Both the novella and the epic might be classed as "histories," and "histories" were valuable because they aided the reader in the actual conduct of life.
"Early Theories of Translation"
Flora Ross Amos
The Italian novella, of course, admits wild passions and extravagant crimes: but the general tone of it is bourgeois-at any rate domestic.
"The English Novel"
George Saintsbury
The series forms, in fact, a painted novella of monastic life; its petty jealousies, its petty trials, its tribulations and temptations, and its indescribably petty miracles.
"Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III."
John Symonds