Epistolary novel Titlepage of Aphra Behn 's Love-Letters ( 1684 ) 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 a letter . 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 It is difficult to make out `` the first '' epistolary novel . The exchange between Abelard and Heloise , imbedded in the Roman de la Rose ( 1230 ) was an epistolary novel . Several Humanists wrote satirical fictional letters . The 17th century saw the genre exploring politics and scandal . The ( sexually explicit ) Letters of a Portuguese Nun ( 1667 - 1668 ) by Marianna Alcoforado became immensely famous and were translated into several European languages . The first novel to explore deeply the complex play that the genre allows was Aphra Behn 's Love-Letters Between a Noble-Man and his Sister , which appeared in three successive volumes in 1684 , 1685 , and 1687 . The novel tested the genre 's limits of changing perspectives : individual points were presented by the individual correspondents , and the central author 's voice and moral judgement disappeared ( at least in the first volume ; her further volumes introduced a narrator 's voice ) . Behn furthermore explored a realm of intrigue with letters that fall into the wrong hands , with faked letters , with letters withheld by protagonists , and even more complex interaction . The epistolary novel as a genre became popular in the 18th century in the works of such authors as Samuel Richardson , with his immensely successful novels Pamela ( 1740 ) and Clarissa ( 1749 ) . In France , there was Lettres persanes ( 1721 ) by Montesquieu , followed by Julie , ou la nouvelle Héloïse ( 1761 ) 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 . In Germany , there was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's Die Leiden des jungen Werther ( 1774 ) ( The Sorrows of Young Werther ) . The first North American novel , The History of Emily Montague ( 1769 ) by Frances Brooke was written in epistolary form . 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 ( 1813 ) 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 . Fyodor Dostoevsky used the epistolary format for his first novel , Poor Folk ( 1846 ) , as a series of letters between two lovers , struggling to cope with their impoverished circumstances and their fleeting plans to marry . The Moonstone ( 1868 ) by Wilkie Collins uses a collection of various documents to construct a detective novel in English . In the second piece , a character explains that he is writing his portion because another had observed to him that the events surrounding the disappearance of a certain moonstone might reflect poorly on the family , if misunderstood , and therefore he was collecting the true story . This is an unusual element . Most epistolary novels present the documents without questions about how they were gathered . He also used the form previously in The Woman in White ( 1859 ) . Bram Stoker 's Dracula ( 1897 ) uses not only letters and diaries , but dictation discs and newspaper accounts . C. S. Lewis used the epistolary form for The Screwtape Letters ( 1942 ) , and considered writing a companion novel from an angel 's point of view -- though he never did so . Some of J.D. Salinger 's stories about the Glass family are written in the form of letters . See List of contemporary epistolary novels for other modern examples , including works by Vladimir Nabokov and Stephen King . Literary and intellectual points Often , narrators of epistolary fiction are somewhat untrustworthy or biased . Sometimes epistolary fiction is used to create a Russian-doll-like effect of letters within letters within letters . This can confuse the reader as to who is actually talking at any one time , and whose account is being told . This style has been effective for mystery writers . For example , see Agatha Christie 's novels . External links Aphra Behn , Love-Letters between a Noble-Man and his Sister ( 1684-87 ) . Categories : Epistolary novels | Narratology In other languages : Dansk | Deutsch | Español | Français | Italiano | Nederlands | 日本語 | Polski | Português | Svenska 