Dear Reader: Does the Epistolary Novel Still Have a Place in Modern Literature?
By Guest | January 8, 2017 |
By Alison Postma, Flickr’s Creative Commons
Please welcome Gina L. Mulligan as our guest today. Gina is a veteran freelance journalist for numerous national magazines and the author of the award-winning novels, Remember the Ladies and From Across the Room. After her own diagnosis, Gina founded Girls Love Mail, a national charity that collects handwritten letters of encouragement for women with breast cancer. She was honored for her charitable work on the nationally syndicated television talk show The Steve Harvey Show, and was featured on People.com and TODAY.com.
I was working on an epistolary novel and had been researching letters for years. Then I became a cancer patient and received over 200 get-well letters and cards. This was when I realized the healing properties of letters and they became my passion. Along with finishing my epistolary novel, FROM ACROSS THE ROOM, I started a charity called Girls Love Mail that collects hand-written letters of encouragement for women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Since our start in 2011, we’ve sent out over 70,000 letters.
Connect with Gina on Facebook and Twitter.
Dear Reader: Does the Epistolary Novel Still Have a Place in Modern Literature?
If you lived in the late 1700s, you drank corn whiskey, spun your own cloth, and spent your evenings in the glow of candlelight reading an epistolary novel. If the term epistolary is unfamiliar, you’re not alone. An epistolary novel is a fictional story told through letters, and though it’s not common today, it was the most popular novel format throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. In fact, epistolary novelist Samuel Richardson was the Stephen King of his day. Then tastes changed and writers turned to Gothic romances and adopted more straightforward narratives. Since its heyday, the epistolary novel really hasn’t made a come-back. As an author who wrote an epistolary novel and runs a letter writing charity, I had to ask if there’s still a place for this beautiful, albeit challenging, format in modern fiction.
A Voyeuristic Peek
Though we now think of letter writing as a lost art, letters hold a certain fascination because they are a voyeuristic peek into private thoughts and actions. Letters have long been preserved as national historical records, and who hasn’t heard a story about discovering a bundle of long-lost love letters in the attic trunk? If real letters pique our interest, can they be used to create a compelling novel? Part of the answer is found in the format itself. Letters provide intimate insights, remove author intrusion, advance plot, and develop characters.
Because letters are first-person expressions of beliefs and feelings, readers organically develop a deep and quick understanding of characters. Think how much we know from a simple “My Dearest Rebecca,” versus, “Hey Dude.” Letters also have built-in pacing. Short or unfinished letters create a page-turner. To slow down important moments, longer, intricate letters or multiple letters with different points of view do the trick. Even setting and plot are advanced because a letter naturally demands some level of description.
Some Familiar Titles
If you think you’ve never heard of an epistolary novel, think again. The Color Purple, Carrie, Dracula, Dangerous Liaisons, and 84 Charring Cross Lane, to name a few, are all epistolary. What all of these wonderful novels have in common is that the letter format helps make them great. In 84 Charring Cross Lane, letters are carefully arranged to give a sense of time passing, enhance the physical distance between characters, and stimulate the imagination with engaging descriptions and language. Each letter in The Color Purple begins “Dear God.” In just two repetitive words, the reader understands the depths of Celie’s burdens. And humor is exaggerated in Dangerous Liaisons by clever misdirection and the intricate plot. The movies and plays were good, but the novels are definite Must Reads.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a terrific example of how letters enhance the story. Suspense is created by what information is revealed and concealed. When Jonathan Harker is in Transylvania, the reader knows something is amiss by the details he omits in letters to his wife Mina. At the same time, we feel Mina’s concern through the elaborate letters she exchanges with friends. Further, the use of diary entries provides insight into the fears of the characters. This creates a profound connection which heightens the awareness of impending danger.
The Story as a Puzzle
Still, the fact remains that in 2016 I found only seven new epistolary novels, mine included. This is likely also due to the format. A pivotal challenge of the epistolary is who to tell what. If you’ve already told one character, then how do you share it with another without boring the reader? And if letters are going back and forth, how important is the timing of the letters? The story itself becomes a giant puzzle.
That said, modern readers are accustomed to digesting information in pieces and letters provide busy readers convenient stopping and starting points. We need look no further than the prevalence of emails and texts to know that as a community we continue to bond through written exchange and engage in intimate dialogues through today’s forms of a letter.
It’s comforting to know that classic epistolary works are still studied in Literature classes, and a few modern authors have experimented with the traditional epistle by creating stories from blog entries, emails, instant and text messages. These create a wonderful depiction and record of our current culture. If, like these authors, you’re thinking of taking on this challenge, you’ll want to spend time laying out the story and finding creative ways to convey basic information. Think about which characters needs to communicate, how often, and about what. And consider how to use language to your advantage. Would your character write in the same style to a friend as he would his mother?
So, do epistolary novels have a literary place in our society? Yes. The ongoing fascination with letters continues because they connect us with our past and provide a means of recording our society with in-depth perspectives and first-hand accounts. They also improve comprehensive reading skills and are ideal in helping writers develop story pacing and unique characters.
Perhaps with a little awareness we can bring back the glory days of the epistolary novel and spark new life into this forgotten format. We should. We may not live in the 1700s, but Lord Byron’s words still resonates today. He wrote, “Letter writing is the only device combining solitude with good company.”
Do you think epistolary novels have a literary place in our society? Have you ever read an epistolary novel? Would you consider writing one?
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I love epistolary novels. Dracula, of course, was fantastic. Right now, I’m reading The Accursed, by Joyce Carol Oates, about some evil goings-on in and around Princeton University circa 1905 -1906. The cast of characters includes Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair. The narrative includes long chapters from character’s journals, etc. The novel is highly recommended, if you haven’t already read it. I am a fan of JCO and ‘evil goings-on’ so my opinion should not be considered completely objective.
That’s great. I haven’t read The Accursed- one to add to my reading list. Thank you!
A big yes to epistolary flavor, at least, in novel writing. Bob Bois mentioned Dracula which is probably the acme, but Frankenstein also deserves consideration for fantasy fans, that one’s a real nesting doll of speculation.
My epic fantasy novels have journal entries as well as letters which inform the plot; as Gina pointed out, the timing and placement are crucial. Long-ago diary entries can show that a curse is coming back to repeat itself: put them anywhere earlier than the crisis to foreshadow, but then pay attention to the character’s moment of reading that diary. You may find the readers are already “up on” her reactions and emotional mood, because now she knows what they knew all along!
One of my characters is a prolific letter writer, he almost always opens with a hackneyed cliched phrase like “I can bear this no longer” and closes with a post-script, or even two. I think the readers come to expect and appreciate it.
Sounds like you have a fun and exciting way of using letters in your works. That makes me smile. I love that level of creative thinking in books! Thank you for your comment!
I just read WHERE DID YOU GO BERNEDETTE which used emails, text messages, and police reports to tell the story. It read very quickly, and I enjoyed the puzzle-like quality of the narrative. I felt that this modern epistolary form allowed for the author to release and withhold information from the characters and the reader to build tension and draw the reader to want to know what’s next. I can imagine order, when to reveal info, and closing which character reveals that information could be conplex.
I agree that the epistolary novel still has a place in modern literature.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette? is one of my all-time favorite books. I love epistolary novels because, when done well, they’re even more intimate than first person POV. First person POV always requires me to ask, “Why is this character telling me this story in this way?” In epistolary novels, that question never comes up because I’m reading something that wasn’t meant for me. In other words, I’m an eavesdropper (or a snoop), not the audience.
Other epistolary novels I’ve enjoyed: Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn and Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher. I’ve also seen the form used effectively, using emails/texts/social media posts, in a Harlequin novel (Molly Cooper’s Dream Date by Barbara Hannay), chick lit (Save As Draft by Cavanaugh Lee), and YA (TTFN and others by Lauren Myracle).
Writing an epistolary novel is one of my personal goals. As Gina noted, there are so many ways for people to communicate now. Capturing that in a novel would be a fun challenge!
I hop you give writing an epistolary novel a try! It’s fun… and a lot of work. But totally worth it. And I loved Ella Minnow Pea too. Fun book!
Loved Ella Mnnow Pea and also he Guensey Literary and Potato Oeel Pie Society. But I also love writing ( and reviving) Long handwritten letter!
Tori, thank you for agreeing! It’s always great to hear from a reader who appreciates and understands the format and the complexities. I think putting the puzzle together is fun, too.
I love 84 Charing Cross Road, a book I often take off my shelf and re-read. The movie, starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins as Helene Hanff and Frank Doel, was quite true to the book and therefore almost as enjoyable.
I have a ‘book under the bed’, recently re-discovered, started in longhand sometime in the early 90s. It is a series of letters between two women who meet on a train. I had no idea what to do with it but this post has prompted me to start work on it again.
Keep working on it! From Across the Room took me 8 yrs to write, or as I say, figure out. It’s not easy but worth the effort if you love it. And 84 Charing Cross is one of my favorites, too. The letters make it charming!
As a writer of historical fiction I relish reading letters, diaries and newspapers from the era my story is set in. They provide a sense of place, offer an authentic voice and shine a light on character development.
In Margaret Atwood’s historical fiction novel ALIAS GRACE, several characters reveal aspects of their personality in letters. We are left to decide if this revealed character trait is authentic or false. This adds to the tension of the story.
I vote to bring back the epistolary novel. It certainly has a place in historical fiction. Throw in a few diary entries and newspaper accounts while you’re at it. They help create a flavour of the times.
Good point about newspapers and diaries. I use them in my research too and they really help give the tone and feeling of an era beyond the bones of the history. Alias Grace is a terrific example of letters used to build tension. I forgot about that one. There really are so many wonderful examples. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I really love epistolary novels. I used letters to tell one character’s POV in a novel about a soldier in Vietnam, and I’ve often thought of writing a book only in letters…for all the reasons you mention, I think it would be a fascinating way to tell the whole story. I will definitely check out your novels; thanks for a great post!
Thank you! From Across the Room is the epistolary novel. My other book, Remember the Ladies, is a narrative with a key letter at the end. If you’re thinking of giving it a try, I say go for it! You could even start with a short story. I did and it helped. (You can read the short story on my website.) Inspiration!!
Recently I read Fanny Burney’s EVELINA (1778) as part of my research for my current manuscript. Ms Burney was not only one of the first female novelists in England and gave a delightful view of 18th century London, but her epistolary work would have been a fovorite of my heroine in the colonies. I love reading epistolary novels myself, and look forward to reading From Across the Room, Gina. It sounds fascinating!
I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for sharing a joy for the format. It’s good to hear it’s not dying out!
I do think that epistolary novels may see a resurgence as writers look at ways to use comments on blog posts, Twitter and Facebook posts and other social media postings to create stories. It is not something I am the least bit interested in writing, but I love to read this type of book.
Great…we need readers like you to spread the word! 😊 So glad you enjoy epistolary novels and thank you for sharing your thoughts!
If the letters are written clearly and placed in an order that tells a story, I see no problem with an epistolary novel. Of course, I’m 52 and of an older generation who started out reading classics and other books with this format. There a formats and styles that don’t bother me, but will send a young reader screaming for the corner. I think the use of emails and text messages are the “modern” way of doing this in books, and I find it quite as effective as its older letter counterpart. As long as the elements fit the book and tell the story, I see no problem.
Great insight. Thank you. I sure hope the newer style of books using text messages and the like encourages younger readers to try some of the classics!
I love the intimacy of the epistolary novel. My fav is Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West.
My agent recently asked me to read a romance manuscript. Written entirely in tweets, the dialogue between the man and woman was every bit as wonderful as the classics. I hope the story finds a home in print.
Wow, even tweets work. That’s great. I hope it finds a home, too. We need to keep the format alive! Thank you for sharing this. Makes my day!
I wouldn’t attempt one as I don’t think I could overcome the automatic distance this type of writing creates between teller and reader.
You know, I worried about that when I started. Because I had to get so into the minds of the characters in order to write a convincing letter, I found myself deeply connected. It was a nice surprise. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I don’t dislike epistolary novels in theory, but I find them less enjoyable than straight-up first-person novels for a couple of reasons.
1) Every narrator is unreliable.
When people write, they filter themselves to look good. This is a “pro” in a novel like Gone Girl, which deliberately toys with readers through Amy’s journal entries, but a “con” when you want the audience to really get inside the characters’ heads.
2) Narrators aren’t novelists.
Nobody in real life writes letters or diary entries like they’re novels, with setting descriptions and dialogue etc. I couldn’t get into Where’d You Go, Bernadette? despite the glowing reviews because every character was a novelist. School officials composed mass emails like book chapters (e.g., the mudslide incident); women wrote notes to their friends like short stories; and an eighth-grade girl described her adventures with the literary poise of an adult woman. I wouldn’t have noticed in a first-person POV, but since this was supposed to be an epistolary novel, I kept thinking, “Who writes emails like this?”
3) Readers have to work harder.
Related to #1: As writers we get excited about all the different layers of meaning we can put into the wording of a simple greeting. But most readers will simply take words at face value. They skim. They generalize. If a character writes diary entries in a bitter tone, readers assume the character herself is bitter and label her “annoying.” They don’t make allowances for the fact that the diary is meant for her eyes only, or question what deeper reasons might compel her to speak that way.
Dracula worked because the characters were black and white. British humans good, foreign vampire bad. If you want to create characters more complex than that, the epistolary style is difficult to pull off. I’ve seen it done, but only by authors with awe-inspiring skills. One of the first, greatest, and longest detective novels in Western literature is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, written in the epistolary style. That’s the only epistolary novel that has both impressed and entertained me, and it was written in 1868.
I kind of equate the long letters to superhero films. When I watch a movie with a superhero, or even just a big action flick, I have to just go along with all that’s totally unrealistic. We don’t think of anyone writing long, descriptive letters anymore. (That wasn’t always the case. I’ve read hundreds of real historical letters and they were very long and involved.) But to enjoy the format, you kind to want to go along with it. And, you’re right. Modern readers skim and the letter format is more complex and requires putting pieces together. I think they require reading slower; which isn’t for everyone.
The epistolaries written during the heyday, like The Moonstone, are wonderful. They had the benefit of the era and were surrounded by other similar works. Have you read any of Samuel Richards – 1700s? You might like Emily. Very funny with great characters. You just have to get used to the language. :)
In answer to your original question… yes, I believe they do.
I kept a three part historical mystery flowing by using diary entries from multiple characters.
Thank you for telling me what I was doing.
One novel that reminds me of this is A.S. Byatt’s ‘Possession’.
I’m glad you’re keeping the format alive!
Thanks so much for this post. I’ve been thrashing around for a plausible plot device for my current time travel WIP and letters will work perfectly!
Excellent! Good luck, and have fun!
When I had the world’s worst job working for a social agency as a department head, I noticed one of our intake/case manager people writing a long note on a tablet–those paper tablets of long ago. She was grossly engrossed–try writing that without becoming confused–in a note to her client who sat across the table. When I asked her about it, she told me the client was deaf. Since she didn’t know sign language, it was the only way they could communicate.
That night, I had an idea for a novel based on a scene like the one above: a caseworker with a deaf client. They carry on a correspondence that, eventually, turn romantic. But then something bad happens. The client is found paralyzed at a hideous car crash scene. In total, there are six bodies in three cars. Except, the police discover, there was no collision–no car-on-car damage. Then they find the note: written by the client obviously in the last few moments before the case worker disappears. His last written words on a blood-covered piece of paper were, “Stay quiet. They’re coming. They’re com–” The police pass the case on to Detective Clancy Moretta. She goes back to the beginning of the file, which contains all of the notes and correspondence between the two. She discovers that purely professional case worker-client correspondence turns into love including a couple of very intimate recollections, one by each of them, of love trysts. Not only had the case worker fallen in love with the client, they were contemplating marriage. Late developments in the case include reports from farm and rural families who lived near the intersection where the traffic crashes–or whatever they were–that lighted craft were seen in the sky. The craft seemed to fire bolts of . . . something . . . at the cars.
The rest of the novel consisted of the case notes of the Detective Moretta in which she only has the file, the observation of the families, and the paralyzed client. Doctors assure Clancy the client will never recover enough to communicate with her.
Hmmm.
I was going to say that I had lost interest in the novel because I was convinced that the epistolary novel was passe. But you know what . . .
I think it sounds great! I’d read that. Go for it. You never know. And the whole book doesn’t have to be letters. Stephen King intermixes letters and journals with narrative. Forget the rules and write what you love!
As a general assessment of literature, I think any concept, including the epistolary novel, have a place, even a chance to become popular again. It only takes one to become a best selling smash, and you’ll see dozens in the following years.
Letter writing is a dead art, but not a foreign one. People, even teens and younger know what a letter is, even if they don’t write them or get them in the mail. Like any novel, a time or concept long defunct can be made interesting if the author spins a good yarn with a little bit of poetry and gets readers to care about the characters.
A few years ago there was a bestselling epistolary. Did you read, The Guernsey Potato Peel Literary Society? A lovely book. The format hasn’t caught on from that book…yet. I believe and agree that all formats have a place. You never know what’s coming next!
Gina, I still drink corn whiskey, so the 1700s must be my time. Late last year I delighted in Maria Semple’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” which, particularly at the novel’s beginning, is a flurry of letters, emails, notes, memos and crazed jottings. The jumpy, multi-point-of-view unleashing of these bits, interspersed with passages of straight narrative, really worked with the rollicking flavor of the book.
Reading that made me want to write a book in that structure, because it provided a kind of template for how the plot unfolded. That reminded me of how much I like road tales, which have an episodic, built-in structure suited for adventure and high-voltage dosages of characters. People mentioned Miss Lonelyhearts and Possession as examples as well, both exemplary works, though very different than Semple’s roller-coaster. Thanks for the post!
Oh dang it, here I am gushing about Bernadette, when it was already covered by folks above. I hadn’t read through all the comments—probably laziness brought on by all that corn whiskey…
Glad to hear you drink corn whiskey! :) Thanks for the comments – and the reminder about Bernadette.
I was going to mention Where’d You Go, Bernadette, but see that many have covered it. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is an epistolary YA novel. I also think of 13 Reasons Why and Bridget Jones’s Diary as twists on the epistolary novel. Your post has reminded me how much I enjoy the format. Thanks!
Glad you enjoy the format. Yes, the books you mentioned were all epistolary in some way or another. Good reminder!
As an inveterate letter writer myself, I love a novel that unfolds through letters. I will look for yours. And how wonderful that you formed an organization that fosters the art of letter-writing. Check out Mark Teague’s Dear. Mrs. LaRue books. Hilarious!
And yes, I think this is an art form that shouldn’t be lost and I have an epistolary novel on the back burner.
I will check out that out. I’ve never heard of Dear Mrs. LaRue. Thanks!!
When I was first given my Kindle, I set off looking for old public domain stories that were being offered for free before buying a lot of books. One was epistolary and became a fast favorite: Letters from a Woman Homesteader. Only, it’s not fiction at all. It’s her real account of setting off, a woman on her own, to homestead in Wyoming at the turn of the last century. It is FASCINATING reading, always engaging, and I highly recommend it to people all the time.
I have to say that, as a reader, I LIKE working hard to piece together all the information I need to understand a story. I find books that spoon feed everything to be boring and a little bit insulting to my intelligence. So I like epistolary stories, piecing everything together bit by bit, slowly discovering the point of it all. To me, those are some of the most satisfying stories I read.
Love that book. The movie was good, but the book is better. Eleanor’s letters really put us in the time and place. We learn about the relationships by what she chooses to tell whom, and how. And even though it is n-f, it reads wonderfully.
So glad you like to put the pieces together as a reader. We who write books like that love to hear it! Another good non-fiction is The Shirley Letters about a woman in the CA Gold Rush. Really interesting!
Letters, essays, and addresses are pivotal elements of the musical “Hamilton.” Some are only referenced, like Hamilton’s letters to Eliza–although one of the references is a song that is perhaps the most dramatic in the story, “Burn”–, others are quoted, including the exchange between Hamilton and Burr leading to the infamous duel. In fact, the whole musical is based on the output of a man who writes “like he’s running out of time…every second (he’s) alive.” A new form? The epistolary musical? Oh! I just thought of another epistolary musical: last year’s off-Broadway “Daddy Long Legs.” Maybe the device is creeping out of novels and into other forms.
Could be creeping out!
Love the music from Hamilton! Hope to see the musician some day. John Adms also wrote lots of letters to his wife Abigail. Much of history is kept in letters. Thank you for the great reference.
Late last year I read two epistolary novels:
Head Full of Ghosts, which combines a more straightforward telling with long blog posts written by the main character, looking back on the story.
The Secret History of Twin Peaks, a ‘dossier’ of not just the fictional town, but documents dating back to the Lewis and Clark expedition, journals of secret meetings with Nixon, excerpts from books written by the characters, and more.
Both do have a touch of the unreliable narrator, which I personally think is a negative aspect, but they are still good reads.
I haven’t read either of these, so I’ll have to check them out. Thanks for the reference. Unreliable narrators are tough and you find them in narratives, too. Glad the books were still good reads!
Epistolary books are my favorite and my to read pile will be growing after reading these posts. Last year I discovered three books based on letters that I enjoyed: Dear Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster, and More Than Love Letters by Rosie Thornton.
Hilary Melton-Butcher sent me – and I am so glad she did. I adore epistolary novels (and diaries) and read them whenever I come across them.
And Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note have brightened many a dark day and night.
I recently read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. A most excellent example of an epistolary novel.
I also believe the epistolary novel has a place in modern American literature. I am working on a manuscript that shows a young girl’s troubled youth, revealing her hopes, dreams and fears in handwritten missives to her distant father. It is like time channeling through the the 1940s and 1950s; the format sets a mood and pace so different from our current fast paced society. The misspellings, hesitations, and redundancies are wonderful techniques.
Dear Gina,
I am not writing an epistolary novel, but my research project is about just those kinds of books. As I am always on the lookout for contemporary examples of epistolarity, I was wondering if you mind sharing the other six titles that are epistolary novels published in 2016?
Dear Gina,
I have written an Epistolary Novel–told in emails, text messages, news articles and some narrative. It is a literary novel and I am having a hard time placing it. I was thinking of moving the puzzle pieces and starting my novel with the 20-year-old daughter. Currently my title is The Candice Law of Attraction. If I make it a New Adult or YA I would call it How My Mother Left My Father.I am thinking of doing this because the NA and YA editors seem much more receptive to publishing Epistolary novels. I would also like it if you would share the other six titles of epistolary novels published in 2016. I have been using Where’d you go, Bernadette? as a comp but her characters are more like the people in Arrested Development and my novels is a deeply personal story more like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Any advice would be appreciated.