Just read "I am Legend" and the story was great. When i read reviews some people refer to it as a novel......?

Question

Isn't a novel by definition longer than the 161 pages of I am Legend? Is there a longer version of this story?

Answer 1

The subject of the minimum length for a novel is somewhat unclear. Ian McEwan's book "On Chesil Beach" was short listed for the Booker Prize for novels in 2007, but many claimed that at 166 pages it was too short to be a novel. I think "I am Legend" should be considered a fairly long novella, but the matter is not very concrete.

Answer 2

Yes, a novel would be longer than 161 pages.

I'll have to look for the novella in the bookstore; I'd love to read "I am Legend."

EDIT: I have to add that my 'requirement' of the length of a novel as longer than 161 pages (by double, usually) was learned about twenty years ago.
You just never know... in this day of sound bytes etc., the novel may have shrunk to barely longer than a longish story! Hmm. I'll look things up and may be back...

Back-- Wiki says in so many words (yeah, a lot of words!) that, to make it very brief, through history the line between what is a novel and what is a novella blur.
However they also wrote that the American___ Nebula Award people (sci-fi, as you know) puts a novella between 17,500 and 40,000 words. I believe 40,000 is longer than 161 pages.

Later in my search there I read that "Of Mice and Men," "The Old Man and the Sea," "The Pearl," and others are considered novellas. That should give us both something to think about and compare "I am Legend" to.

**And in answer to the second question you asked-- I think since the movie is coming out (was this a book based on the movie or the other way around? usually they say-- ) that there is no longer version of the story, or that would be the one for sale.

It was fun and interesting to me to answer your question.

Answer 3

I would say it's a novella. And no, there is no longer version. Though no doubt others have written similar and more extended permutations along the same theme.
A novel tends to be 300 pages plus. I Am Legend has been around for a couple of decades now, and definitely predates the film. You will generally find it in the classic sci-fi/fantasy section of most bookstores, along with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, etc...

Answer 4

Novel- A fictional narrative in prose, generally longer than a short story. The author is not restricted by historical facts but rather is free to create fictional personalities in a fictional world.