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England in the 18th
century, with the 1740 publication of Samuel Richardson’s highly successful
Pamela, and in 1748, Clarissa; followed by Tobias Smollett’s
1771 Humphry Clinker, and Fanny Burden’s Evelina of 1778.
The flood of epistolary novels in England slowed at the end of the 18th
century, and the flow sometimes became a trickle, but it never entirely
dried up. The best nineteenth century epistolary novel is Jane Austen's 1871
Lady Susan, comprised of letters from the selfish and self-centered
title character; the book is a marvelous example of unintentional
revelations by and about the woman writing the letters2.
See a Jane Austen link,
http://www.jasna.org/. But the most famous
19th century epistolary novel is Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula, composed
mostly of letters, but also containing diary entries, a newspaper clipping,
and what is listed in the table of contents as a "phonograph diary."
The first U.S. novel, The Power of Sympathy, published in 1789, was
in epistolary form, and was once thought to have been written by Sarah
Wentworth Morton. That attribution is now uncertain, and the book is rarely
read. A number of forgotten books in letters were published in the U.S.A. in
the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries3,
but it was not until the twentieth century that U.S. writers produced
epistolary novels that were both popular and memorable.
The popularity of epistolary novels in the U.S. grew in the twentieth
century just as interest in the genre was fading in Europe4.
Jean Webster's charming 1912 Daddy-Long-Legs was a best-seller, a
successful play, and inspired two films, including one starring Fred Astaire
in the 1950s. Daddy-Long-Legs's sequel, Dear Enemy, published
in 1915, also became a best-seller. Both are still fun to read.
John O'Hara's 64-page paperback (it sold for ten cents), Pal Joey of
1939,5 began its
life in 1938 as fictional letters from Pal Joey to Pal Ted in The New
Yorker. The collected letters formed a popular novel, and in 1941 became
a hit musical, with music by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The letters in Helene Hanff's 1970 novel, 84, Charing Cross Road,
later a successful play, are by an American author writing to a London book
dealer over a twenty year period beginning in 1946.
John Barth's 769 page Letters of 1979 is definitely an epistolary
novel; he even uses "An Old Time Epistolary Novel" as a subtitle. In the
foreword, he describes the book as "eighty-eight epistles from seven
correspondents" (XIX), and characterizes it as "complicated," while quoting
others who have used the words "interminable," and "unreadable" (xvii) to
describe the book.
The best known twentieth century epistolary novel is Alice Walker's The
Color Purple of 1982, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American
Book Award for Fiction. Walker's protagonist, Celie, writes her sad letters
to God, and to her sister.
The ways in which writers have used the epistolary form seem almost
limitless. George Plimpton, best known for his elegant prose and a founder
of The Paris Review, wrote the hilarious Pet Peeves or Whatever
Happened to Doctor Rawff, published in 2000, which consists of letters
to a pet problem advice columnist and veterinarian.
Mary Ann Shaffer's delightful and extraordinarily popular 2008 The
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society has been published in
thirteen countries, and occupies numerous "Best-seller" lists. Set in 1946
in Guernsey, the writer used letters, hand-delivered notes, cables,
telegrams, night letters, and "detection notes" to tell her story. Part of
its convincing tone comes from some of the obsolete types of epistles
employed.
With the advent of Email, writers began to utilize it in novels. Many early
Email books are available only online, or are no longer unavailable, but a
growing number can be bought in bookstores, or borrowed from libraries.
Among them are:
Avodah Offit's Virtual Love of 1994 composed of Emails between two
therapists about sexual dysfunction; Stephanie Fletcher's 1996 Email, A
Love Story, made up of Email and electronic bulletin-board posts; the
2002 ChaseR: A Novel in Emails by Michael Rosen told from the point
of view of a fourteen year old boy; Cecelia Ahern's 453 page Where
Rainbows End of 2004 composed of notes written in class by children,
Valentine cards, instant messages, notes from teachers to parents, bills,
text messages, Email, Christmas cards, newspaper clippings, faxes, post
cards, birthday cards, etc.; and Lucy Kellaway's Who Moved My Blackberry?
of 2006, an amusing business satire set in England, composed of Email,
interoffice memos, and text messages mostly from Martin Lukes, an obnoxious
executive on his way down. It resembles Lady Susan in that Lukes
unintentionally reveals just how awful he is through his correspondence.
As to the future of the epistolary novel, the growing number of Email novels
suggest that the future is now. The U.S. Postal Service was described on
August 8, 2009 in The New York Times as "today's Pony Express," and
snail mail may, like telegrams, become obsolete. Where the electronic world
takes us, for better or worse, writers will surely follow.
I find two types of epistolary novel especially interesting, regardless of
the form of the epistles. The first is the novel (like Lady Susan and
Who Moved my Blackberry?), which the letter writer unintentionally
reveals his or her true character.
The second type is Shaffer's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie
Society, in which the type of epistles authenticates the novel's time
frame. But when establishing that the book takes place in the twenty-first
century, the writer should take care not to overdo it. Ahern's Where
Rainbows End is overwhelming in length and in the number of types of
epistles used.
Finally, those
interested in epistolary novels might like the "letter story." Other
People's Mail, 2000, an anthology of letter (or epistolary) stories
edited and introduced by Gail Pool, was a revelation, and includes
interesting works by many well-known authors.
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1
"Epistolary" is an adjective, meaning related to the writing of
letters or literary works in the form of letters (New Oxford Dictionary.)
In my search for epistolary novels, I encountered many imposters. The
culprits who spread the bad information seem to be those who make lists for
the Internet. They copy each other's lists, thus perpetuating errors.
2 Some Janeites have used the
epistolary form for writing "After Janes." See Paula Atchia's Mansfield
Letters, a sequel to Mansfield Park, 1996; Jane Dawkin's Letters from
Pemberley, the First Year: a continuation of Jane Austen's Pride and
Prejudice, 1999, and More Letters from Pemberley, 2003.
3 For a long list of pre-twentieth
century epistolary novels published in the U.S., see Godfrey Frank Singer,
The Epistolary Novel, 1933, Chapter IX, "Epistolary Fiction in
America."
4 Among the epistolary novels
published in England in the early twentieth century was Dorothy L. Sayer's
The Documents in the Case, 1930, which uses the form to present an
absorbing murder mystery.
5 The caption on the book jacket is
"a crooner not above borrowing for keeps from any reasonably attractive
mouse," and is described on the title page as "About a Hard-Luck Guy and His
Babes."
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