Novellas

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Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) is a novella by Stephen King. It originally appeared in King’s collection Different Seasons. The novella’s first-person narrator, Red, tells the story of fellow inmate, Andy Dufresne, who was wrongfully convicted, mistreated by the prison warden, and successfully escaped the prison. Through Andy’s steadfast optimism, Red transforms from a cynical ex-con to a man who believes in the power of hope and redemption. The novella was adapted into a... Read Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Summary

Eleven-year-old Marty Preston fights to save an abused beagle from its cruel owner in Shiloh (1991). Marty bonds with the dog, Shiloh, and learns more about himself and others as he struggles to reconcile the letter of the law with what he knows in his heart is right. Acclaimed children’s author Phyllis Reynolds Naylor based Shiloh on a poignant, personal encounter with a mistreated dog. Marty’s character struggles with the same issues that troubled Naylor... Read Shiloh Summary

Signs Preceding the End of the World is a 2009 novel by Mexican author Yuri Herrera. The novel examines personal and geopolitical issues concerning the United States-Mexico border, although it does not mention these nations by name, referring instead to North and South. Herrera is a writer, professor, and political scientist, currently teaching at the University of New Orleans. Herrera’s first novel, Kingdom Cons, won the Premio Binacional de Novela Joven Frontera de Palabras (Border... Read Signs Preceding the End of the World Summary

Skipping Christmas is a 2001 satirical novella by John Grisham. It tells the story of Luther and Nora Krank, a married couple whose adult daughter, Blair, moves to Peru a month before Christmas. Facing their first Christmas without their daughter, and disillusioned by the holiday’s excesses, they decide to forego Christmas that year and go on a cruise instead. However, their decision brings them into conflict with their friends and neighbors, who expect them to... Read Skipping Christmas Summary

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So Long, See You Tomorrow is the acclaimed final novel by American writer and editor William Maxwell. Originally published in two parts in New Yorker magazine in 1979, the book appeared the following year and received the prestigious National Book Award in 1982. Maxwell was the fiction editor of the New Yorker from 1936 to 1975, making him one of the most influential literary editors of the era. He worked closely with J. D. Salinger... Read So Long, See You Tomorrow Summary

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Originally published in Seventeen Magazine in 1983, “Teenage Wasteland” is a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Tyler, known for her realistic portrayal of the lives of ordinary people. This guide is based on the short story as it appears in the 2020 Vintage Shorts Kindle edition.It is some time in the early 1970s when Mr. Lanham, the principal of a private school, brings homemaker Daisy Coble in to tell her that her son... Read Teenage Wasteland Summary

The Aspern Papers by Henry James is a novella first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1888. The unnamed protagonist and narrator is an editor and obsessive fan of fictional poet Jeffrey Aspern, who is no longer living. Having heard that a former romantic partner of Aspern’s, Juliana Bordereau, and her niece, Tita Bordereau (renamed Tina in later editions), are in possession a collection of papers related to the poet, the narrator rents rooms in... Read The Aspern Papers Summary

In his fantasy/horror novella, The Ballad of Black Tom (2016), Victor LaValle reworks H.P. Lovecraft’s story, “The Horror at Red Hook,” to explore horror tropes from the perspective of an African American protagonist living in a racist world. The novella won the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award, among others. LaValle is an award-winning author of science fiction, horror, fantasy, and comic books known for problematizing the racial assumptions inherent in these genres... Read The Ballad of Black Tom Summary

The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James, first published in 1903, centers on the relationship between John Marcher, a man haunted by the premonition that his life will be defined by some catastrophic event, and May Bartram. James’s narrative dissects the psychological effects of fear and anticipation by focusing on his characters’ inner lives and existential musings. The tale is an internalized ghost story wherein Marcher’s fears become self-fulfilling prophecies of loss. The third-person... Read The Beast in the Jungle Summary

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The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde, is a story about forgiveness, love, and the clash of Old World and New World beliefs. Through a satirical approach, Wilde highlights the shortcomings of each set of beliefs and how the characters overcome those shortcomings to bridge the two worlds. The story begins with Hiram Otis and Lord Canterville discussing the ghost that haunts Canterville Chase, where the Otis family will be living. When they arrive, they find... Read The Canterville Ghost Summary

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a short novel by Thomas Pynchon that handles topics related to the US counterculture movement and the 1960s at large. In the novel, Oedipa Maas unearths a centuries-old conspiracy about warring mail-delivery firms. This discovery leads her along an absurdist investigation of the firms and their motivations. The novel has been heralded as one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century and is considered a primary... Read The Crying of Lot 49 Summary

“The Dead” is a short story by Irish writer James Joyce. The story is a part of Joyce’s renowned Dubliners collection, first published in 1914, which portrays daily life in the Irish city of Dublin in the early 20th century. In “The Dead,” a literary young man attends a party with his wife. The events at the party prompt him to reflect on his life and his place in the universe. The short story has... Read The Dead Summary

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) is a fictional novella by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). The story raises questions about what is important in life through Tolstoy’s observation of social interaction and individual priorities.Tolstoy was born into aristocracy and was popular at a time when Russia was under the autocratic rule of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor of the Romanov Dynasty. Tolstoy, whose best-known works are War and Peace (1867) and... Read The Death of Ivan Ilyich Summary