Esther as Novella

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. It is also independently preserved and tells a complex story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. This article argues that Esther fits this definition in every way. Additionally, building on scholarly discussions that read ancient Jewish novellas as part of cultural and literary trends contemporary to them, this article puts Esther into conversation with novellas written in Demotic by Egyptians, a comparison that has been largely overlooked. This comparison reveals how novellas were potent vehicles for storytelling entertainment and creativity, and thus a major kind of cultural expression within indigenous literary circles in the later first-millennium Southeastern Mediterranean.