Short stories are also a great way to get to know an author. I read Tolstoy’s novels before reading his short stories but I wish I had done the opposite. Tolstoy was a prolific writer of short stories and it helps to get used to his style and things like patronymics and diminutives. Keeping track of his characters in the longer novels is hard without being used to these aspects of his writing.
Great point! Along those lines, Flannery O’Connor is (for my money) a much better short story writer than a novelist. I return to her short stories all the time; I could take or leave her novels.
Agreed! Maybe a future post on short stories (if you haven’t already). I was thinking about Anthony Doerr’s The Memory Wall — though I enjoyed most of his novels also.
I started listening to Tolstoy's short stories after putting aside Anna Karenina and War and Peace. I'll get back to his novels after I finish his short stories.
A River Runs Through It (Norman Maclean). It clocks in at 104 pages. "Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters." A book to be reread yearly.
Indeed! I'd also add that few can match his insights into the nature of relationships, specifically two brothers. A small volume to suggest to you (if you are not aware of it) is "Philandering Angler" by Arthur Applin. It is a fly fishing memoir of the inter-war years in England and in Europe. Although it does overlap both wars, a bit. It has moments of brilliance and beauty, and some amazing stories on the water.
A Month in the Country by JL Carr is my favourite short book, I reread it most summers and find new things each time as well as enjoying the familiarity of it.
Brevity in writing requires precision in order to clearly convey ideas and capture the reader within a short space. The majority of my short books are non-fiction works, but they contain some of the best descriptive writing and clearest thinking on my shelf:
Over Prairie Trails - Frederick P. Grove
Klee Wick - Emily Carr
Are Women Human? - Dorothy L. Sayers
Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton
Poems & Devotions - John Donne
Short fiction is a good format good for the adventure/thriller, since tension cannot be indefinitely suspended. Both H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds' and John Buchan's 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' are under 200 pages. It is also a good format for satire - Sir Thomas More's Utopia is only about 156 pages long.
Short books are also cheaper to ship. A thin "bunkobon" book will fit inside an A6 envelope. In Canada, if a piece of mail is under 500 grams and less than 2cm thick it can be sent at a lower rate using regular stamps. When you go to the post office they will pass it through a rectangular hole in a plastic board to see if you are within the limits — we call this the “slot of doom”. I reissued Hilaire Belloc’s essay On Translation in this format and sent copies to friends this way.
As a massively overworked college professor--not at a big research university, but a small, teaching-intensive, Christian college, where I basically work two full-time jobs--I am a huge fan of shorter books, because I can actually fit them in and finish them in a reasonable time. I recently read Barnaby Rudge, by Dickens, and I made it through, but it took a few months. In the meantime, I knocked out various shorter titles.
Interesting to see the graph about bestseller length over time. One small data point: they aren't bestsellers, but I always watch for the International Booker Prize shortlist. This year, almost all the finalists were very short. I did a mini-review of one, Anne Serre's A Leopard-Skin Hat, and am currently working on a post about a second, Vincent Delecroix's Small Boat. Both books were a bit over 100 pages.
Some suggestions? I'll put in a plug for "my man," Jeremias Gotthelf. Not much of his work is available in English (alas), but NYRB has a translation of his novella The Black Spider. Well worth reading (see here: https://thedispatch.com/article/switzerland-and-spiders-at-halloween/).
--Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Inspector Barlach Mysteries. This actually includes two short novellas, 100 or so pages each, The Judge and His Hangman, and Suspicion. Both are fantastic.
--Henri Bosco, The Child and the River. A wonderful little book. I stumbled upon it in a bookstore a year or so ago, had never heard of Bosco, now I want to read more. I'm recommending this one every chance I get.
--Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier. I read this on the recommendation of a colleague and enjoyed it.
--Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman (I've got this in an edition from Schocken Books' "Library of Yiddish Classics"). I was persuaded to read this by hearing about it in a podcast, and I thought it was great. I've just started Aleichem's Stempenyu, which is also short--so far, so good.
--Willa Cather, Obscure Destinies. I'm cheating a little bit, because this is not exactly short (though not long), but it includes three novellas, and each of them is short. They're all good, but I thought one in particular (Neighbour Rosicky) was just about a perfect story.
Most of Simenon's novels come in under 200 pages. If memory serves a lot of sf and mystery from the 50s and 60s, and into the 70s, ran under 200 -- summer vacations in the high school years were great because I could devour a book and sometimes two books a day.
And I'm one of those who, when looking into the work of a writer new to me, looks at the short fiction first.
This is a great topic, I am glad that you chose to write about it.
Some of my favorites, beginning with Russian lit:
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
The Nose by Gogol
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin
Nathaniel Hawthorne favorites:
The Birthmark
Young Goodman Browne
Rappaccini's Daughter
The Minister's Black Veil
Edgar Allan Poe:
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Pit and the Pedulam
The Cask of Amontillado
Ligeia
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Black Cat
Others:
Street Haunting: A London Adventure by Virginia Woolf
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle (this was the only true science fiction novel I ever read. I picked it up after hearing Richard Dawkins speaking so fondly of it during a discussion with Lawrence Krauss. Its a great, quick read.)
If only more mainstream publishers encouraged the production and sale of novellas. Every author who writes them is almost automatically shut out as a result of the demand for draconian word counts.
Short stories are also a great way to get to know an author. I read Tolstoy’s novels before reading his short stories but I wish I had done the opposite. Tolstoy was a prolific writer of short stories and it helps to get used to his style and things like patronymics and diminutives. Keeping track of his characters in the longer novels is hard without being used to these aspects of his writing.
Great point! Along those lines, Flannery O’Connor is (for my money) a much better short story writer than a novelist. I return to her short stories all the time; I could take or leave her novels.
Agreed! Maybe a future post on short stories (if you haven’t already). I was thinking about Anthony Doerr’s The Memory Wall — though I enjoyed most of his novels also.
I started listening to Tolstoy's short stories after putting aside Anna Karenina and War and Peace. I'll get back to his novels after I finish his short stories.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
This book! I’ve read it twice because it packs such a punch and is still so beautiful. Painfully beautiful.
Yes!
A River Runs Through It (Norman Maclean). It clocks in at 104 pages. "Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters." A book to be reread yearly.
Yes! An absolute classic of American sporting literature!
I am haunted by "A River Runs Through It". No one can match MacLean's ability to write about fly fishing and the American West.
Indeed! I'd also add that few can match his insights into the nature of relationships, specifically two brothers. A small volume to suggest to you (if you are not aware of it) is "Philandering Angler" by Arthur Applin. It is a fly fishing memoir of the inter-war years in England and in Europe. Although it does overlap both wars, a bit. It has moments of brilliance and beauty, and some amazing stories on the water.
This is a great suggestion. I have fished a lot in England and love the tradition and authenticity. I will try to find it.
Foster or Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. She does so much in so little time. I liked both, but Small Things is my favorite of the two.
A Month in the Country by JL Carr is my favourite short book, I reread it most summers and find new things each time as well as enjoying the familiarity of it.
Brevity in writing requires precision in order to clearly convey ideas and capture the reader within a short space. The majority of my short books are non-fiction works, but they contain some of the best descriptive writing and clearest thinking on my shelf:
Over Prairie Trails - Frederick P. Grove
Klee Wick - Emily Carr
Are Women Human? - Dorothy L. Sayers
Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton
Poems & Devotions - John Donne
Short fiction is a good format good for the adventure/thriller, since tension cannot be indefinitely suspended. Both H.G. Wells' 'The War of the Worlds' and John Buchan's 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' are under 200 pages. It is also a good format for satire - Sir Thomas More's Utopia is only about 156 pages long.
Short books are also cheaper to ship. A thin "bunkobon" book will fit inside an A6 envelope. In Canada, if a piece of mail is under 500 grams and less than 2cm thick it can be sent at a lower rate using regular stamps. When you go to the post office they will pass it through a rectangular hole in a plastic board to see if you are within the limits — we call this the “slot of doom”. I reissued Hilaire Belloc’s essay On Translation in this format and sent copies to friends this way.
As a massively overworked college professor--not at a big research university, but a small, teaching-intensive, Christian college, where I basically work two full-time jobs--I am a huge fan of shorter books, because I can actually fit them in and finish them in a reasonable time. I recently read Barnaby Rudge, by Dickens, and I made it through, but it took a few months. In the meantime, I knocked out various shorter titles.
Interesting to see the graph about bestseller length over time. One small data point: they aren't bestsellers, but I always watch for the International Booker Prize shortlist. This year, almost all the finalists were very short. I did a mini-review of one, Anne Serre's A Leopard-Skin Hat, and am currently working on a post about a second, Vincent Delecroix's Small Boat. Both books were a bit over 100 pages.
Some suggestions? I'll put in a plug for "my man," Jeremias Gotthelf. Not much of his work is available in English (alas), but NYRB has a translation of his novella The Black Spider. Well worth reading (see here: https://thedispatch.com/article/switzerland-and-spiders-at-halloween/).
I'll also second the recommendation of Young Werther, about which (utterly shameless plug) I recently did a podcast with John J. Miller for the "Great Books": https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-great-books/the-sorrows-of-young-werther-by-goethe/. (It turned out to be the last episode of the long-running show when NR--double alas--pulled the plug on it.)
A few others that come quickly to mind:
--Friedrich Dürrenmatt, The Inspector Barlach Mysteries. This actually includes two short novellas, 100 or so pages each, The Judge and His Hangman, and Suspicion. Both are fantastic.
--Henri Bosco, The Child and the River. A wonderful little book. I stumbled upon it in a bookstore a year or so ago, had never heard of Bosco, now I want to read more. I'm recommending this one every chance I get.
--Rebecca West, The Return of the Soldier. I read this on the recommendation of a colleague and enjoyed it.
--Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman (I've got this in an edition from Schocken Books' "Library of Yiddish Classics"). I was persuaded to read this by hearing about it in a podcast, and I thought it was great. I've just started Aleichem's Stempenyu, which is also short--so far, so good.
--Willa Cather, Obscure Destinies. I'm cheating a little bit, because this is not exactly short (though not long), but it includes three novellas, and each of them is short. They're all good, but I thought one in particular (Neighbour Rosicky) was just about a perfect story.
Most of Simenon's novels come in under 200 pages. If memory serves a lot of sf and mystery from the 50s and 60s, and into the 70s, ran under 200 -- summer vacations in the high school years were great because I could devour a book and sometimes two books a day.
And I'm one of those who, when looking into the work of a writer new to me, looks at the short fiction first.
Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt. It's short but packs an emotional punch.
Loved and Missed was one of my favorite books the year I read it!
Holy The Firm (Dillard)
This is a great topic, I am glad that you chose to write about it.
Some of my favorites, beginning with Russian lit:
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol
The Nose by Gogol
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin
Nathaniel Hawthorne favorites:
The Birthmark
Young Goodman Browne
Rappaccini's Daughter
The Minister's Black Veil
Edgar Allan Poe:
The Tell-Tale Heart
The Pit and the Pedulam
The Cask of Amontillado
Ligeia
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Black Cat
Others:
Street Haunting: A London Adventure by Virginia Woolf
Bliss by Katherine Mansfield
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle (this was the only true science fiction novel I ever read. I picked it up after hearing Richard Dawkins speaking so fondly of it during a discussion with Lawrence Krauss. Its a great, quick read.)
I love Young Goodman Browne! That one and The Yellow Wallpaper are two of my favorite short stories.
I read Heart of a Dog years ago. It's such a good satire of Soviet society and very different from The Master and Margarita.
Yes! Less = more! https://www.whitenoise.email/p/less-is-more
Silk by Alessandro Baricco. I read it long ago but remember it was short and sweet.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. Most of Spark's books are short and every one I've read has been somewhere between good and excellent
If only more mainstream publishers encouraged the production and sale of novellas. Every author who writes them is almost automatically shut out as a result of the demand for draconian word counts.