The Short Novels of Martha Gellhorn
Fourteen novellas written between 1936 and 1978, gathered in one volume. For most of Gellhorn's fiction it is the only edition still in circulation.
- 1991
- 736
About Martha Gellhorn
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe collected novellas, drawn from four earlier collections published between 1936 and 1978 and assembled by Sinclair-Stevenson in 1991. It runs to more than seven hundred pages and includes the three African novellas from The Weather in Africa alongside earlier work. This is the single volume in which the form she was best at can be read in sequence, and for most of her fiction it is the edition still in circulation.
The story, in more detail
Fourteen pieces drawn from four collections published between 1936 and 1978, running to more than seven hundred pages. The early work includes the Depression novellas — Mrs Maddison, Joe and Pete, Jim, Ruby — that made her name in The Trouble I've Seen. The middle of the book holds the marriage sequence titled after the vows, For Better For Worse, For Richer For Poorer, In Sickness and In Health, Till Death Us Do Part, and the sharper later stories: A Promising Career, The Clever One, The Fall and Rise of Mrs Hapgood. It closes with the three African novellas from The Weather in Africa.
Read in order, it is the clearest available account of what she actually did as a fiction writer, which is not what her reputation suggests. The subjects move from American poverty to European marriages to colonial Africa across fifty years, and the form stays constant: long enough to hold a whole life, short enough that nothing can be padded. Several of the source collections have been out of print for decades, so for most of this material this volume is the only way in.
Why we recommend it
The form she was best at
Her novels are uneven and her novellas are not. This is the volume that makes the case.
Still the edition in circulation
Several of the individual collections have been out of print for decades. This one is how most readers reach them.
A career readable in order
Forty years of work in sequence, which is a different thing from any single collection.
What this book explores
Timeline
1936–1978
The fourteen novellas first appear across four collections — from the Depression stories of The Trouble I've Seen to the African novellas of The Weather in Africa.
1991
Sinclair-Stevenson gathers them in London as The Short Novels of Martha Gellhorn, more than seven hundred pages — the form she was best at, readable in sequence at last.
1993
Knopf reissues the volume in the United States as The Novellas of Martha Gellhorn, with a Vintage paperback the next year.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Sinclair-Stevenson
- 1991
- Hardcover
- Knopf
- 1993
Paperback
- Paperback
- Picador
- 1994
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The Short Novels of Martha Gellhorn: frequently asked questions
What is The Short Novels of Martha Gellhorn?
A 1991 collection gathering her novellas from four earlier collections published between 1936 and 1978. It runs to more than seven hundred pages.
What does it include?
Fourteen pieces, including the three African novellas from The Weather in Africa alongside her earlier work.
Who was Martha Gellhorn?
A pioneering American war correspondent and novelist, and briefly Ernest Hemingway's third wife.
Is this the best single volume of her fiction?
It is the one volume that gathers the bulk of her novellas — the form many readers think she was strongest in.
When were the novellas written?
Across her career, from 1936 to 1978, drawn from four separate collections.