Novels & Short Stories, HOU-LET
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.
Novels & Short Stories Encyclopedia Articles By Title
The House in Paris, novel by Elizabeth Bowen, published in 1935, in which the plot complexities of infidelity and......
The House of Mirth, novel by Edith Wharton, published in 1905. The story concerns the tragic fate of the beautiful......
The House of the Seven Gables, romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1851. The work, set in mid-19th-century......
Howard Nemerov (1920–91), one of America’s finest poets, was also arguably the wittiest. In 1978 he received the......
Howards End, novel by E.M. Forster, published in 1910. The narrative concerns the relationships that develop between......
Hudibras, satiric poem by Samuel Butler, published in several parts beginning in 1663. The immediate success of......
Hugo Award, any of several annual awards presented by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS). The awards are......
The Human Comedy, a vast series of some 90 novels and novellas by Honoré de Balzac, known in the original French......
The Human Comedy, sentimental novel of life in a small California town by William Saroyan, published in 1943. The......
Humboldt’s Gift, novel by Saul Bellow, published in 1975. The novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in......
Humphry Clinker, epistolary novel by Tobias Smollett, his major work, written in 1770 and published in three volumes......
Humpty Dumpty, fictional character who is the subject of a nursery rhyme and who has become widely known as a personified......
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, historical novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in French in 1831 as Notre-Dame......
Hunger, novel by Knut Hamsun, published in 1890 as Sult. It is the semiautobiographical chronicle of the physical......
Huon de Bordeaux, Old French poem, written in epic metre, dating from the first half of the 13th century. Charlot,......
The Hydra Head, novel of international intrigue by Carlos Fuentes, published in 1978 as La cabeza de la hidra.......
Hyperion, epistolary novel by Friedrich Hölderlin, published in German as Hyperion; oder, der Eremit aus Griechenland......
I Am Legend, science-fiction novel written by American author Richard Matheson, published in 1954. In Los Angeles......
I promessi sposi, novel by Alessandro Manzoni, published in three volumes in 1825–26; the complete edition was......
I, Claudius, historical novel by Robert Graves set in 1st-century-ce Rome, published in 1934. The book is written......
I, Robot, a collection of nine short stories by science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov that imagines the development......
The Idiot, novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in Russian as Idiot in 1868–69. The narrative concerns the unsettling......
If He Hollers Let Him Go, first novel by Chester Himes, published in 1945, often considered to be his most powerful......
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, avant-garde novel by Italo Calvino, published in 1979 as Se una notte d’inverno......
Imaginism, Russian poetic movement that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917 and advocated poetry based on a......
Imagist, any of a group of American and English poets whose poetic program was formulated about 1912 by Ezra Pound—in......
The Immoralist, novella by André Gide, published as L’Immoraliste in 1902, one of the tales Gide called récits.......
The Importance of Being Earnest, play in three acts by Oscar Wilde, performed in 1895 and published in 1899. A......
In Cold Blood, nonfiction novel by American writer Truman Capote, published originally as a four-part series in......
In Search of Lost Time, novel in seven parts by Marcel Proust, published in French as À la recherche du temps perdu......
In the First Circle, novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, titled in RussianV kruge pervom. The original manuscript,......
In the Penal Colony, novella by Franz Kafka, written in 1914 and published in German as In der Strafkolonie in......
Infinite Jest, novel by David Foster Wallace, published in 1996, that satirically attacks the vacuous predilections......
The Informer, novel of betrayal by Liam O’Flaherty set during the Irish “troubles” of the 1920s, published in 1925.......
Intruder in the Dust, novel by American author William Faulkner, published in 1948. Set in Faulkner’s fictional......
Invisible Cities, novel by Italo Calvino, published in 1972 in Italian as Le città invisibili. It consists of a......
Invisible Man, novel by Ralph Ellison, published in 1952. It was Ellison’s only novel to be published during his......
The Invisible Man, science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells, published in 1897. The story concerns the life and death......
Invitation to a Beheading, anti-utopian novel by Vladimir Nabokov, published serially in Russian as Priglasheniye......
Irish literary renaissance, flowering of Irish literary talent at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the......
The Iron Heel, novel by Jack London, published in 1908, describing the fall of the United States to the cruel fascist......
The Island of Doctor Moreau, science fiction novel by H.G. Wells, published in 1896. The classic work focuses on......
Israel Potter, fictionalized story by Herman Melville of an American who fought in the War of Independence and......
It, novel by Stephen King, published in 1986, that is one of the author’s quintessential horror stories, exploring......
It Can’t Happen Here, novel by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1935. It is a cautionary tale about the rise of fascism......
The Italian, novel by Ann Radcliffe, published in three volumes in 1797. A notable example of Gothic literature,......
Ivanhoe, historical romance by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1819. It concerns the life of Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe,......
Jacobean age, (from Latin Jacobus, “James”), period of visual and literary arts during the reign of James I of......
Jacob’s Room, novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1922. Experimental in form, it centres on the character of......
Jane Eyre, novel by Charlotte Brontë, first published in 1847 as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, with Currer Bell......
Jean-Christophe, multivolume novel by Romain Rolland, published in French in 10 volumes in the journal Cahiers......
Jena Romanticism, a first phase of Romanticism in German literature, centred in Jena from about 1798 to 1804. The......
Jennie Gerhardt, novel by Theodore Dreiser, published in 1911. It exemplifies the naturalism of which Dreiser was......
Jindyworobak movement, brief nationalistic Australian literary movement of the 1930s to mid-1940s that sought to......
Jinpingmei, the first realistic social novel to appear in China. It is the work of an unknown author of the Ming......
Jinsi lu, influential anthology of neo-Confucian philosophical works compiled by the great Song dynasty thinker......
Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities, series of picaresque comic tales by Robert Smith Surtees, originally published......
Joseph and His Brothers, series of four novels by Thomas Mann that formed an epic bildungsroman about the biblical......
Joseph Andrews, novel by Henry Fielding, published in 1742. It was written as a reaction against Samuel Richardson’s......
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, novel by prolific French author Jules Verne, published in 1864. It is the......
Journey to the West, foremost Chinese comic novel, written by Wu Cheng’en, a novelist and poet of the Ming dynasty......
Jude the Obscure, novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1894–95 in an abridged form in Harper’s New Monthly as Hearts......
The Jungle Book, collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1894. The Second Jungle Book, published......
The Jungle, novel by Upton Sinclair, published serially in 1905 and as a single-volume book in 1906. The most famous,......
Jurgen, novel by James Branch Cabell, published in 1919. The New York Society for the Prevention of Vice declared......
Just So Stories, collection of children’s animal fables linked by poems by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1902.......
Justine, erotic novel by the Marquis de Sade, originally published in French as Justine, ou les malheurs de la......
Juvenalian satire, in literature, any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that......
Kenilworth, novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1821 and considered one of his finest historical novels. Set......
Kidnapped, novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in serial form in the magazine Young Folks in 1886.......
Kim, novel by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1901. Kim, Kipling’s final and most famous novel, chronicles the adventures......
King Solomon’s Mines, novel by H. Rider Haggard, published in 1885. One of the first African adventure stories,......
King, Queen, Knave, novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in Russian in 1928 as Korol, dama, valet. With this......
Kiss of the Spider Woman, novel by Manuel Puig, published in 1976 as El beso de la mujer araña. Mostly consisting......
The Kite Runner, novel by Khaled Hosseini, published in 2003. It follows the journey of Amir, a young boy from......
Des Knaben Wunderhorn, (1805–08; German: “The Boy’s Magic Horn”), anthology of German folk songs, subtitled Alte......
Knickerbocker school, group of writers active in and around New York City during the first half of the 19th century.......
Kokinshū, the first anthology of Japanese poetry compiled upon Imperial order, by poet Ki Tsurayuki and others......
Kristin Lavransdatter, historical novel in three volumes by Sigrid Undset, published from 1920 to 1922. For this......
Krokodil, (Russian: “Crocodile”), humour magazine published in Moscow, noted for its satire and cartoons. From......
König Rother, medieval German romance (c. 1160) that is the earliest record of the type of popular entertainment......
Künstlerroman, (German: “artist’s novel”), class of Bildungsroman, or apprenticeship novel, that deals with the......
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, novel by D. H. Lawrence, published in a limited English-language edition in Florence (1928)......
Lake poet, any of the English poets William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, who lived......
lampoon, virulent satire in prose or verse that is a gratuitous and sometimes unjust and malicious attack on an......
The Last Chronicle of Barset, the final Barsetshire novel by Anthony Trollope, published serially in 1866–67 and......
The Last Leaf, short story by O. Henry, published in 1907 in his collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories.......
The Last of the Mohicans, the second and most popular novel of the five-volume Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore......
The Last Tycoon, unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published posthumously in 1941. As edited by the literary......
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, novel by Milan Kundera, written in Czech as Kniha smíchu a zapomnění but originally......
A Lear of the Steppes, short story by Ivan Turgenev, published in 1870 as “Stepnoy Korol Lir”; it has also been......
The Leatherstocking Tales, series of five novels by James Fenimore Cooper, published between 1823 and 1841. The......
Leaven of Malice, novel by Robertson Davies, the second in a series known collectively as the Salterton...
Left Behind series, series of 16 thriller novels written by Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye about Evangelical Christians......
The Left Hand of Darkness, science-fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1969. The book, set on a frigid......
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, short story by Washington Irving, first published in The Sketch Book in 1819–20. “The......
The Book of Leinster, compilation of Irish verse and prose from older manuscripts and oral tradition and from 12th-......
The Leopard, novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published in 1958 as Il gattopardo. The novel is a psychological......
Inspector Lestrade, fictional character, the perennially confounded Scotland Yard inspector who must request the......
Letters from the Earth, miscellany of fiction, essays, and notes by Mark Twain, published posthumously in 1962.......