| Author | Message | ||
     Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
http://ttapress.com/611/their-favourite-novellas/0/5/ My choice was inevitable.  | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Hey, thanks, Gary! Among mine would be Carmilla, The Events at Poroth Farm, The Colour out of Space (is that long enough to be counted?) and The Willows (if that is). | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.208.112.230 |
Cheers for posting that link, Gary. Novellas are probably my favourite form of any fiction. I think they're the perfect length to suit horror. There are some great recommendations in there. I'd probably add Mr Bestwick's 'The Narrows', Gary Braunbeck's 'In the Midnight Museum', and Conrad Williams' 'The Scalding Rooms'. I also love 'The Mist' | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
I'd go for Heartstones by Ruth Rendell. Ghostly and disturbing in many ways. Also her The Strawberry Tree: achingly frightening. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
I rather like the hypnotic Ancient Sorceries, too. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.249.92 |
H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Shadow out of Time' – the full manuscript text first published a few years ago reads more clearly and evenly than the previously published version, and increased my appreciation of this magnificently sombre tale of mid-life crisis and alien abduction. Henry James' 'The Turn of the Screw' – one of the greatest of psychological ghost stories, beautifully structured and intensely disturbing. It's often misread as an account of the governess's repression-induced madness, when I've never felt that reading stood up: what's altogether more frightening, to me, is James' insight into the dysfunctional family energy that the ghosts feed on, and how the governess (through sheer ignorance) makes it all worse. John Metcalfe's 'The Feasting Dead' – this, of course, is massively influenced by 'The Turn of the Screw', and portrays a similar scenario but focuses more directly on the child abuse theme. Metcalfe has his own neurotic edge and oblique vision, making this story a painfully bleak nightmare. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
Amongst my favourite novellas are: The Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke, The Brotherhood of Mutilation by Brian Evenson, Needing Ghosts By Ramsey Campbell, Rain by Conrad Williams, The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, A World of Hurt by Brian Hodge, The Willows by Algernon Blackwood, Struwwelpeter by Glen Hirshberg, Running Wild By JG Ballard, City of Glass By Paul Auster, Kiss of the Mudman by Gary Braunbeck, The Great God Pan by Machen, and Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy by David S Schow (though technically a novelette- and definatly my favourite zombie story of all time.) I have to agree that novella length fiction seems particulary well suited to the horror story/ tale of unnease. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.105.115 |
Here's some other novellas I would've mentioned if we hadn't been limited to just one. The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance -- Joe R Lansdale The Cancer Cowboy Rides -- John Connolly Hell Hath Enlarged Herself -- Michael Marshall Smith The Big Fish -- Kim Newman Dark Gods -- T.E.D. Klein (You don't expect me to pick just one do you?) White -- Tim Lebbon Hell is the Absence of God -- Ted Chiang | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.170.38.237 |
I'm not a big fan of the form. A few exceptions, Ramsey's NEEDING GHOSTS obviously. A couple of others that spring to mind are. Truman Capote BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S Jonathan Carroll BLACK COCKTAIL And THE ROAD TO THE SEA by Arthur C Clarke. But more often than not the length infuriates me. Too often it's like a novel with every other chapter removed, a Reader's Digest condensed book, or a wannabe film script slightly prosed up. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
I think the novella is the perfect form for fiction - particularly weird fiction. Long enough to tell a tale well but without padding it for a publisher who demands between 80,000 and 100,000 words for a novel. Some of my favourite pieces of fiction are novellas. Some of my favourite novels are, in fact, novellas in disguise. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.4 |
"Needing Ghosts" (not an easy read, but ye Landlord truly surpasses himself here) and "The Shadow out of Time", by all means. Klein's "Children of the Kingdom", Gérard Prévot's "Les Oyats", Hodgson's "The House on the Borderland", or is that a 'proper' novel? | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.228.137.86 |
You beat me to it, Hubert! I was going to say "Needing Ghosts" too. Weirdly beautiful and harrowing, with a last line that rang in my head for days. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.220.206 |
By and large, people tend to define the novella as being between roughly 20,000 and 50,000 words. The German literary tradition defines the novella more in terms of content, as a story with continuities of time, place and viewpoint (which are unlikely to all be true of a novel) – certainly a novella has a tighter focus than a novel, it isn't just a small novel, and it's more structured than a long short story. Which reminds me of another favourite novella, Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice'. Great story, rather obvious and bland film. | ||
| Niki Flynn (Niki) Username: Niki Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.228.137.86 |
Heh. And now that my computer is cooperating and I can actually read Gary's list... I see several of you beat me to it!  | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.4 |
We love to beat you. To it. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.83 |
'The Willows' & 'The Wendigo' - Blackwood 'The White People' & 'The Great Return' - Machen 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' - HPL 'Needing Ghosts' - RC 'The Feasting Dead' - Metcalfe 'The Beckoning Fair One' - Onions 'The Entail' - Hoffmann 'The Watcher' - Le Fanu 'The Stains' - Aickman 'Petey' - Klein 'A Traveller's Tale' - Shepard 'By Reason of Darkness' - Cady And a few pulpy ones I've enjoyed: 'Slime' - Brennan 'The Black Drama' Wellman 'Murgunstrumm' - Cave | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.183.83 |
'The Perfect Host' - Sturgeon 'The Mist' - King 'My Death' - Tuttle 'Viy' - Gogol | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.224.4 |
Ah yes, "By Reason of Darkness" - should have remembered that! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.109.45 |
Damn, forgot about 'Black Cocktail'. That's the problem with not owning a copy. 'Don't Look Now' might be added to my list but I'd have to read it again. I was kind of disappointed the first time round due to liking the film too much. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Yeah, the du Maurier tale is rather staid compared to the film. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.20.31.211 |
Toadyingly, I'd have to add Gary McMahon's 'In The Skin' for sheer nightmarish horror at this length. Look out for it soon . . . | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Ooh, thank you kindly, sir. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.136.33 |
We are talking about a story, I hope. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.241.143 |
Thankfully, yes...  | ||
| Lincoln Brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 58.166.20.99 |
'Stumps', Mark Morris. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 145.229.156.40 |
Limiting myself to no more than one author (otherwise Lovecraft would practically fill the list) these are my Top 10 (strictly horror) Novellas: 1. ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ by H.P. Lovecraft 2. ‘Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka 3. ‘Carmilla’ by J. Sheridan Le Fanu 4. ‘The Great God Pan’ by Arthur Machen 5. ‘The Turn Of The Screw’ by Henry James 6. ‘The Beckoning Fair One’ by Oliver Onions 7. ‘The Wendigo’ by Algernon Blackwood 8. ‘The Hellbound Heart’ by Clive Barker 9. ‘Oke Of Okehurst’ by Vernon Lee 10. ‘The Mist’ by Stephen King While incredibly I have yet to read: ‘The Willows, ‘The Feasting Dead’, ‘The Events At Poroth Farm’, ‘Needing Ghosts’, ‘Black Cocktail’, and countless other classics I know only by reputation… | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
'The Compleat Werewolf' by Anthony Boucher | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 80.167.124.163 |
'In his introduction to Different Seasons, Stephen King also called the novella “an ill-defined and disreputable literary banana republic.” In an effort to expand the dialogue, clarify, and even muddy the waters further regarding this renegade, this outlaw called the “novella,” I contacted over sixty writers and editors and asked them to list and comment on their favorite novellas' A great article here on the novella: Call Me Fish-Owl: Reflecting on the Novella’s neither Fish nor Fowl Status: http://www.johnmadera.com/search?q=novellas | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Leningrad Niights - Graham Joyce How The Other Half Live - James Lovegrove | ||
| Steveduffy (Steveduffy) Username: Steveduffy Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 86.159.105.54 |
I think I might go for "Children Of The Kingdom" - if it's long enough. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 94.194.134.45 |
Two of my absolute favourites have already been mentioned - Machen's 'The Great God Pan' and Carroll's 'Black Cocktail' - and a list of all the rest would take forever ... But I will mention: - Harlan Ellison, 'Mefisto in Onyx' - Bruch McAllister, 'Dream Baby' - Lucius Shepard, 'R&R' and 'Stars Seen Through Stone' (+ about a dozen others) I'll stop there. There are just too many. | ||
| Skunsworth (Skunsworth) Username: Skunsworth Registered: 05-2009 Posted From: 88.107.155.252 |
Is Children of the Kingdom a novella? If so, that gets my vote. Simply, simply brilliant, and the single most influential piece of writing on the way I write. I realise that that doesn't mean much to anyone else, but it does to me! S | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.247.33 |
To my mind, 'Black Man With a Horn' slightly has the edge – but both are wonderful. There's no writer quite like Klein, casual one moment and full throttle the next, able to condense so much vision into such quiet words. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
"Needing Ghosts" - without a doubt, the tops. But I also quite enjoyed one I don't think anyone else has mentioned yet - Stephen Gallagher's "White Bizango" | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.166.29.192 |
I quite enjoyed 'The Hole of the Pit' (1914) by Adrian Ross. Never reprinted until the 'Uncanny Banquet' anthology. It may not be classed as a novella though. |