4 ms·

Animal Farm is considered a novella, which is shorter than a novel.

• pasquinelli 6mo ago
  for perspective, a novel is around 100k words, and animal farm is under 30k.
  • robin_reala 6mo ago
    Typically a novel is over 40k words plus, a novella is 15-40k words, and a short story is 15k or under. Depends on who you ask though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella#Word_counts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella#Word_counts
    • sdthjbvuiiijbb 6mo ago
      No, "typically" it's a "know-it-when-you-see-it" kind of thing. Trying to delineate precise word count boundaries is a misrepresentation of how these words are used. The numbers you gave are reasonable guidelines but are certainly not determinative.
      • robin_reala 6mo ago
        Yes, that’s why I used the words “typically” and ”depends on who you ask”.
    • ThreeFx 6mo ago
      That chart implies it is possible for somebody to write a work that wins the Hugo awards for best novelette and best novella, which I’d really like to see happen!
  • svat 6mo ago
    For perspective closer to the topic here, these are the approximate word counts of the books currently listed at "George Orwell bibliography" under "Novels": • Burmese Days (1934): 97000 • A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935): 94000 • Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936): 87000 • Coming Up for Air (1939): 83000 (?) • Animal Farm (1945): 30000 (just over 30k) • Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949): 103000 (or 99000 without the “The Principles of Newspeak” appendix).