Epistolary novel
An epistolary novel is written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. The word "epistolary" comes from the word "epistle", meaning letters.
One argument for using the epistolary form is that it can add greater realism and verisimilitude to the story, chiefly because it mimics the workings of real life. It is thus able to demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the device of an omniscient narrator.
Early Works
The epistolary novel was 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 there was Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782), which used the epistolary form to great dramatic effect, because the sequence of events was not always related directly or explicitly.
Later in the 18th century, the epistolary form was subject to much ridicule, resulting in a number of savage burlesques. The most notable example of these was Henry Fielding's Shamela (1741), written as a parody of Pamela. In it, the female narrator can be found wielding a pen and scribbling her diary entries under the most dramatic and unlikeliest of circumstances.
The epistolary novel slowly fell out of use in the 19th century. By the time Jane Austen popularized the technique of the omniscient narrator, the epistolary form had become somewhat archaic. For example, Pride and Prejudice (1811) was originally written as an epistolary novel, but Austen rewrote it using a third-person omniscient narrator.
Later Works
Epistolary novels have since made rare but memorable appearances in more recent literature. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) uses not only letters and diaries, but dictation tapes and newspaper accounts. C. S. Lewis also used this form for The Screwtape Letters (1942), and considered writing a companion novel from an angel's point of view -- though he never did so.
Other notable examples of the epistolary form are two novels by French author Hubert Monteilhet: Les Mantes Religieuses (1960) (The Praying Mantises), made into a BBC television film in 1982, and Le Retour des Cendres (1962) (Return From the Ashes), made into a film starring Maximilian Schell in 1965.
Emma Bull and Steven Brust's Freedom and Necessity (1997) combines letters with diary entries, as does Alice Walker's The Color Purple (1982). Flowers for Algernon, written by Daniel Keyes in 1966 as an expanded version of his 1959 short story of the same name, is ostensibly 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.
Some of J.D. Salinger's stories about the Glass family are written in the form of letters.
The epistolary form has made a few appearances in contemporary literature, such as Andrew Crumey's Mr Mee (2001), and Tim Parks' Home Thoughts (1999). Arguably, both Ella Minnow Pea (2001) and Ibid: A Life (2004) by Mark Dunn are also written as epistolary novels.
The most recent mutation of the epistolary novel is the novel in e-mails. Examples include Carl Steadman's Two Solitudes (1994), Blue Company, and PS He's Mine.