A short story is that kind of prose narrative, which length is limited. That kind of prose is probably as old as the literature. Moreover, this form of prose has existed for many years before the same art of writing was invented. Probably the oldest example of short story is an Egyptian tale entitled "The Two Brothers", which dates back around 3200 B.C. What is more, until today the original of that prose remains unbroken. The short stories usually are consisted of description, some dialogues or commentary. However, the most important is the fact that every short story has a compact narrative and characters are well-drown. The examples of such stories are: "To build a Fire" written by Jack London and "Well-lighted Place" written by Ernest Hemingway.
Novel is also a kind of prose, which is narrated on a bigger scale. Similar to the short story a novel includes a lot of different kinds and possibilities. Its length is also longer than the length of short story. More extended narratives forms have been invented as soon as the same literature was invented. What is more, the novels are considered as the most popular literary form nowadays, in both criteria: in the quantity and the quality. However, if we consider the quantity, it has a rival which is a magazine short story. A lot of people don't want to red any other type of literature than the novels or short stories. It is said that the novel is the best qualitative form of literature. As the best authors are considered the "classics" writers such as Mann or Faulkner. I think that the 20th century may be called the century of novels. The examples of novels are books such as: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" written by J.K. Rowling or "Bridget Jones's Diary" written by Helen Fielding.
Fable is a kind of story with an allegorical tale with included some morals or the patterns of behaviour. The characters involved in the fable are often animals, which are talking and looking like human beings. They keep their real animal traits. The moral is usually defined as a proverb. Moreover, the fable may be called the acted-out kind of proverb. Some fables may explain the phenomena of our world such as the question why crows are often black. They establish some short animal characteristics, for example foxes are sly, whereas lions are dignified. The other fables, which were products of the more sophisticated type of cultures, use the animal creatures to give the moral lessons or are helpful in satirizing some human vices. It is believed that the earliest fables were invented in Greece and India. The oldest examples of western fables were written by Aesop. In the past some people used the term "fable" in the meaning: "narrative" or "plot".
Parable is an example of brief narrative, which is met in the Holy Bible. It was designed to explain some religious truths or give a lesson.
Tale is a kind of story that includes some wonderful and magical events. There is also a kind of summary, but there isn't any detailed drawing of characters. The main goal is the revelation of the marvellous things rather than insisting on presenting the characters. As the example may be considered "Jack and the Beanstalk", which is an English folk tale. The most important are the marvellous beanstalks with giants is than Jack's personality.
Finally, fairy tales are short stories in which appear some magical and supernatural events. Some characters aren't supposed to individualize or localize. Moreover, they aren't given the names, simply called: "a king", "a queen", "a princess" or "a poor farmer". Fairy tales tell about some fortunes or misfortunes of the main hero or heroine. They experience some adventures and then everything is all right. They live happily. Often magic, charms, disguises and other spells are the main ingredients of fairy tales. Almost every fairy tale has the happy end and the virtue is rewarded. The best collections of fairy tales were written by Hans Christian Andersen (Danish), Basile (Italian), the Grimm brothers (German), Keightley and Croker (English), Perrault (French).
