame story to unify tales around a theme, as in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. The term is also used to describe a work of fiction intermediate in length—and sometimes complexity—between a short story and a novel. Examples of novellas include Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground (1864), Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1902), Thomas Mann's Death in Venice (1912), and Henry James's The Aspern Papers (1888).
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