Novels & Short Stories

novels and short stories have been enchanting and transporting readers for a great many years. There's a little something for everyone: within these two genres of literature, a wealth of types and styles can be found, including historical, epistolary, romantic, Gothic, and realist works, along with many more.

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Featured Articles

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds, science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, first published serially by Pearson’s Magazine in the U.K. and by The Cosmopolitan magazine in the U.S. in 1897. The novel details a catastrophic...

“Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door!”

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher, supernatural horror story by Edgar Allan Poe, published in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in 1839 and issued in Poe’s Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840). “The Fall...

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye, novel by J.D. Salinger published in 1951. The novel details two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned,...

graphic novel

Graphic novel, in American and British usage, a type of text combining words and images—essentially a comic, although the term most commonly refers to a complete story presented as a book rather than a...

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Set in Jazz Age New York, it tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, and his pursuit of Daisy...

The Book of Negroes

The Book of Negroes, novel by Lawrence Hill, published in 2007 (under the title Someone Knows My Name in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand). Hill’s third novel, it is a work of historical fiction...

Dracula

Dracula, Gothic novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897, that was the most popular literary work derived from vampire legends and became the basis for an entire genre of literature and film. What you’ll...

The Castle of Otranto

The Castle of Otranto, novel by Horace Walpole, published under a pseudonym in 1764 (though first editions bear the next year’s date). It is considered the first Gothic novel in the English language, and...

novel

Novel, an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons...

Analyze short fiction elements evidenced in “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Necklace,” and “The Magic Shop”

short story

Short story, brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters. The short story is usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one...

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, historical novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in French in 1831 as Notre-Dame de Paris (“Our Lady of Paris”). The Hunchback of Notre Dame is set in Paris during the...

A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms, third novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1929. Its depiction of the existential disillusionment of the “Lost Generation” echoes his early short stories and his first major novel,...

Emma

Emma, fourth novel by Jane Austen, published in three volumes in 1815. Set in Highbury, England, in the early 19th century, the novel centres on Emma Woodhouse, a precocious young woman whose misplaced...

Scene from the film Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in Eighty Days

Around the World in Eighty Days, travel adventure novel by French author Jules Verne, published serially in 1872 in Le Temps and in book form in 1873. The work tells the story of the unflappable Phileas...

Ulysses

Ulysses, novel by Irish writer James Joyce, first published in book form in 1922. Stylistically dense and exhilarating, it is regarded as a masterpiece and has been the subject of numerous volumes of commentary...

The Sound and the Fury

The Sound and the Fury, novel by William Faulkner, published in 1929, that details the destruction and downfall of the aristocratic Compson family from four different points of view. Faulkner’s fourth...

Catch-22

Catch-22, satirical novel by American writer Joseph Heller, published in 1961. The work centres on Captain John Yossarian, an American bombardier stationed on a Mediterranean island during World War II,...

The Awakening

The Awakening, novel by Kate Chopin, published in 1899. Originally titled A Solitary Soul, the novel depicts a young mother’s struggle to achieve sexual and personal emancipation in the oppressive environment...

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front, novel by German writer Erich Maria Remarque, published in 1929 as Im Westen nichts Neues and in the United States as All Quiet on the Western Front. An antiwar novel set...