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50-513: The Saint Goes West is a collection of three mystery novellas by Leslie Charteris , first published in the United States in 1942 by The Crime Club , and in the United Kingdom the same year by Hodder and Stoughton . This book continues the adventures of Charteris' creation, Simon Templar , alias The Saint, and is the first of several volumes of Saint stories that would follow the theme of

100-429: A short story and a novel ". There is disagreement regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words; at 250 words per page, this equates to 70 to 160 pages. See below for definitions used by other organisations. The novella as

150-410: A 1982 collection of four novellas, notes the difficulties of selling a novella in the commercial publishing world, since it does not fit the typical length requirements of either magazine or book publishers. Despite these problems, however, the novella's length provides unique advantages; in the introduction to a novella anthology titled Sailing to Byzantium , Robert Silverberg writes: [The novella]

200-535: A Charteris story has been used as source material by two different productions. "Arizona" and "Hollywood" were both adapted as episodes of the 1962-1969 television series. "Hollywood" was adapted as "Starring the Saint" which aired on September 26, 1963, in the second season. "Arizona" formed the basis of the episode "The Sign of the Claw" which was shown as part of the third season on February 4, 1965. Novella A novella

250-490: A Madonna Flora who lived in the red light district of Naples. Boccaccio often intentionally muddled historical (II, 3) and geographical (V, 2) facts for his narrative purposes. Within the tales of the Decameron , the principal characters are usually developed through their dialogue and actions, so that by the end of the story they seem real and their actions logical given their context. Another of Boccaccio's frequent techniques

300-490: A day, or across days, as Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material, forms a whole and not just a collection of stories. Recurring plots of the stories include mocking the lust and greed of the clergy; female lust and ambition on a par with male lust and ambition; tensions in Italian society between the new wealthy commercial class and noble families; and the perils and adventures of traveling merchants. Beyond

350-429: A deserted villa in the countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories . Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of

400-473: A letter he wrote to his friend Boccaccio, was to serve as a source for all the many versions that circulated around Europe, including the translations of the very Decameron into Catalan (first recorded translation into a foreign language, anonymously hand-written in Sant Cugat in 1429; later retranslated by Bernat Metge ), French and Spanish . The famous first tale (I, 1) of the notorious Ser Ciappelletto

450-518: A literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance , principally by Giovanni Boccaccio , author of The Decameron (1353). The Decameron featured 100 tales (named novellas) told by ten people (seven women and three men) fleeing the Black Death , by escaping from Florence to the Fiesole hills in 1348. This structure was then imitated by subsequent authors, notably

500-533: A literary genre structured by precepts and rules, generally in a realistic mode . At that time, the Germans were the most active writers of the novelle (German: "Novelle"; plural: "Novellen"). For the German writer, a novella is a fictional narrative of indeterminate length—a few pages to hundreds—restricted to a single, suspenseful event, situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point ( Wendepunkt ), provoking

550-403: A logical but surprising end. Novellen tend to contain a concrete symbol, which is the narrative's focal point. The novella influenced the development of the short story and the novel throughout Europe. In the late 19th century Henry James was one of the first English language critics to use the term novella for a story that was longer and more complex than a short story, but shorter than

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600-587: A meeting between his friend and Guinevere. At this meeting the Queen first kisses Lancelot, and so begins their love affair. In Canto V of Inferno , Dante compares these fictional lovers with the real-life paramours Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta , whose relationship he fictionalises. In Inferno , Francesca and Paolo read of Lancelot and Guinevere, and the story impassions them to lovemaking. Dante's description of Galehaut's munificence and savoir-faire amidst this intrigue impressed Boccaccio. By invoking

650-614: A more complex version than either Chaucer's version or the French source (a fabliau by Jean de Boves). Despite its enduring popularity, the Decameron 's overtly anti-clerical stances frequently brought the work into conflict with the Catholic Church. The first instance occurred in 1497 when the Dominican Friar Girolamo Savonarola incited a bonfire of 'sinful' art and literature in the centre of Florence known later as

700-403: A novel. Dictionaries define novelette similarly to novella , sometimes identically, sometimes with a disparaging sense of being trivial or sentimental. Some literary awards have a longer "novella" and a shorter "novelette" category, with a distinction based on word count . Among awards, a range between 17,500 and 40,000 words is commonly used for the novella category, whereas 7,500–17,500

750-482: A novel. In English speaking countries the modern novella is rarely defined as a distinct literary genre, but is often used as a term for a short novel. A novella generally features fewer conflicts than a novel , yet more complicated ones than a short story . The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories. Novellas may or may not be divided into chapters (good examples of those with chapters are Animal Farm by George Orwell and The War of

800-535: A novella, but the panel for the Man Booker Prize in 2007 qualified the book as a "short novel". Thus, this "novella" was shortlisted for an award for best original novel. A similar case is found with a much older work of fiction: The Call of the Wild (1903) by Jack London . This book, by modern standards, is short enough and straightforward enough to qualify as a novella. However, historically, it has been regarded as

850-411: A separate "best novelette" award, separately from "best short story" or "best novel". The distinction between these categories may be entirely by word count . The Decameron The book's primary title exemplifies Boccaccio's fondness for Greek philology : Decameron combines Greek δέκα , déka ("ten") and ἡμέρα , hēméra ("day") to mean "ten-day [event]", referring to the period in which

900-486: A translation of tale X.viii), or served as source material for English authors such as Chaucer to rework. The table below lists all attempts at a complete English translation of the book. The information on pre-1971 translations is compiled from the G. H. McWilliam's introduction to his own 1971 translation. Day 6 to 10 VolumeII It can be generally said that Petrarch's version in Rerum senilium libri XVII, 3, included in

950-516: Is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels , but longer than most novelettes and short stories . The English word novella derives from the Italian novella meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. The Italian term is a feminine of novello , which means new , similarly to the English word news . Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between

1000-581: Is an example of a title naming its genre. This might be suggestive of the genre's historicization. Commonly, longer novellas are referred to as novels; Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) are sometimes called novels, as are many science fiction works such as H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1897) and Philip Francis Nowlan's Armageddon 2419 A.D. (1928). Less often, longer works are referred to as novellas. The subjectivity of

1050-506: Is based upon a story treatment Charteris wrote for RKO Pictures . The resulting film, The Saint in Palm Springs , was released in 1941 and starred George Sanders in his final appearance as Simon Templar. The script used in the film was substantially different from the original storyline. Charteris later novelized his original story for The Saint Goes West , making this, in essence, the first Saint novelization (more would follow based upon

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1100-413: Is commonly used for novelettes. According to The Writer , a novelette is approximately between 7,000 and 20,000 words in length, anything shorter being considered a short story. This list contains those novellas that are widely considered to be the best examples of the genre, through their appearance on multiple best-of lists. Some literary awards include a "best novella" award and sometimes

1150-422: Is one of the richest and most rewarding of literary forms...it allows for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the elaborate structural demands of the full-length book. Thus it provides an intense, detailed exploration of its subject, providing to some degree both the concentrated focus of the short story and the broad scope of the novel. In his essay, "Briefly,

1200-549: The Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance. For example, it is widely believed that the seven young women are meant to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude) and the Three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity). It is further supposed that the three men represent the classical Greek tripartite division of

1250-400: The television series ). The film's plotline involves a collection of rare stamps and incorporates the character of Inspector Fernack, who does not appear in the novella. In 1960, "Palm Springs" was adapted very loosely for the French film Le Saint Mene la danse which was produced by Films Du Cyclope and Lux Films and starred Felix Marten as Templar. This marks, to date, the only time

1300-576: The " Bonfire of the Vanities ". The Decameron was among the works known to have been burned that day. More official clerical challenges would follow upon the creation of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum . Instituted by Pope Paul IV in 1559, the Index was a list of texts that were officially anathema to the Catholic Church; Boccaccio's Decameron was among the original texts included. Despite this,

1350-574: The French queen Marguerite de Navarre , whose Heptaméron (1559) included 72 original French tales and was modeled after the structure of The Decameron . The Italian genre novella grew out of a rich tradition of medieval short narrative forms. It took its first major form in the anonymous late 13th century Libro di novelle et di bel parlar gentile , known as Il Novellino , and reached its culmination with The Decameron . Followers of Boccaccio such as Giovanni Fiorentino , Franco Sacchetti , Giovanni Sercambi and Simone de' Prodenzani continued

1400-480: The Italian novella , originally meant "any of a number of tales or stories making up a larger work; a short narrative of this type, a fable", and was then many times used in the plural, reflecting the usage as in The Decameron and its followers. Usage of the more italianate novella in English seems to be a bit younger. The differentiation of the two terms seems to have occurred only in the 19th century, following

1450-510: The Saint travelling around the world, although in this case all the stories take place in the United States (and can be said to follow on from the previous book, The Saint in Miami ). All three stories centre on Templar visiting the southwestern US, with the first story being a World War II -related espionage story, continuing the wartime theme established in The Saint in Miami which would continue in

1500-412: The Worlds by H. G. Wells ), and white space is often used to divide the sections, something less common in short stories. Novellas may be intended to be read at a single sitting, like short stories, and thus produce a unitary effect on the reader. According to Warren Cariou , "The novella is generally not as formally experimental as the long story and the novel can be, and it usually lacks the subplots,

1550-610: The book continued to circulate and grow in popularity, prompting Gregory XIII to commission a revised edition in 1573 in which the clergymen were replaced with secular people. Even this would prove to be too immoral for Sixtus V who commissioned another revision during his time as cardinal resulting in the 1582 edition by Salviati . The Decameron ' s individual tales were translated into English early on (such as poet William Walter's 1525 Here begynneth y[e] hystory of Tytus & Gesyppus translated out of Latyn into Englysshe by Wyllyam Walter, somtyme seruaunte to Syr Henry Marney ,

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1600-419: The case for the novella", Canadian author George Fetherling (who wrote the novella Tales of Two Cities ) said that to reduce the novella to nothing more than a short novel is like "insisting that a pony is a baby horse". The sometimes blurry definition between a novel and a novella can create controversy, as was the case with British writer Ian McEwan 's On Chesil Beach (2007). The author described it as

1650-471: The characters actually existed, such as Giotto di Bondone , Guido Cavalcanti , Saladin , and King William II of Sicily . Scholars have even been able to verify the existence of less famous characters, such as the tricksters Bruno and Buffalmacco and their victim Calandrino . Still other fictional characters are based on real people, such as the Madonna Fiordaliso from tale II, 5, who is derived from

1700-455: The characters of the frame story tell their tales. Boccaccio's subtitle, Prencipe Galeotto , refers to Galehaut , a fictional king portrayed in the 13th-century Lancelot-Grail who was sometimes called by the title haut prince "high prince". Galehaut was a close friend of Lancelot , but an enemy of King Arthur . When Galehaut learned that Lancelot loved Arthur's wife, Guinevere , he set aside his own ardor for Lancelot in order to arrange

1750-471: The company for one of the ten days in turn. This charge extends to choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue. Due to his wit, Dioneo, who usually tells

1800-510: The days of Boccaccio." In 1902, William Dean Howells wrote: "Few modern fictions of the novel's dimensions…have the beauty of form many a novella embodies." Sometimes, as with other genres, the genre name is mentioned in the title of a single work (compare the Divine Comedy or Goethe 's Das Märchen ). Austrian writer Stefan Zweig 's Die Schachnovelle (1942) (literally, "The Chess Novella", but translated in 1944 as The Royal Game )

1850-662: The description of the central motivating event of the narrative, the Black Plague (which Boccaccio surely witnessed), is not original, but is based on a description in the Historia gentis Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon , who lived in the 8th century. Boccaccio also drew on Ovid's works as inspiration. He has been called "the Italian Ovid," both because of his writing as well as his relationship to Ovid. The fact that Boccaccio borrowed

1900-521: The literal events of the story and the Christian message. However, the Decameron uses Dante's model not to educate the reader but to satirize this method of learning. The Catholic Church , priests, and religious belief become the satirical source of comedy throughout. This was part of a wider historical trend in the aftermath of the Black Death which saw widespread discontent with the church. Many details of

1950-430: The multiple points of view, and the generic adaptability that are common in the novel. It is most often concerned with personal and emotional development rather than with the larger social sphere. The novella generally retains something of the unity of impression that is a hallmark of the short story, but it also contains more highly developed characterization and more luxuriant description. The term novel , borrowed from

2000-483: The name Prencipe Galeotto in the alternative title to Decameron , Boccaccio alludes to a sentiment he expresses in the text: his compassion for women deprived of free speech and social liberty, confined to their homes and, at times, lovesick . He contrasts this life with that of the men free to enjoy hunting, fishing, riding, and falconry. In Italy during the time of the Black Death , a group of seven young women and three young men flee from plague-ridden Florence to

2050-400: The new fashion of the novella in German literature. In 1834, John Lothrop Motley could still speak of "Tieck's novels (which last are a set of exquisite little tales, novels in the original meaning of the word)". But when the term novella was used it was already clear that a rather short and witty form was intended: "The brief Novella has ever been a prodigious favorite with the nation…since

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2100-589: The next book, The Saint Steps In . Charteris would continue this " travelogue -mystery" theme a decade later with The Saint in Europe and successive volumes. The book consisted of the following stories, which are standalone adventures although the third story makes reference to the first two: Some editions, such as the 1948 printing by Avon Books , omit the World War II -era story "Arizona", although references to it remain in "Hollywood". The story "Palm Springs"

2150-456: The parameters of the novella genre is indicative of its shifting and diverse nature as an art form. In her 2010 Open Letters Monthly series, "A Year With Short Novels", Ingrid Norton criticizes the tendency to make clear demarcations based purely on a book's length, saying that "any distinctions that begin with an objective and external quality like size are bound to be misleading." Stephen King , in his introduction to Different Seasons ,

2200-532: The plots of almost all his stories (just as later writers borrowed from him). Although he consulted only French, Italian and Latin sources, some of the tales have their origin in such far-off lands as India, the Middle East, Spain, and other places. Some were already centuries old. For example, part of the tale of Andreuccio of Perugia (Day II, Story 5) originated in 2nd-century Ephesus (in the Ephesian Tale ). Even

2250-475: The soul ( Reason, Spirit, and Appetite , see Book IV of Republic ). Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to the qualities of each". The Italian names of the seven women, in the same (most likely significant) order as given in the text, are Pampinea, Fiammetta, Filomena, Emilia, Lauretta, Neifile, and Elissa. The men, in order, are Panfilo, Filostrato, and Dioneo. Boccaccio borrowed

2300-467: The story lines that make up most of the Decameron does not mean he mechanically reproduced them. Most of the stories take place in the 14th century and have been sufficiently updated to the author's time that a reader may not know that they had been written centuries earlier or in a foreign culture. Also, Boccaccio often combined two or more unrelated tales into one (such as in II, 2 and VII, 7). Moreover, many of

2350-424: The tenth tale each day, is allowed to select any topic he wishes. Many commentators have argued that Dioneo expresses the views of Boccaccio himself. Each day also includes a short introduction and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by describing other daily activities besides story-telling. These framing interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs. The interactions among tales in

2400-463: The tradition into the early 15th century. The Italian novella influenced many later writers, including Shakespeare . Novellas were also written in Spain. Miguel de Cervantes ' book Novelas ejemplares (1613) added innovation to the genre with more attention to the depiction of human character and social background. Not until the late 18th and early 19th centuries did writers fashion the novella into

2450-408: The unity provided by the frame narrative, the Decameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook. Throughout runs the common medieval theme of Lady Fortune , and how quickly one can rise and fall through the external influences of the " Wheel of Fortune ". Boccaccio had been educated in the tradition of Dante's Divine Comedy , which used various levels of allegory to show the connections between

2500-452: Was to make already existing tales more complex. A clear example of this is in tale IX, 6, which was also used by Chaucer in his " The Reeve's Tale ", which more closely follows the original French source than does Boccaccio's version. In the Italian version, the host's wife and the two young male visitors occupy all three beds and she also creates an explanation of the happenings of the evening. Both elements are Boccaccio's invention and make for

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