The Epistolary Form

How writers can use Letters in Novels

 An epistolary novel is a novel consisting of a series of letters, (although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents can also be used.) The epistolary form was all the rage in the eighteenth century, when Samuel Richardson popularised books written solely in letters with his novels Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1749). It was thought that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice may have originally been intended as an epistolary novel.

It has gone out of fashion now, although writers still experiment with novels comprising different documents such as Helen Fielding’s Brigid Jones’s Diary and Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

So why do writers use this form? Well, it can add greater realism to a story, because it imitates real life, and is a good way of connecting people who are not physically together.

 Although none of my novels are epistolary, The Child on Platform One, and my current work-in-progress, both contain letters. I find it a useful way of conveying information succinctly without necessarily having to write whole scenes. I certainly wouldn’t use the form all the way through, as it might be hard to sustain and would put the reader at one remove from the action, but as a device to fill one character in on the experiences of another, and if used judiciously, it can work well.