UC Berkeley

More than simply being shorter than a novel and longer than a short story, a novella is a kind of story literature that represents something new in its literary and historical context, that is independently preserved, and that tells a complex story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. This chapter argues that Esther fits this definition in every way. Additionally, building on scholarly discussions which read ancient Jewish novellas as part of contemporary literary trends, this chapter puts Esther into conversation with novellas written in Demotic by Egyptians, a comparison that has been overlooked until recently. This comparison has revealed the ways in which the form of the novella was a potent vehicle for entertainment and creativity, and thus major kind of cultural expression within indigenous literary circles in the later first millennium Eastern Mediterranean.