Novella is a small narrative prose, a special literary genre close to the story, essay, and essay. This work is distinguished by a clearly defined plot with a climax and ending. Another difference between the short story and the literary works of other genres is a limited number of characters. If in a novel or story there are usually up to two dozen characters, then in the short story there are only two or three of them. The art of a short story is precisely to bring to the reader the content of a sufficiently broad topic, set out in a concise form.
Novel as a literary genre
Typically, novels are combined by the author in small cycles, as was the case with one of the most famous novelists, the American writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter). O'Henry's short stories were categorized. For example, the Noble Rogue cycle was composed of short short stories about two scammers named Andy Tucker and Jeff Peters, and the Business People cycle included several short stories on the adventures of criminal characters - The Leader of the Redskins, Bolivar two ", " Soulmates " and others.
Russian short stories
Russian writers, unlike the French and American novelist writers, did not put the novel at the forefront of their work, but applied a short narrative from case to case. The work of A. S. Pushkin, "Belkin's Tale", written in 1830, is an example of this. However, the brief theme does not mean that the narrative is less significant than a voluminous novel or story. Even such a fundamental writer as Dostoevsky, at the dawn of his work, wrote short stories (“Mistress”, “Double”).
Russian novelist writers
Russian novels in the classical sense of this genre came out of the pen of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who in some cases wrote extensively - "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", and in others, more succinctly - "Overcoat". In both cases, the plot was fully revealed, which means that the artistic value of the work is undeniable.
Russian playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote short stories in a manner peculiar only to him, which can be defined as "Chekhov's". The bottom line is that the writer was able to put in a short story the whole life of the character, sometimes quite long and eventful. Some of Chekhov's novels with a limited volume look like mini-novels. In the story "Ionych" the writer was able to reflect human life in full, all its tragicomic content, on 15 pages. Similar examples of "compressed" creativity are found in Leo Tolstoy, and one of them is a short story "Alyosha Pot".
Short story and plot
Since the short story is a literary genre that presumes the sharpness of the plot, it can be used when writing unusual works. If the story describes a leisurely development of events with a predictable end, then the story necessarily contains elements of tension, mystery and a spectacular final surprise. At the beginning and in the middle of the story, a neutral style dominates, a complete lack of psychologism, and then an ending that is unexpected and often illogical. In a story or a short story, on the contrary, the author tries to reveal exactly the psychological nuances of the story, a lot of attention is paid to the character's character, its deep essence.
Writer and scientist Edgar Allan Poe
The short story is also a literary genre that is ideal for "dark" stories, detective and cemetery horrors. An American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is deservedly recognized as an outstanding novelist writer. The genres in which the writer worked are unique and extremely unusual: literary hoax, horror literature. Edgar Allan Poe was not only a writer. He also wrote the study book, The First Book of a Conchologist. This is the work of a mature scientist dedicated to the study of mollusk shells. Based on the study, a complete illustrated guide to conchology was created.
Writer, poet, scientist Edgar Allan Poe wrote about a hundred short stories in his short life, each of which can be considered a masterpiece of literary art, despite its unusual content. This is the Golden Beetle, Murder on the Morgue Street, and Raven. The poetic works of Edgar Allan Poe did not receive due recognition during his lifetime. As the poet James Lowell figuratively remarked, Poe skillfully hewn a pile of poetic stones, but they still remained on the site, the foundation of them was not built.
Here are some of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories:
- Year 1832 - "Bon-Bon", "Without Breath", "Merzengerstein", "On the Walls of Jerusalem".
- Year 1833 - "Folio Club", "Buried Alive", "Manuscript in a Bottle", "Four Beasts in One".
- Year 1835 - “King of the Plague”, “Shadow”, “Morella”, “Pages from the Life of a Celebrity”, “Berenice”.
Novella is a literary genre that combines almost all the possibilities of prose, with great potential for expressing the writer's creative thoughts.