The 10 Best Novellas of All Time
Books? I ain’t reading all that. Gimme something short and sweet. A little baby novel. A novella. But not just any novella. I only want the best novellas. Ten of them. Greatest of all time. Here they are.
1. The Body
Stephen King is known to many as the King of Horror, but little do they know that he also wrote the greatest coming of age novella ever made as a part of his Different Seasons anthology. If you don’t know The Body by name, you’ve still know the story if you’ve seen the classic 1980s flick Stand By Me. The Body is about four poorly supervised boys who decide to spend a weekend journeying down the railroad tracks to discover the body of a boy their age who was hit by a train. Throughout the course of the novella, the boys learn what terrible truth that all children must: that in this world bad things truly do happen, even to innocents.
2. The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis focused on a young man who has awoken to find himself in a strange predicament: he’s turned into a giant bug. Despite his new bug body, he still tries to go to work, take care of the household, and be a good son and brother to his family. If only he could stop his newfound urges to hide under things and crawl on the walls. Metamorphosis is a delightfully absurd and totally tragic tale about a young man who is so altruistic that he’s more worried about how is new bug self affects everyone else’s life rather than his own.
3. Animal Farm
It’s 1984 for kids! George Orwell’s Animal Farm uses a barnyard setting and characters to teach readers one thing: don’t trust the government. The animals of Animal Farm decide to rise up and form a democracy, but a charismatic and tyrannical pig named Napoleon believes that while all pigs are equal, some pigs are more equal than others. It’s a cautionary tale of how easily democracy into despotism, and how power unchecked fries all our collective bacon.
4. The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince is a children’s story that everyone can appreciate. The plot revolves around the adorable, spacefaring little royal protagonist, who journeys through the stars to faraway planets to encounter new friends and life lessons. It’s one of the most whimsical stories ever penned, an ode to the fleeting nature of innocence and the fragility of human relationships.
5. Night
“Deep inside me, I felt a great void opening.” If there was ever a sentence to sum up Elie Wiesel’s Night, it would be that. A survivor of the Holocaust in his childhood, Elie Wiesel’s harrowing novella recounts he and his family’s capture and torture at the hands of the Nazis. The book is an elegy, a slow death of faith. How does one maintain hope for humanity in a world that is fraught with misery and evil? Night doesn’t have any answers, but it asks all the questions. It’s an excruciating read, and one of the most powerful pieces of literature ever written.
6. The Turn of the Screw
Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is a ghost story CLASSIC. The plot concerns a young governess who has been hired by a wealthy family to watch over their two little children. This book may have singlehandedly started the “creepy kids” horror trope. The governess becomes convinced that the house is being haunted by the ghosts of two former servants, and the children are somehow able to perceive things from beyond the grave. But are there actually supernatural horrors afoot? Or is it all in her head?
7. The Sign of the Four
The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of the best detective stories ever penned, and shows Sherlock Holmes at the height of his deductive powers. Holmes and his dear Watson are called upon by a woman who wishes to solve the riddle of her father’s mysterious disappearance. Which naturally leads the pair to a dubiously complicated case involving secret treasures and mysterious deaths. If you’re looking for a quintessential detective romp, you can’t go wrong.
8. Coraline
Before it was a groundbreaking stop motion flick, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline was a creepy little mini book! The novel centers around the titular Coraline, whose humdrum family has made her move from her childhood home to a new house far away. Her parents don’t pay much attention to poor Coraline, but that’s okay! She discovered a weird little passageway in the house that transports her to a magical land where button-eyed doppelgängers of her family are actually cool and pay attention to her. She can stay there forever if she just lets her “Other Mother” sew buttons onto her eyes! Wait. No. Abort!
9. The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Nghi Vó’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a historical fantasy novella set in a fictional Asian kingdom of old. We’re told the story of the exiled Empress In-yo through the eyes of her handmaiden Rabbit. In-yo is understandably not happy about her exile, and she’s embarking on a quest for vengeance against the royals that wronged her. She fully intends to burn the entire kingdom down and seat herself on the throne of ashes. Pop off, queen. We’re here for it. You deserve the crown and the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella.
10. Binti
Nnedi Okorafo’s Binti is an Afrofuturist sci-fi horror story about a young woman named Binti, who is the first member of the Himba people to be accepted into a prestigious university … IN SPACE. While on route to her new intergalactic college, her transport ship comes under attack from a jellyfish-like alien species bent on humanity’s destruction. The alien-ness of the aliens makes them virtually impossible to communicate with, but Binti has a couple ideas that she wants to test out to save the ship’s passengers and the human race from an all-out space war. Through her wits, courage, and her cultural heritage, she might just be able to create a lasting peace between the species.
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