Short & Powerful
Novels and novellas under five hours — nothing wasted. These ten works are among the most concentrated literary achievements in any language. The Sorrows of Young Werther in an afternoon. The Metamorphosis before dinner. Listen free on HearCandy.
The Sorrows of Young Werther
A young man falls hopelessly in love with a woman engaged to someone else and writes letters about it until he can no longer bear to live. Goethe’s 1774 epistolary novella set off “Werther fever” across Europe — Napoleon claimed to have read it seven times.
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A Christmas Carol
The most famous short novel in English. Dickens wrote it in six weeks in 1843 to pay his bills — and accidentally invented the modern concept of Christmas.
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Notes from the Underground
A bitter, brilliant, unreliable narrator argues with himself and the reader. Dostoyevsky’s 1864 novella invented the modern anti-hero and the entire tradition of existential fiction.
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Daisy Miller
An innocent American girl in Europe, misread by everyone around her. James’s 1878 novella is a perfect, economical study of cultural collision and social cruelty.
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Washington Square
A plain, rich heiress, a charming suitor, and a father who can’t believe his daughter is worth loving. James’s most emotionally direct novel — devastating.
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich
A bureaucrat dies slowly and realizes he has wasted his life. Tolstoy’s 1886 novella asks one question — have you actually lived? — and refuses to let you off the hook.
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The Time Machine
A Victorian inventor travels to the year 802,701 and finds humanity split into two species. Wells invented science fiction while writing a furious class-warfare allegory.
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The Turn of the Screw
Is the governess protecting the children from ghosts, or is she having a breakdown? James makes sure you can never be certain. Still unnerving after 125 years.
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The Awakening
A woman gradually realizes her domestic life is a cage. Chopin’s 1899 novella was so controversial it was banned. It’s now one of the most-taught American novels.
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The Metamorphosis
Gregor Samsa wakes up as a giant insect. Kafka’s 1915 novella is funny, grotesque, and completely serious — the perfect metaphor for alienation, family, and work.
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