In narrative prose literature, a novella is a piece of work that is shorter than most novels but longer than most short stories in length. The term "novella" comes from the Italian novella, which is the feminine form of the word novello, which meaning "new."
A novella, according to Merriam-Webster, is "a work of fiction that is between the length and complexity of a short storey and the length and intricacy of a book." The number of pages or words required for a narrative to be classified as either a novella, short storey, or novel is not defined by any recognised authority in the field of literature. The Writers of America, headquartered in the United States, defines a novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000 words.