Favourite Novellas

[cauldronbrewer]

So . . . I've long been fond of horror novellas. Definitions seem to vary, ranging from a lower end of 15,000 - 17,500 words to an upper end of 20,000 - 40,000 words, but however you define the form it seems well suited to developing a single, focused horror theme in depth.

Mike Ashely once edited an anthology of thirteen "short horror novels" (I'm guessing that the marketing folks wouldn't have gone for "novella" in the title, anyhow). Here are his choices (a few of which seem more like short stories to me, but to each their own):

The Monkey - Stephen King
The Parasite - Arthur Conan Doyle
There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding - Russell Kirk
The Damned - Algernon Blackwood
Fengriffen - David Case
The Uttermost Farthing - A. C. Benson
The Rope in the Rafters - Oliver Onions
Nadelman's God - T. E. D. Klein
The Feasting Dead - John Metcalfe
How the Wind Spoke at Madaket - Lucius Shepard

All in all it's an excellent selection, but for fun here's an initial attempt at an alternative take (off the top of my head; I'm sure I'll end up revising this list). I don't have word counts handy, so not all of these would necessarily qualify by the standards above:

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym - Edgar Allan Poe
Carmilla - J. S. Le Fanu
The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen
The Ghost Pirates - William Hope Hodgson
The Hole of the Pit - Adrian Ross
Murgunstrumm - Hugh B. Cave
At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft
The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich - Fritz Leiber (assuming Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness count as novels)
I'm Dangerous Tonight - Cornell Woolrich
The Black Drama - Manly Wade Wellman
Some of Your Blood - Theodore Sturgeon
The Dead Line - David Case
Children of the Kingdom - T.E.D. Klein

What obvious or not-so-obvious ones have I missed?

[dem bones]

I forgot all about Some Of Your Blood, otherwise would have included it. The clash of styles dictate that this doesn't make for the most coherent selection, so think of it as having ten very different books under one cover.

David Case - Pelican Cay
Oliver Onions - The Beckoning Fair One
Susan Hill - The Woman In Black
Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan
Paul Finch - We Are The Shadows
Guy Preston - The Bride of Frankenstein
Peter Tremayne - The Hound Of Dracula
Robert Bloch - The Dead Don't Die
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Humgoo
John Llewellyn Probert - Seven Deaths Of Dr. Valentine
Frederick C. Davis - The Molemen Want Your Eyes
Cornell Woolrich - Graves For The Living
Ellery Queen - A Study In Scarlet
Paul Ernst - Duel Of The Sorcerers

The Women In Black comes in at around 150 pages so figured we might squeeze it in.

A NEL short novel starter pack: Vol 1. (most of these are 128 pages, but we're still looking at a multi-Mammoth)

Raymond Giles - Night Of The Warlock
Guy N. Smith - The Slime Beast
'John Sayles' - Pirahna
Donald F. Glut - The Terror Of Frankenstein
Martin Jenson - An Odour Of Decay
Phil Smith - The Incredible Melting Man
Pierce Nace - Eat Them Alive
Robert E. Lory - The Hand Of Dracula
David Ely - Seconds
'S. F. Roland' - Witch's Mark
David J. Michael - Death Tour
'Erole LeCale' - Castledoom
'Etienne Aubin' - The Terror Of The Seven Crypts

[cw67q]

ooh ooh, can I play

Sarban - the Number 13
A Machen - the White people
R Aickman - Ravissante
V Lee - Oke of Okehurst
T Gautier - Clarimonde
J S Le Fanu - Squire Toby's Will
O Onions - the Beckoning fair One (or A Painted Face if it isn't too long)
R Hichens - How Love Came to Prof Guildea
9 TED Klein - Black Man with a Horn
J Metcalfe - the feasting Dead
B Capes - An Eddy on the Floor
R Oliver - the Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini (I think this is long enough, right?)
T Ligotti - last Feast of Harlequin
A Blackwood - the Wendigo
M Bowen - Julia Roseingrave

is 15 too many? I'm sure I'd choose others tomorrow, or even in 10 minutes time.

- Chris

[cauldronbrewer]

Mar 19, 2013 13:34:37 GMT cw67q said:

V Lee - Oke of Okehurst

I got a copy of this one recently and am looking forward to reading it based on all of the favorable commentary I've seen.

David Case and T.E.D. Klein are two of the modern masters of novellas, aren't they? Case has "Fengriffen" from Mike Ashley's list, "The Dead Line" from mine, and "Pelican Cay" from Dem's, with "The Cell" and "The Hunter" still in reserve. Klein has "Nadelman's God" from Ashley's list, "Children of the Kingdom" from mine, and "Black Man with a Horn" from Chris's, with "The Events at Poroth Farm" in reserve. All great stories in my book.

[cw67q]

Klein's longer tales are all superb, Dark Gods is one of the all time great collections. I's love to see it re-issued with Poroth Farm added to the contents (it would be almost criminal IMHO to NOT add this tale to its natural home). The shorter tales are a let down however compared to the novellas.

- Chris

[dem bones]

When does it stop being a quite long short story and start being a novella? Perhaps we should set some vague rule as to what and what does not constitute a novella - is Mary Fortune's The White Maniac too short? How about Jane Rice's The Idol Of The Flies? Does Henry James' The Turn Of The Screw qualify? - but it's probably more fun not to.

I remember enjoying Mike Ashley's selection (The Damned and The Uttermost Farthing maybe not so much as the others). Never thought Case could top Fengriffen, but he at least equalled it with Pelican Cay, and The Dead End, The Cell and The Hunter are excellent. From CB's collection, i've not yet read the Poe, Leiber, Woolrich (!) or Wellman offerings. At The Mountains Of Madness is a blur (would The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward be too long for consideration? Herbert West - Re-animator certainly isn't, so am sticking that on the subs bench). Other than enjoying it almost as much as Alison Prince's The Looney from the same collection (Ramsey Campbell's Uncanny Banquet), the main thing I remember about The Hole In The Pit is what a bastard time I had trying to string two coherent sentences together while failing miserably to summarise it. Much as I love Carmilla, would be tempted to drop her in favour of Aickman's Pages From A Young Girl's Journal for no other reason than it's the less anthologised of the pair.

I searched in vain for any mention of R. H. Benson on Chris's mostly ghosts listing, so I'm guessing that's an oversight? Couldn't decide between Vernon Lee's Amour Dure and Oke Of Okehurst. Bulwer-Lytton's The House And The Brain and Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo wouldn't be out of place in such esteemed company. Another personal favourite from the 'twenties is Michael Arlen's The Gentleman From America, incorporating, The Phantom Footsteps, the hilariously brutal 'tale for tiny tots'.

Have barely touched on contemporary examples. Maybe tomorrow .....

[jamesdoig]

Mar 19, 2013 23:47:30 GMT dem bones said:

When does it stop being a quite long short story and start being a novella? Perhaps we should set some vague rule as to what and what does not constitute a novella

This is how Fictionmags differentiates, though I guess there will always be debate:

vignette (under 4 pages, under 1,000 words)
short story (4-20 pages, 1,000-7,499 words)
novelette (21-45 pages, 7,500-17,499 words)
novella (46-100 pages, 17,500-39,999 words)
novel (over 100 pages, over 40,000 words)

[dem bones]

Thanks for the clarification, James. I always wondered about the distinctions. Fortunately, this being Vault, we can safely forget all about such trifles and plough on regardless.

Stephen Jones Mammoth Books - be they of the 'Best New Horrors' or ' ... of Frankenstein/ Werewolf/ Vampires/ Monster/ Zombies/ & Co.' variety - are a splendid sounce for novellas, vintage and contemporary. His A Book Of Horror for Jo Fletcher Books contains at least four contemporary classics in Robert Shearman's Alice Through The Plastic Sheet, Elizabeth Hand's Near Zennor, John Ajivide Lindqvist's The Music Of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer and Peter Crowther's Ghosts With Teeth. Between them Zombie Apocalypse and Zombie Apocalypse include way more their fair share - Christopher Fowler's scene setting Dead Ground Zero and Special Powers, Paul Finch's police reports on the seismic events at Blackheath are two early highlights.

The form is in such rude health that you could compile a tasty anthology comprised entirely of Vault contributors past/ lying fallow and present. In the cases of Paul Finch and David A. Riley, you're spoilt for choice. Likewise, Lord P. hardly comes up short in this department.

David A. Riley - The Worst Of All Possible Places
Paul Finch - Special Powers
Craig Herbertson - The Iron Cross (or 'The Mall'. I can't decide between them)
John Llewellyn Probert - A Family Affair
Thana Niveau - Stolen To Time (on the to-read list, but if it's in keeping with the rest of From Hell To Eternity ...)
Ramsey Campbell - Needing Ghosts (i'm going on reputation here: still not got a copy of Strange Things & Stranger Places).
Mark Samuels - The Cannibal Kings Of Horror
David A. Sutton - La Serenissima
Franklin Marsh - The Horror Of Dreadstone Moor

And a mind-blowing, centuries spanning grab-bag of greats.

E. T. A Hoffman - The Sandman
Robert Leslie Bellem - Labyrinth Of Monsters
Belcampo - The Great Happening
Alan Temperley - Kowlongo Plaything
John Burke - Plague Of The Zombies
Seabury Quinn - Suicide Chapel
Geoffrey A. Landis - The Singular Habits of Wasps
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Loft Conversion (a rewrite of The Jumpity Jim under a thankfully sane title)
Robert R. McCammon - Night Calls The Green Falcon and/ or Blue World
Philip K. Dick - Upon The Dull Earth

[randy]

Hi.

For my first post here, thought I'd offer a few other novellas I think are quite good. (I'm happy your definition of novella has been flexible, because I'm pretty sure a couple fly under and a couple fly over the standard definition.)

H. G. Wells, "The Invisible Man"
C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner, "Vintage Season"
Ray Russell, "Sardonicus"
Fritz Leiber, "You're All Alone"
Peter Straub, "Pork Pie Hat"
Glen Hirshberg, "Mr. Dark's Carnival"
Douglas Clegg “Isis”
John W. Campbell, Jr., "Who Goes There?"
Michael Shea, "The Autopsy"
Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows"
George R. R. Martin, "Sandkings"
Elizabeth Hand, "Cleopatra Brimstone"
Edgar Pangborn, "Longtooth"
Brian MacNaughton, "The Throne of Bones"


Demonik, I was also taken with Elizabeth Hand's "Near Zennor," though a bit less so with the Crowther and Lindqvist. The Shearman was just weird and intriguing enough to prompt me to buy a collection.


Randy M.

[cauldronbrewer]

Hi, Randy. Interesting list, and good call on Leiber's "You're All Alone. I read it in revised form as The Sinful Ones, but I much prefer the original title.

[randy]

Just the book -- and edition -- I'm reading now. Conversation elsewhere prompted me to pluck it out of the TBR mountain and finally read it. About 10 years ago I read "You're All Alone" in a collection of three Leiber stories (along with "Four Ghosts in Hamlet," the first time I'd read that and it is absolutely terrific, too, and "The Creatures from the Cleveland Depths" which has aged ... weirdly ... it feels both dated with 1940s movie-dialog and prescient about personal devices) and thought it one of the best works I'd read by him. I'm curious how I'll feel about the full novel. Right now it's fun, but I'm not sure it's better than the novella.

Randy M.

[Shrink Proof]

Er...Stephen King's "The Mist", anyone?

Seems the right length for a novella. Creepy as hell, too.

[patarenast]

This cover is the same in Germany Horror Pulp Prof. Zamorra number 604
www.coverbrowser.com/covers/professor-zamorra/13#i604