Five Classics Under 200 Pages
When short is not just good, it’s great
I’ve written many times here at The Writer Shed about the beauty of a well-told, short, and crisply written story. Tight and brilliant. The anti-tome. I’m a big fan of little books with big punches, stories that sear into you with the fewest of words.
Old Man and the Sea has always made an inspiration to me. I’ve written about it here. Hemingway’s novella is very much a fable, its inner story revealed in action in just128 pages.
There are many little books with big stories to tell. Here is a list I have been gathering lately of truly great works told in fewer than 200 pages.
First the obvious ones as a reminder.
The Great Gatsby
Animal Farm
Of Mice and Men
And now the five you may not have considered, never heard of, or forgot.
The Stranger
Albert Camus wrote what essentially is a psychological thriller in tight, literary prose with one of the best opening paragraphs in the history of literature.
