List of contemporary epistolary novels
An epistolary novel tells its story through correspondence, letters, telegrams, and the like. Here are some examples of contemporary epistolary novels:
| Author | Title of Work | Year | Format | Other Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahern, Cecilia | Where Rainbows End | 2006 | |||
| Avi | Nothing But the Truth | 1991 | Dialogue transcripts, telephone conversations, letters, telegrams, diary entries and memos | ||
| Bâ, Mariama | Une si longue lettre (So Long a Letter) | 1980 | Considered a classical statement of the female condition in Africa | ||
| Bantock, Nick | Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence | 1991 | A series of letters and postcards | ||
| Baratier, David | In It What's in It | ||||
| Beaumont, Matt | e | 2000 | |||
| Bull, Emma and Steven Brust | Freedom and Necessity | 1997 | Letters and diary entries | ||
| Cary, Cate | Bloodline | 2005 | Letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, etc | A sequel to Dracula and thus mimicks the writing format of Bram Stoker's classic novel. | |
| Chbosky, Stephen | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | 1999 | |||
| Cleary, Beverly | Dear Mr. Henshaw | Letters and diary entries | |||
| Crumey, Andrew | Mr Mee | 2001 | |||
| Dunn, Mark | Ella Minnow Pea | 2001 | |||
| Ibid: A Life | 2004 | ||||
| For Ilford Dyson, I Hope You Find This [1] | 2006-? | Blog | Shows how the blog format has now created a sub-genre of epistolary novel. This blog is an on-going work of fiction, where the main character addresses his blog to a friend of his late father. | ||
| Frayn, Michael | The Trick of It | 1989 | |||
| Johnson, Kij | The Fox Woman | Extracts from diaries | |||
| Keyes, Daniel | Flowers for Algernon | 1966 | Journal | An expanded version of Keyes' 1959 short story of the same name. This book is 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. | |
| King, Stephen | Carrie | 1976 | Traditional narrative fused with journal articles, interviews, AP ticker reports, and court transcripts. | ||
| The Plant | 2000 | The story is told through various letters, memos and etceteras. | |||
| Kluger, Steve | Last Days of Summer | 1998 | Letters, postcards, progress reports, and newspaper clippings. | A series of letters during the 1940s between a twelve year old and a rookie baseball player. | |
| Lucas, Tim | The Book of Renfield | 2005 | Diary entries, dialogue transcriptions | A book about the character of Renfield from Dracula and thus mimics the format of the novel. Excerpts from Stoker's novel are integrated into the plot. | |
| Martel, Yann | "Manners of Dying" (short story) | Letter | The book is presented as a set of different variants of an official letter that a warden writes to a mother of an executed prisoner named Kevin Barlow. In each letter both the exact details of Kevin's execution and the warden's reaction vary slightly. | ||
| Monteilhet, Hubert | Les Mantes Religieuses (The Praying Mantises) | 1960 | Made into a BBC television film in 1982 | ||
| Le Retour des Cendres (Return From the Ashes) | 1962 | Made into a film starring Maximilian Schell in 1965 | |||
| Nabokov, Vladimir | Ada | ||||
| Nieves, Luis López | Voltaire's Heart (Spanish) | 2005 | |||
| Oz, Amos | Black Box | 1986 | |||
| Parks, Tim | Home Thoughts | 1999 | |||
| Payne, C.D. | Youth In Revolt | Journal entries | |||
| Rushton, Rosie and Nina Schindler | P.S. He's Mine! | 2001 | |||
| Salinger, J.D. | Short stories about the Glass family | Letters | |||
| Sayers, Dorothy L. and Robert Eustace | The Documents in the Case | 1930 | Letters from a variety of characters and a few police statements | Some of the letters contradict each other, requiring the reader to decide which characters are more trustworthy. | |
| Snicket, Lemony | The Beatrice Letters | 2006 | Letters and Notes | The book is obviously meant to be humorous while at the same time explaining some of the mysteries surrounding the Baudelaires. The letters are between Lemony and Beatrice. Several of the letters (mostly from Lemony Snicket) tend to be very long and rambling; one goes on about his love for Beatrice for four pages. As in The Unauthorized Autobiography pictures and letters allow readers to guess about the author's life. | |
| Smith, Lee | Fair and Tender Ladies | Letters | |||
| Steadman, Carl | "Two Solitudes" | 1995 | |||
| Stevermer, Caroline and Patricia Wrede | Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot | 1988 | Letters | ||
| The Grand Tour | 2004 | Diary extracts and testimony | |||
| The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After | 2006 | Letters | |||
| Tanizaki, Jun'ichirō | Kagi | 1956 | Diary entries | Made into the film Odd Obsession (1960) starring Machiko Kyo and Tatsuya Nakadai and La Chiave in 1983 by Tinto Brass, starring Frank Finlay and Stefania Sandrelli. | |
| Townsend, Sue | Adrian Mole series | Diary entries | |||
| Walker, Alice | The Color Purple | 1983 | Letters and diary entries | ||
| Wittig, Rob | Blue Company | 2001 |