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The Little People
They are citizens of our town who own property, pay taxes, and vote. They dress like us. They speak like us. They eat like us. They are two inches tall.
From Steven Millhauser, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler and one of the most imaginative and essential voices of our time, comes a fable about a race of miniature people and the way of life they have come master within our own. By turns enchanting and provocative, The Little People explores the fascination and unease the little people create in us, examines our private desire to disappear into their world, and reveals what happens when our personal and romantic lives inevitably collide
From Steven Millhauser, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler and one of the most imaginative and essential voices of our time, comes a fable about a race of miniature people and the way of life they have come master within our own. By turns enchanting and provocative, The Little People explores the fascination and unease the little people create in us, examines our private desire to disappear into their world, and reveals what happens when our personal and romantic lives inevitably collide
1 pages, Audiobook
First published January 28, 2021
3 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
Steven Millhauser
67 books473 followersMillhauser was born in New York City, grew up in Connecticut, and earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1965. He then pursued a doctorate in English at Brown University. He never completed his dissertation but wrote parts of Edwin Mullhouse and From the Realm of Morpheus in two separate stays at Brown. Between times at the university, he wrote Portrait of a Romantic at his parents' house in Connecticut. His story "The Invention of Robert Herendeen" (in The Barnum Museum) features a failed student who has moved back in with his parents; the story is loosely based on this period of Millhauser's life.
Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, Edwin Mullhouse. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing Boswell to Edwin's Johnson. Edwin Mullhouse brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, Portrait of a Romantic, in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, In The Penny Arcade, in 1986.
Possibly the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist" (published in "The Barnum Museum"), based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film, The Illusionist (2006).
Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter has noted, "in (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."
Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought Millhauser increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008".
Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and teaches at Skidmore College.
Until the Pulitzer Prize, Millhauser was best known for his 1972 debut novel, Edwin Mullhouse. This novel, about a precocious writer whose career ends abruptly with his death at age eleven, features the fictional Jeffrey Cartwright playing Boswell to Edwin's Johnson. Edwin Mullhouse brought critical acclaim, and Millhauser followed with a second novel, Portrait of a Romantic, in 1977, and his first collection of short stories, In The Penny Arcade, in 1986.
Possibly the most well-known of his short stories is "Eisenheim the Illusionist" (published in "The Barnum Museum"), based on a pseudo-mythical tale of a magician who stunned audiences in Vienna in the latter part of the 19th century. It was made into the film, The Illusionist (2006).
Millhauser's stories often treat fantasy themes in a manner reminiscent of Poe or Borges, with a distinctively American voice. As critic Russell Potter has noted, "in (Millhauser's stories), mechanical cowboys at penny arcades come to life; curious amusement parks, museums, or catacombs beckon with secret passageways and walking automata; dreamers dream and children fly out their windows at night on magic carpets."
Millhauser's collections of stories continued with The Barnum Museum (1990), Little Kingdoms (1993), and The Knife Thrower and Other Stories (1998). The unexpected success of Martin Dressler in 1997 brought Millhauser increased attention. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories made the New York Times Book Review list of "10 Best Books of 2008".
Millhauser lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and teaches at Skidmore College.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
March 23, 2021
A community of 2 inch tall people coexists with regular sized humans. This was weird and sort of obvious about the need for tolerance of differences. I could have lived without the descriptions of sex with the little people. This audiobook had to be free.
February 12, 2021
I feel like this is maybe a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” The concept of little people and regular sized people coexisting intrigued me. But, the random sex scenes really made me uncomfortable and came.. out of nowhere. I wasn’t attached to the characters and am not really even sure who they were since this book jumped all over the place. One moment it was describing a situation between two characters and then another moment diving into science and philosophy. I’ll try to read another book by the author and see if I missed something.
May 3, 2021
A very quirky and unique audible original story!
The Little People live on a 2 acre plot beside a town of normal sized humans beings. They are only 2 inches tall and have created a world that they happily live in along the bigger people. The interact well with each other and have learned to adapt to each other's size. There are even a few love stories with very interesting physical interactions that had me laughing out loud!
if you want to listen to something different then give it a go :)
The Little People live on a 2 acre plot beside a town of normal sized humans beings. They are only 2 inches tall and have created a world that they happily live in along the bigger people. The interact well with each other and have learned to adapt to each other's size. There are even a few love stories with very interesting physical interactions that had me laughing out loud!
if you want to listen to something different then give it a go :)
March 5, 2021
I’m frustrated at the number of people who have given this story bad ratings because it doesn’t adhere to the usual narrative structure. It’s told almost as an anthropological report, an examination of the interactions between the cultures of the little people and normal sized people. That’s a valid and creative way to explore an idea, and I found it really interesting. The sex descriptions threw me, though that does track as something a report like this would entail. Maybe I would expected to me to be less graphic? More scientific/objective/detached? I don’t know. There also could probably stand to be a heads up for readers/listeners with body image issues, as that’s something talked about here more than one would expect. I agree that I would like to see more of an actual narrative story set in this world, but just the exploration of it shown here definitely entertained me.
I wrote the rest of this review with about ten minutes left to go in the story, and now I have to add something. The little people were always pretty clearly a racial metaphor, but that became very explicit in that last bit, and it was clumsy and uncomfortable.
I wrote the rest of this review with about ten minutes left to go in the story, and now I have to add something. The little people were always pretty clearly a racial metaphor, but that became very explicit in that last bit, and it was clumsy and uncomfortable.
May 6, 2021
Um...
January 14, 2026
Quirky and weird.
August 6, 2022
Oh, I really loved this.
February 11, 2021
The cover and title grabbed my attention and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on another short story by the infamous Stephen Millhauser. I’ve always love the ideas of different sized people coexisting, ever since my grad four teacher read us The Indian In The Cupboard. I loved that book!
Unfortunately I did not find the same magic in The little People by Stephen Millhauser. It had its moments, an interesting concept with some cool aspects but overall it let me down. I wanted more on the societal effects of having two completely different types of humans coexists. The inequalities, the benefits, the financial ramifications, the laws and regulations put in place to protect the large and small people. So much to really dive into and yet the vast majority of the book focuses on the sexual relationship between large and small people who fall in love. It was sexual in the weirdest ways while skirting around the more fascinating details of such a dynamic cohabitation.
⭐️⭐️ I am giving this novella a regrettable two stars with an R rating. I can’t see recommending this book to anyone, it was just to uncomfortable.
Unfortunately I did not find the same magic in The little People by Stephen Millhauser. It had its moments, an interesting concept with some cool aspects but overall it let me down. I wanted more on the societal effects of having two completely different types of humans coexists. The inequalities, the benefits, the financial ramifications, the laws and regulations put in place to protect the large and small people. So much to really dive into and yet the vast majority of the book focuses on the sexual relationship between large and small people who fall in love. It was sexual in the weirdest ways while skirting around the more fascinating details of such a dynamic cohabitation.
⭐️⭐️ I am giving this novella a regrettable two stars with an R rating. I can’t see recommending this book to anyone, it was just to uncomfortable.
February 12, 2021
I really don’t have any idea of the point of this book, other than to write the most strangest most pointlessly far fetched book. There was a lot of weird comparisons of people that was in a word awkward, and I am confused as to why these little people made people feel so in awe and inadequate at the same time. The intimate scenes were so strange, almost to the point of being more comical. My only guess is that this book is about people comparing themselves to others and how it causes you to never be happy with your body and looks... is that what this book is about??? If not then I am stumped and if it were not for adding to my reading challenge, and it only being an hour long audio book, I would’ve felt like that was a waste of an hour I could’ve used doing absolutely anything else.
May 20, 2021
I had hopes this book could be interesting, but it fell so flat. I'm glad it was a short story or I probably would have stopped reading it. It seemed more like a book of random facts (that aren't actual facts) than an actual storyline.
Also, the sexual scenes made me really uncomfortable. I can see how the question would come up, like "I wonder how that works" but I didn't want to know the answer, especially being that graphic.
Also, the sexual scenes made me really uncomfortable. I can see how the question would come up, like "I wonder how that works" but I didn't want to know the answer, especially being that graphic.
January 27, 2023
I don't think this was meant to be a comedy but it was quite funny in parts, especially explaining in unnecessary detail how a 2-inch tall "little person" makes love to a fully grown woman, before he's mauled by a cat xD
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2021
Really weird. Had a few good moments but overall, ummm no.
May 28, 2021
Really odd story!!
July 31, 2021
Could have been an interesting premise but the story itself is awkward, especially with the unnecessarily intimate details rife with the male gaze.
August 8, 2021
Weird book. Detailed descriptions from the author but overly detailed descriptions of sexual acts between regular sized people and little ones.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2022
I needed more word building.
September 2, 2023
I'm Not Sure About This One
1I don't often DNF a Short stroy a third of the way in, but I was not feeling like I was in good hands on this one.
Look, the author has won awards, clearly has a nice prose, interesting ideas, and the narration does a good job of making it seem like a radio documentary or This American Life or whatever, but this story gave me the creeps and I'm not just talking about the bizarre and somewhat graphic sex scene that came out of nowhere (no kink shaming here).
I don't know very much about this author, but there is a real heteronormative white dude vibe going on here that made me extremely uncomfortable. From the descriptions of the the eponymous 'Little People', physically and socially as a homogeneous, 'exotic', and 'model minority' group, and the way size is with this seemingly conflated with ideas about 'race' and people with restricted growth or short stature who already face stereotypes and fetishisation. The unneeded and dissonant inclusion of the descriptions of sex only heighten everything previously mentioned and really did feel specifically a kink thing -- which is fine, folx can write kink fiction all they want for themselves and their audience, but the inclusion here seems very odd and kinda yikes in context.
I'm happy to chalk this down as a 'just not for me', and I do think there is some at least questionable stuff going on here (though I don't think it is necessarily purposeful or with malice), but I think the concept itself, while not particularly original, has potential to tell an interesting tale. I think it just needed to be handled in a more aware tone and sensibility.
1I don't often DNF a Short stroy a third of the way in, but I was not feeling like I was in good hands on this one.
Look, the author has won awards, clearly has a nice prose, interesting ideas, and the narration does a good job of making it seem like a radio documentary or This American Life or whatever, but this story gave me the creeps and I'm not just talking about the bizarre and somewhat graphic sex scene that came out of nowhere (no kink shaming here).
I don't know very much about this author, but there is a real heteronormative white dude vibe going on here that made me extremely uncomfortable. From the descriptions of the the eponymous 'Little People', physically and socially as a homogeneous, 'exotic', and 'model minority' group, and the way size is with this seemingly conflated with ideas about 'race' and people with restricted growth or short stature who already face stereotypes and fetishisation. The unneeded and dissonant inclusion of the descriptions of sex only heighten everything previously mentioned and really did feel specifically a kink thing -- which is fine, folx can write kink fiction all they want for themselves and their audience, but the inclusion here seems very odd and kinda yikes in context.
I'm happy to chalk this down as a 'just not for me', and I do think there is some at least questionable stuff going on here (though I don't think it is necessarily purposeful or with malice), but I think the concept itself, while not particularly original, has potential to tell an interesting tale. I think it just needed to be handled in a more aware tone and sensibility.
March 13, 2021
::semi-spoilers but it's not really a book you can spoil::
This is one of those books where the world building is good but the story itself falls flat. This feels like its a series of world-building notes the author was going to use to write a story but just published the notes instead. That structure of story didn't really bother me much, but left me wanting more.
::Semi-spoilers ahead::
Many many unanswered questions about how society works when some people are 2" tall. I didn't expect to have all my questions answered in a 1-hour audio book but I wish more time was spent elaborating on how the little people's society integrates with the larger world and WAY less time detailing how they have sex.
I want to believe there is an underlying message about appreciating differences and learning to coexist but I ended up feeling like "sex with someone 2 inches tall" was the main thread the author wrote the rest of the book around.
So, overall I enjoyed the concept but not the execution.
This is one of those books where the world building is good but the story itself falls flat. This feels like its a series of world-building notes the author was going to use to write a story but just published the notes instead. That structure of story didn't really bother me much, but left me wanting more.
::Semi-spoilers ahead::
Many many unanswered questions about how society works when some people are 2" tall. I didn't expect to have all my questions answered in a 1-hour audio book but I wish more time was spent elaborating on how the little people's society integrates with the larger world and WAY less time detailing how they have sex.
I want to believe there is an underlying message about appreciating differences and learning to coexist but I ended up feeling like "sex with someone 2 inches tall" was the main thread the author wrote the rest of the book around.
So, overall I enjoyed the concept but not the execution.
March 17, 2021
Looooooooove this
This was hilarious, clever and just fantastic. The way the information is delivered versus the information itself was so funny to me.
The way the writter is turning this topic in something else that's always been an issue within the human race, about the differeces between a race an another and the discrimination, all these under the premise of little people, is fabulous.
Also, I can understan why certain amount of people didn't like it, 'cause of the way is telling the story. But, the narration is one of the factors that I fell in love with the book, the fact that is telling me all these things in an objective way is what makes it funnier, especially the sex parts, hehe.
This was hilarious, clever and just fantastic. The way the information is delivered versus the information itself was so funny to me.
The way the writter is turning this topic in something else that's always been an issue within the human race, about the differeces between a race an another and the discrimination, all these under the premise of little people, is fabulous.
Also, I can understan why certain amount of people didn't like it, 'cause of the way is telling the story. But, the narration is one of the factors that I fell in love with the book, the fact that is telling me all these things in an objective way is what makes it funnier, especially the sex parts, hehe.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2021
An anthropological narrative about a coexisting society of ‘Little People’ and ‘Normal People’, but not in the style of ‘The Borrowers’ but a mixture between those little people and the little people found in ‘Land of the Giants’ (you have to be of a certain generation to be able to relate to the comparison). Suffice to say, this is written as if this society truly exists.
It’s actually quite fascinating in a weird way, but also quite intriguing and may leave you feeling quite chilled by it all, if you further think of how vulnerable The Little People really are!
It’s actually quite fascinating in a weird way, but also quite intriguing and may leave you feeling quite chilled by it all, if you further think of how vulnerable The Little People really are!
February 15, 2024
This is about a 1 hour Audible Original. Is about the 2 inch tall people in the town called the Little People. This was written like a documentary. In addition to facts about the little people and their culture, there are 3 stories of mixed relationships between little people and average human height partners.
I found this interesting because I had a memorable dream once about being a little 2 inch tall person where there were also giants to us as well as very tiny people compared to us. I'm not sure how many people would like this book. I would read more about them.
I found this interesting because I had a memorable dream once about being a little 2 inch tall person where there were also giants to us as well as very tiny people compared to us. I'm not sure how many people would like this book. I would read more about them.
April 21, 2022
Not Gullivers Travels! Premis is that 2 inch high people live alongside people of more usual height. Some ingenious aspects, some metaphorical, many with sociopolitical overtones eg the Think Big nd Think Again movements. Many readers have commented on the sex scenes. I think they miss the point - The intolerance of difference that is at the heart of this story
March 2, 2021
It was definitely interesting. I do feel like it jumped around a lot but there were a few scenes that had me cracking up...but my humor isn’t for everyone.
It was a fun and lighthearted listen (on audible)
It was a fun and lighthearted listen (on audible)
March 31, 2021
This was a short story about a class of little people who live along side regular sized people. The situation is described, including sexual habits, which could have been left out. A strangle tale, which didn’t make much sense.
April 23, 2021
A quirky little story - I enjoyed learning about the separate worlds trying to live in harmony. I agree the sex scenes were a little abrupt - one making more sense than the other. The concepts of us as giants (and terrifying) was an interesting and relevant.
July 31, 2021
This was a nice story to listen to on my evening walk, although I found myself unsure of what it was, or what it represented. There is an element of other-ism in it, as well as fetishization, but perhaps I was looking for too much metaphor in what was, at its core, a sweet story.
September 6, 2024
Charming idea and story, good reading. Imagines a group of tiny people like in Lilliput or Little Rodentia (Zootopia), or LeisureLand in Downsizing. Only wish there was a lot more, and character dialogue instead of the overview. Height supremacists... the pleasures of the small...
April 6, 2021
Weird but interesting... although I could have gone without the intercourse descriptions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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May 29, 2021This was a weird little diversion that felt more like a story start than a finished work, but it was fine for what it was. I listened with my 12yo, who felt basically the same about it.
December 15, 2022
Kinky little novel about little people coexisting with regular sized people. Flashbacks to racism, homophobia and learning to accept others.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews