Writing small Amharic fiction became a dominantrnpractice by the beginning of the second-half of the presentrncentury. These works, derogatorily known as Amharic "dimernnovels", constitute a large portion of the prose fiction inrnthe language. If not identical many of them havernconspicuous similarity in their format. They also sharernsome attributes with regard to their techniques and subjectrnmatter.rnAmharic "dime novels" are often criticized for theirrnpoor literary standards and there are tendencies to ignorerntheir significance in Amharic literature. Except for a fewrnbrief remarks no serious attempt has been made so far tornstudy them. The purpose of this thesis is, therefore, tornhave a closer observation of the major features of thesernworks , and to pin-point some of their contributions tornAmharic literature. Descripftive and explanatory as it is ,rnthe thesis illustrates the creative aptitude and technicalrnperformance demonstrated in these works.A:v' l a ~ic L d~~i',e novels", themselves being the product ofrna literdture in a process of c hange, have in turn been therncause for the tra nsition. They have pl ayed a rol e inrnp r omoting Amharic prose fiction into a different s t age -rnhelping it to break away from traditional practice andrnmovetoward modernity. Even though they continued to bernhighly infulenced by the old authors, they neverthelessrnintroduced new elements of modern narrative techniques.rnApart from their significance in depicting the socioeconomicrnand cultural color of their time, these works havernundoubtedly enriched Amharic literature with morernexperience in fiction writing.rnI n brief , the study enunciates the nature of the firs trnlarge scale literary production which reflects the creativerntemperament t o f a new gene r a ti on of writers t ha t cropped uprni n t he 1950s and 1960s E.C.