Epistolary novel

An epistolary novel is a book written using a literary technique in which a novel is composed as a series of letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. The word "epistolary" comes from the word "epistles", meaning letters, although it has nothing to do with epistemology.

Related Topics:
Literary technique - Novel - Letter - Diary entries - Newspaper - Epistemology

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One of past arguments for an epistolary novel was that it was thought to add greater realism and verisimilitude to the story, chiefly because the epistolary novel mimics the workings of non-fictional real life. It is able to demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the omniscient narrator, whom some novelists believed to be an unrealistic representation.

Related Topics:
Non-fiction - Omniscient narrator

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The epistolary novel was a form most popular in the 18th century in the works of such authors as Samuel Richardson, whose early novel Pamela (1740), was considered the first epistolary novel. In France, Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) used the epistolary form to great dramatic effect, because the sequence of events was not always related directly or explicitly.

Related Topics:
18th century - Samuel Richardson - Pamela - 1740 - France - Laclos - Les Liaisons Dangereuses - 1782

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Even by the end of the century, the epistolary form was subject to much ridicule, resulting in a number of savage burlesques, most notably Henry Fielding's Shamela, written as a parody of Pamela, where the female narrator can be found wielding a pen and scribbling her diary entries under the most dramatic and unlikeliest of circumstances.

Related Topics:
Burlesque - Henry Fielding - Shamela

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The epistolary novel slowly fell out of use in the 19th century. By the time Jane Austen popularized techniques of the omniscient narrator, the form had become somewhat archaic. For example, Pride and Prejudice (1811) was originally written as an epistolary novel but Austen rewrote it with a third-person omniscient narrator marking, in part, the end of the era of the epistolary novel.

Related Topics:
19th century - Jane Austen - Omniscient narrator - Pride and Prejudice - 1811

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Epistolary novels have since made rare but memorable appearances in English literature. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) uses not only letters and diaries, but dictation tapes and newspaper accounts, to trace the supernatural tale. C. S. Lewis also used this form to craft his Screwtape Letters and considered writing a companion novel from an angel's point of view--though he never did so.

Related Topics:
English literature - Bram Stoker - Dracula - 1897 - Newspaper - C. S. Lewis - Screwtape Letters - Angel

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In the late 20th century, Emma Bull and Steven Brust's Freedom and Necessity combined letters with diary entries, as did Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is written as the journal of mentally-retarded janitor Charlie Gordon, who temporarily becomes a super-genius during a medical experiment. Through changes in grammar and style, Charlie's mental rise and fall are presented in a remarkably effective and poignant way.

Related Topics:
20th century - Emma Bull - Steven Brust - Alice Walker - The Color Purple - Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

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Some of J.D. Salinger's stories about the Glass family are written in the form of letters.

Related Topics:
J.D. Salinger - Glass family

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Epistolary form has made a small number of recent appearances in contemporary literature such as Andrew Crumey's fourth novel Mr Mee and Tim Parks' Home Thoughts. Arguably, both Ella Minnow Pea and ' by Mark Dunn are also written as epistolary novels.

Related Topics:
Andrew Crumey - Mr Mee - Tim Parks - Home Thoughts - Ella Minnow Pea - Mark Dunn

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The most recent mutation of the epistolary novel is the novel in e-mails, which follows the same format (examples: Blue Company, PS He's Mine, and the probable first example Two Solitudes).

Related Topics:
Blue Company - PS He's Mine - Two Solitudes

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See also: literature, false document.

Related Topics:
Literature - False document

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