Shopgirl (novella)

Shopgirl is a 2000 novella written by Steve Martin. Martin adapted his book for a 2005 film of the same title.

Synopsis

Its titular character is young, lonely, depressed, Vermont transplant Mirabelle Buttersfield, who sells expensive evening gloves nobody ever buys at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills and spends her evenings watching television with her two cats. She attempts to forge a relationship with middle-aged, womanizing, Seattle millionaire Ray Porter while being pursued by socially inept and unambitious slacker Jeremy. Also playing roles in her life are her father, a dysfunctional Vietnam War veteran, and Lisa, her promiscuous, image-obsessed co-worker and voracious rival.

Reception

In his review in the New York Times, John Lanchester called it an "elegant, bleak, desolatingly sad first novella" and added, "The prose here is sometimes flat . . . the happy ending feels as if it has wandered in from somewhere else; and there is a touching confidence in the efficacy of self-help books. But there is nonetheless an impressive gravity about Shopgirl. Its glints of comedy are sharp and dry . . . The novella has an edge to it, and a deep, unassuageable loneliness. Steve Martin's most achieved work to date may well have the strange effect of making people glad not to be Steve Martin."

Novella

A novella is a work of written, fictional, narrative prose normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. The English word "novella" derives from the Italian "novella", feminine of "novello", which means "new". The novella is a common literary genre in several European languages.

History

The novella as a literary genre began developing in the early Renaissance by the Italian and French literatura, principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron (1353).The Decameron featured one hundred tales (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 would then be imitated by subsequent authors, notably the French queen Marguerite de Navarre, who wrote a Heptaméron (1559) that included seventy-two original French tales and was modeled after the structure of The Decameron.

Not until the late 18th and early 19th centuries did writers fashion the novella into 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 a logical but surprising end. Novellen tend to contain a concrete symbol, which is the narrative's focal point.

Novella (album)

Novella is the seventh studio album by the British progressive rock band Renaissance, released in 1977.

Release history

Due to the bankruptcy of the band's UK label BTM, this album was released in the USA some months before its UK release, leading to a number of UK fans importing copies. At the time of this original issue, Sire was distributed in the USA by ABC Records; the cover featured unique artwork by Pamela Brown different from that which would be used for its subsequent UK issue. Shortly thereafter, Sire changed distribution in the USA to Warner Brothers and the cover artwork was revised to use the same painting by Brown as that employed in its UK issue. The 2nd USA issue can most easily be identified by the rendering of the band which takes up the entire back cover; the original ABC Distribution cover features a much smaller painting of the band on the back.

After the demise of BTM, the band agreed in principle to sign for CBS Records UK. However they actually agreed to a contract with Warner Brothers.

Novella (Bulgaria)

Novella is planned Bulgarian family-oriented television channel. Along with bTV, bTV Comedy, bTV Cinema, bTV Action, bTV Lady and RING are part of bTV Media Group, owned by the US media conglomerate Central European Media Enterprises. It will air new and classic television series, telenovelas, European series, romantic films and others. Originally announced as "bTV Gold", the name was changed as "Novella" before the start of the channel.

Shopgirl

Shopgirl is a 2005 American romantic drama film directed by Anand Tucker and starring Steve Martin, Claire Danes, and Jason Schwartzman. The screenplay by Steve Martin is based on his 2000 novella of the same name. The film is about a complex love triangle between a bored salesgirl, a wealthy businessman, and an aimless young man.

Produced by Ashok Amritraj, Jon Jashni, and Steve Martin for Touchstone Pictures and Hyde Park Entertainment, and distributed in the United States by Buena Vista Pictures, Shopgirl was released on October 21, 2005 and received generally positive reviews from film critics. The film went on to earn $11,112,077 and was nominated for four Satellite Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Plot

Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes), a transplanted Vermonter, is an aspiring artist and saleswoman at the evening gloves counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. Her quiet, orderly existence - filled with both the mundane (futon furniture and an aging pickup truck) and the serious (a large student loan and a supply of antidepressants) - is disrupted by the sudden appearance of two disparate men.