Long novels or short novels?

[Violanthe]

I asked a question a few months back as to whether people preferred novels or short stories. Most opted for novels. My question now is whether you prefer a brief few hundred pages, written with elegant economy, or an epic tome that becomes something of a lifestyle?

 

[denny]

I usually go for really thick novels. It always leaves me a little saddened at the end as I feel that I know the characters so well, and want to know how they're doing!

 

[Stewart]

A novel that lasts the pace of its story.

 

[Doug Johnson]

As long as every word is interesting, or entertaining, or at least serves some purpose, I don't care how many there are.

 

[TerishD]

Reply

I like the long ones. When I finish a novel I want to feel that the characters have come to some resolution with their lives and the problems that they faced have been handled.

 

[steffee]

I like the long ones. When I finish a novel I want to feel that the characters have come to some resolution with their lives and the problems that they faced have been handled.

That's good. Is it your aim to get all non-readers enjoying long novels, in particular, then?

 

[Stewart]

When I finish a novel I want to feel that the characters have come to some resolution with their lives and the problems that they faced have been handled.

Er, it depends on the scale.

 

[steffee]

Er, it depends on the scale.

What scale?

 

[Stewart]

The scale of the book.

 

[steffee]

Obviously, but what scale of the book? The scale of the problems the characters have faced?

 

[Anamnesis]

I don't really have a preference. Sometimes a book's plot just calls for a long length. Now if the writer creates an 1,000 page tome with not much plot, that's a different story.

 

[Pinecones360]

i like short ones that are written well. ones that i feel have come to a satisifactory conclusion without becoming long-winded. slightly off topic but a good example of a long-winded book that went on too long would be anna karenin by tolstoy. i was not one that came to love the peasants and the way they did things.

 

[steffee]

I didn't think Anna Karenina was over-long. Les Miserables, maybe.

 

[Pinecones360]

I didn't think Anna Karenina was over-long. Les Miserables, maybe.

i found the scenes with the peasants too long. which i suppose is why i say it was too long.

 

[tartan_skirt]

I like both. Sometimes I like to read something long with more depth to give a break between some of the junk I read, and of course it works conversely too in that sometimes I feel I need to read something short and not over complicated after reading a longer novel.

 

[KristoCat]

Assuming it's well-written, I like long novels better. Although, the end-of-book withdrawal afterwards is worse after a really satisfying long novel than it is after a short one, IMO.

 

[Justin91]

A well written novel is like a long affair...or a short marriage. I agree with Stewie, it depends upon the story within the novel itself. A well written novel will fill ALL the pages with a story you can not put down.

 

[SFG75]

My question now is whether you prefer a brief few hundred pages, written with elegant economy, or an epic tome that becomes something of a lifestyle?

I'd take take the former. Nabokov's works fill that description to a "t."

 

[Peder]

I tend to like long novels, and series even better. If a good novel never ended it would be just fine with me.
Peder

 

[cabbagescribe]

I'd read long novels if I had the time, but school sometimes clogs up the clock.

I recently read "Notes from the Underground" by Dostoyevsky, and at 90 pages, it affected me as much as a full novel would.

I also write short stories and have read Chekhov and Borges, so my bias might originate in them....