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The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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Posted by
lemonhead101 (
My Page) on
Wed, Jun 6, 12 at 12:18
| So, as you are probably a fellow book nerd comme moi, I bet you enjoy lists as much as I do. So, in an idle moment one day, I was thinking how I love epistolary* novels and thought I would compile a list to see how many epistolary novels (and similar non-fiction) I had either read or on the TBR pile right now.
This is what I have come up with so far (in no particular order):
* Letters of a Woman Homesteader - Eleanor Pruitt Stewart
* Letters from Father Christmas - Tolkein
* The Country Diaries: A Year in the British Countryside - Alan Taylor (ed.)
* The Diary of Ann Frank - Ann Frank
* The Diaries of Adrian Mole - Sue Townsend
* The Assassin's Cloak - Alan and Irene Taylor (ed.)
* Gone with the Windsors - Laurie Graham
* The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt - Caroline Preston
* Diary without Dates - Edith Bagnold
* Diary of a Good Neighbor - Doris Lessing
* If the Old Could Talk - Doris Lessing
* Clarissa (or The History of a Young Lady) - Samuel Richardson
* Dracula - Bram Stoker
* Narrative of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
* The Worst Journey in the World (Antarctic) - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
* Radioactive (Marie Curie) - Laurie Redniss
* The Provincial Lady diaries - E. M. Delafield
* Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday
* Woman's World - Graham Rawle
* Harriet the Spy - Louise Fitzhugh (I think this is a diary format?)
* Alan Bennett has lots of epistolary stuff
* Book of One's Own: People and their Diaries - Thomas Mallon
* The Hidden Writer - Alexandra Johnson
* The Tenant of Wildfell Hill - Anne Bronte
* The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
* Daddy Long-Legs - Jean Webster
* Griffin and Sabine trilogy - Nick Bantock
* The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
* We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
* Sherlock Holmes has some epistolary stuff in
Others that you think of from your reading experience? Just try to remember without googling. More fun that way!
*Epistolary (defined according to Miriam-Webster): of, relating to, suitable to a letter; contained or carried on by letters. Other acceptable formats: diary entries, newspaper clippings, emails etc.
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| I have another of Irene and Alan Taylor's work, The War Diaries, which focuses on the eponymous subject. Not quite as enjoyable as The Assassin's Cloak, but since that is one of my favorite books, I am happy to read 'almost as good.' |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| OOh, Siobhan. Good one. Will add it to my list of "books I absolutely have to buy right now as I am addicted to reading people's diaries so long as no one reads my own". :-) |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Had to jog my memory - that's what reading logs are for! I think Stephen King's Carrie is written using newspaper and articles, letters, etc. Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith Sorcery and Cecilia, or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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There is a sequel to Daddy Long-Legs titled Dear Enemy. Sally, from DDL is convinced to become the matron of John Greer orphanage, and immediately clashes with the town doctor about the care and feeding of the orphans. The story is told through letters and telegrams.
Some of the psychological and genetic theory is toe-curlingly awful in modern light, but was cutting-edge at the time. |
RE: and I can't believe
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| that no one has mentioned The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| It's towards the bottom of lemonhead's list - one of my favorites! This thread reminds me I really love this type of book. |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| The 3000 Mile Garden by Leslie Land and Roger Phillips. |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| I don' think anyone has mentioned Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Also, if diary format counts then another favorite is I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn - not only an epistolary novel but a technical tour de force - as letters fall off a statue in an island, they can no longer be used... |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. I just re-read it; man it is strange! And not particularly in a good way. |
Epistolary Novel
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| Yesterday I re-read Ford's The Good Soldier. The last time I read it was in graduate school, many years ago. What an absolutely fascinating case of an unreliable narrator! And a good study of the stolid English upper class that so intrigues the American. I had forgotten the mad Nancy's single and utterly appropriate word toward the end: "shuttlecocks"! |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Was reminded of another couple of titles: * Private Papers - Margaret Forster
* A Woman of Independent Means - Eliz. Forsythe Hailey |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| On the non-fiction side I absolutely love Flannery O'Connor's The Habit of Being, a collection of her correspondence. The letters of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford are also loads of fun. Oddly enough, a collection I read of Oscar Wilde's letters was not terribly interesting, but that could have just been me. |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Haven't even read this yet, saw it in Bookmarks magazine, Code Name Verity. It is in diary form, of a young female spy captured by the Nazis and facing execution. I've requested it from the library. |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| And came across another epistolary novel, highly rec by a blogger I can trust, called The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark. Two characters whose lives touch through an epis fashion at the time of the Raj...
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RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Oh, and this one: "Last Days of Summer" by Steve Kluger... That was a good read... |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Lemonhead, I just this morning downloaded Collin's Lady in White. Thanks. |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| Another one: * The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields That's a good one... Chris - how is Collins coming along? Well, really how are you coming along with Collins? :-) |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| I'll post this here, instead of the monthly thread - tried to read Code Name: Verity but it was just too brutal for me. I'm not a shrinking violet but the relentless torture descriptions were too much. But it is well written and well plotted. Can't believe it is a YA novel! |
RE: The Joy of the Epistolary Novel
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| I recently downloaded the complete works of Jane Austen on my Kindle and in addition to Lady Susan she wrote quite a few epistolary novelettes early in her writing career, non of which are named or, presumably, reached publication. One is a bitingly funny parody of the then popular Gothic novel. All well worth reading. |
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