In German the genre of the novella has a history of its own, originating in the eighteenth century and flourishing especially during the hundred years thereafter. The Pigeon is a significant contribution to the corpus of the novella in the twentieth century and bears distinctive features of the genre.

The work is a prose narrative dealing with one particular situation or event, the confrontation with the bird, which occurs as a consequence of chance, striking into the life of Jonathan Noel.

This is something strange or "new," as the term "novella" suggests, and the event provides the turning point both in the development of the work and in the course of Noel's life.

The concept of "the falcon" has a particular meaning when used in conjunction with analysis of the novella form and becomes somewhat ironical when applied to The Pigeon. The falcon is featured in a novella...