If you’d like a taste of a classic author’s work but don’t have the time or patience to read a tome, consider the novella form. Here we’ll look at novellas by classic women authors that make great introductions to to their work.
What defines a novella? It’s generally based on word count of between 17,000 and 40,000, though it isn’t always so cut and dry. The Awakening by Kate Chopin is often described as a novella, though as far as word count, it's slightly outside that parameter.
On the other hand, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about 6,000 words, yet has often been published as a stand-alone book (as well as in collections of this author’s stories). In terms of some standard definitions, that doesn’t even qualify as a novelette.
I define a novella as a work that’s under 200 pages in printed form — enough to sink your teeth into, yet not overwhelming.
In the hands of a skillful writer, a lot can be packed into a novella. Let’s go with a simple dictionary definition of the novella — “a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel.”
If you have any other suggestions for novellas by authors past or present, comment and share your thoughts with other Literary Ladies readers.
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot (1859)
The Lifted Veil by George Eliot is a shorter work by the British author best known for weighty books like Middlemarch. (which I’m afraid I’ll never get through in this lifetime, though lord knows I’ve tried). It departs sharply from the usual realism that’s a hallmark of Eliot’s fiction.
Latimer, the book’s unreliable narrator, is a sensitive intellectual who believes that he can see into the future and read the thoughts of others. It was the first and only of George Eliot’s works to delve into the genre of science fiction; this novella might also be considered horror and makes much use of suspense.
Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott (1873)
Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott is a satire, somewhere in length between a novelette and novella, about her family’s misadventures as part of the Fruitlands community in the 1840s.
Alcott thinly disguised the members of the Transcendentalist community, most notably, her father, Amos Bronson Alcott, who was a co-founder of the community. You can read this work in its entirety on the Literary Ladies site.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman remains a classic in feminist literature. Some might consider it a longer short story rather than a novella, but either way, it feels like it belongs on this list.
In her 1913 essay, “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman revealed that the story was a reflection of the postpartum depression she suffered from, and her hopes that it would enlighten other women who experienced it.
But just as important, it's a story of a woman whose creativity and freedom are thwarted by the strict gender roles proscribed by her time, culture, and class. You can read the full text here.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)
The Awakening is a short novel by Kate Chopin, published in 1899. It’s the story of Edna Pontellier, who struggles with her role as wife and mother in the stratified social milieu of New Orleans in the late 1800s. Edna’s adulterous affairs made it a shocking publication in its time.
Now considered a feminist classic, it was met with vicious reviews upon its original publication. Though widely believed to have been banned by libraries and bookstores upon its publication, that’s not really accurate. It was, however, silenced and died a quiet death along with its author just a few years after its publication.
It was fully rediscovered along with Kate Chopin’s full body of wonderful work in the 1960s, and is now considered a masterpiece of feminist fiction. It’s a beautifully written classic that I highly recommend. Here is the full text.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton (1911)
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is admittedly depressing, but so beautifully told that many readers return to it again and again. An original 1911 review sketches the outline of the tale:
“Twenty years before the tale opens we learn that Ethan Frome has been crippled in a terrible accident … Ethan had his old parents to take care of and after their death he married the young woman who had helped him to nurse them … In a few years she needed assistance, so a young poor relation, Mattie Silver, came to live with them. Slowly she and Ethan fell in love. What happens next isn't 'happily ever after.'"
I also recommend Summer (1917), Edith Wharton’s coming-of-age novella that she called her “Hot Ethan.”
Lost Laysen by Margaret Mitchell (1916)
Surprise! Lost Laysen, a novella by Margaret Mitchell, the author of the Gone With the Wind, was found decades after her death. According to the publisher:
“The impossible has happened: the world has another story from Margaret Mitchell. Written in 1916, when the author was in her mid-teens, it’s a delight — a fitting predecessor to America’s most beloved epic novel. A spirited tale of love and honor on a doomed south Pacific island called Laysen, Lost Laysen would be justly praised as a charming effort by a remarkable young talent if it were its author’s only work.”
The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers (1951)
The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers centers around the eccentric Miss Amelia, owner of the formerly thriving café. When a hunchback wanders into town, followed by Amelia's her shiftless former husband, emotions swell and collide.
A review of the story from the year in which it was published offered this praise: “McCullers with the fine hand of a craftsman and the insight of a poet explores the emotions of jealousy and loneliness in the troubled depths of abnormal personality.”
The Ballad of the Sad Café is a brief but compelling introduction to the work of this classic Southern writer.
Maud Martha (1951)
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks is the only novel by this esteemed and much honored American poet. Published in 1951, its language is both spare and profound; it reads beautifully and poetically without seeming affected. It’s a satisfying portrait of a middle-class, mid-twentieth century Black woman leading an ordinary, extraordinary life.
I don’t know why this novella isn’t better known or more widely studied. It is absolutely mesmerizing.
The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty (1954)
The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty is a 1954 novella originally published in The New Yorker magazine the year before it appeared in book form. Narrated by Edna Earle Ponder, it’s the story of her uncle, Daniel Ponder, a sweet man who is considered a bit “slow.”
He has inherited a hefty fortune from his father and wants to give it away. Not surprisingly, his plan is opposed by the extended family. This charming story was turned into a Broadway play as well as a made-for-television film.
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (1966)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is the last work by this Dominican-British author. Considered a prequel and response to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, the novella presents the perspective of Antoinette Cosway, the sensual Creole heiress who wound up as the “madwoman in the attic” married to the mysterious Mr. Rochester.
This short novel became her most successful novel, praised for its spare yet evocative language and its exploration of the power imbalance between men in women, between patriarchal colonizers and the original inhabitants of the Caribbean in the 1830s.
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If you have any other recommendations for novellas by authors living or dead, male or female, comment below.
So yesterday I did a special mailing, Cookbooks for Kamala (and colleagues), offering two of my recent updated classic cookbooks, Vegetariana and Vegan Soups and Stews for All Seasons (or the two books as a set) as a fundraiser from my Etsy shop. I thought it would be fun to offer subscribers a way to donate through me, especially to the critical down-ballot races, and get a nice keepsake in return.
Less than a handful of subscribers thought it was a bad idea for me to be revealing my politics (why? Taylor Swift is allowed to ;-) but I’m happy to say that otherwise it was a great success!! Thanks to all who ordered, and to everyone else, it’s not too late. I’ll donate to the Harris campaign as well as Colin Allred, Ruben Gallego, and Elissa Slotkin, while supplies last.
And I'm struggling to get through Forever Amber, the forgotten and widely banned 1944 novel on Restoration England by Kathleen Winsor — nearly 1,000 pages or hours and hours of listening time. Mrs. Dalloway shades into full-fledged novel even though it is a short one (usually between 200-224 pages), and a wonderful suggestion. It's honestly the only Virginia Woolf novel I've ever been able to get through ...
I actually just taught “The Yellow Wallpaper” today in a composition class. We had a very lively conversation regarding how the protagonist is stripped of all semblance of an identity and forced to reject everything she knows to be true about herself and her relationship to the world. My students saw application of the story to our own culture in terms of the psychological damage caused by these gaslighting strategies and the long-term effects of being denied a resonant voice. Excellent selection!