Back in 2007, the Booker Prize panel created a storm in a literary teacup by shortlisting Ian McEwan’s ‘On Chesil Beach’. It was a decision deemed controversial in critical circles, with the Irish Independent regarding the book as “barely even a novella” and “in some ways more a long short story” … all of which begs the question, what is a novella?
The word itself comes to us via Italian, in which it means ‘a piece of news’. ‘Novel’ has the same derivation, but ‘novella’ in English has come to imply something less substantial. Yet how do we define literary substance? In what way is a novella less substantial than a novel? – in its length, its content, its scope? … Various word counts are talked about as both maximums for a novella and minimums for a novel; and if there were such a thing as a consensus on the matter, it might put the limit for a novella at 40,000 or 50,000 words, with anything beyond that qualifying as a novel. But given that there is little consensus, we perhaps need to look for a different definition.
It seems that a novella is not only traditionally shorter than a novel but also simpler in form. It will still have the detail, power and depth of character that is absent, for example, from a short story. Indeed it may be more intense than a novel – but not because of its relative brevity; rather due to another crucial factor: a lack of subplot. A novella is inherently more focused because its plot is uncluttered. It is a single arc of narrative, building to an emotional crescendo, without losing track of the tale’s essence amid unnecessary meanderings … which is surely what makes stories such as ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘On Chesil Beach’ so affecting. And who knows, in this time-conscious age, our ever-decreasing attention spans may well prompt a resurgence among writers in this compact but meaningful form.
Footnote: Ian McEwan once revealed in a Radio 4 interview that he had kept some pebbles from Chesil Beach on his writing desk whilst working on his classic novella. The local borough council’s response was to threaten him with a fine of £2000. Happily, the pebbles have since been returned – put back in their place, one might say. We can only hope that the same is true of the council.
The word itself comes to us via Italian, in which it means ‘a piece of news’. ‘Novel’ has the same derivation, but ‘novella’ in English has come to imply something less substantial. Yet how do we define literary substance? In what way is a novella less substantial than a novel? – in its length, its content, its scope? … Various word counts are talked about as both maximums for a novella and minimums for a novel; and if there were such a thing as a consensus on the matter, it might put the limit for a novella at 40,000 or 50,000 words, with anything beyond that qualifying as a novel. But given that there is little consensus, we perhaps need to look for a different definition.
It seems that a novella is not only traditionally shorter than a novel but also simpler in form. It will still have the detail, power and depth of character that is absent, for example, from a short story. Indeed it may be more intense than a novel – but not because of its relative brevity; rather due to another crucial factor: a lack of subplot. A novella is inherently more focused because its plot is uncluttered. It is a single arc of narrative, building to an emotional crescendo, without losing track of the tale’s essence amid unnecessary meanderings … which is surely what makes stories such as ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘On Chesil Beach’ so affecting. And who knows, in this time-conscious age, our ever-decreasing attention spans may well prompt a resurgence among writers in this compact but meaningful form.
Footnote: Ian McEwan once revealed in a Radio 4 interview that he had kept some pebbles from Chesil Beach on his writing desk whilst working on his classic novella. The local borough council’s response was to threaten him with a fine of £2000. Happily, the pebbles have since been returned – put back in their place, one might say. We can only hope that the same is true of the council.