An epistolary novel is a book written using a literary technique in which a novel is composed as a series of letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. The word "epistolary" comes from the word "epistles", meaning letters, although it has nothing to do with epistemology. Novels and short stories do not simply come from nowhere. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Look up Letter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A letter is a written message from one party to another. ... A diary is a book for writing discrete entries arranged by date. ... Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. ...

One of past arguments for an epistolary novel was that it was thought to add greater realism and verisimilitude to the story, chiefly because the epistolary novel mimics the workings of non-fictional works in real life. It is able to demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the omniscient narrator, whom some novelists believed to be an unrealistic representation. Non-fiction is an account or representation of a subject which is composed of facts, true or untrue. ... In literature, an omniscient narrator is a narrator who appears to know everything about the story being told, including what all the characters are thinking. ...

The epistolary novel was a form 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, Laclos' Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) used the epistolary form to great dramatic effect, because the sequence of events was not always related directly or explicitly. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Samuel Richardson (August 19, 1689 - July 4, 1761) was an eighteenth century writer best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Clarissa (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1753). ... Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded is a novel by Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740. ... Events May 31 - Friedrich II comes to power in Prussia upon the death of his father, Friedrich Wilhelm I. October 20 - Maria Theresia of Austria inherits the Habsburg hereditary dominions (Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and present-day Belgium). ... Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, a French official and army general, was born on October 18, 1741 in Amiens, France and died in Taranto, Italy on September 5, 1803. ... Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) is a famous French epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, first published in 1782. ... 1782 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Even by the end of the century, the epistolary form was subject to much ridicule, resulting in a number of savage burlesques, most notably Henry Fielding's Shamela, written as a parody of Pamela, where the female narrator can be found wielding a pen and scribbling her diary entries under the most dramatic and unlikeliest of circumstances. Burlesque was originally a form of art that mocked by imitation, referring to everything from comic sketches to dance routines and usually lampooning the social attitudes of upper classes. ... Henry Fielding (April 22, 1707 – October 8, 1754) was an English novelist and dramatist, best known as author of the novel Tom Jones. ...

The epistolary novel slowly fell out of use in the 19th century. By the time Jane Austen popularized techniques of the omniscient narrator, the form had become somewhat archaic. For example, Pride and Prejudice (1811) was originally written as an epistolary novel but Austen rewrote it with a third-person omniscient narrator marking, in part, the end of the era of the epistolary novel. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jane Austen, in a portrait based on one drawn by her sister Cassandra House of Jane Austen (today it is a museum) Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817) was a prominent English novelist whose work is considered part of the Western canon. ... In literature, an omniscient narrator is a narrator who appears to know everything about the story being told, including what all the characters are thinking. ... Pride and Prejudice book cover Pride and Prejudice is the most famous of Jane Austens novels. ... 1811 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Jane Austen, in a portrait based on one drawn by her sister Cassandra House of Jane Austen (today it is a museum) Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817) was a prominent English novelist whose work is considered part of the Western canon. ... In literature, an omniscient narrator is a narrator who appears to know everything about the story being told, including what all the characters are thinking. ...

Epistolary novels have since made rare but memorable appearances in English literature. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) uses not only letters and diaries, but dictation tapes and newspaper accounts, to trace the supernatural tale. C. S. Lewis also used this form to craft his Screwtape Letters and considered writing a companion novel from an angel's point of view--though he never did so. The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, or literature composed in English by writers who are not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian. ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847–April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ... Bela Lugosi as Dracula United States stamp Dracula is a fictional character, inarguably the most famous vampire in literature. ... 1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was born in Belfast into a Protestant family, and lived most of his adult life in England. ... The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian fiction by C. S. Lewis first published in book form in 1942. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

In the late 20th century, Emma Bull and Steven Brust's Freedom and Necessity combined letters with diary entries, as did Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is written as 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. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Emma Bull (born 1954) is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. ... Steven Brust Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. ... Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an African American author whose most famous novel, The Color Purple, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. ... This article is about the novel. ... Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction story written by Daniel Keyes. ... Daniel Keyes is an American author. ...

Some of J.D. Salinger's stories about the Glass family are written in the form of letters. Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic coming-of-age story that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. ... The Glass children were featured in several J.D. Salinger short stories, and are presented below in order from oldest to youngest. ...

Epistolary form has made a small number of recent appearances in contemporary literature such as Andrew Crumey's fourth novel Mr Mee and Tim Parks' Home Thoughts. Arguably, both Ella Minnow Pea and Ibid: A Life by Mark Dunn are also written as epistolary novels. The most recent mutation of the epistolary novel is the novel in e-mails, which follows the same format (example: PS He's Mine). Tim Parks is an author who lives near Verona in Italy, who has written numerous books, the most well known of which are probably Italian Neighbours and External links Tim Parks in interview with Three Monkeys Online Categories: British non-fiction writers ... Ella Minnow Pea is a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable written by Mark Dunn. ... Mark Dunn is an American author and playwright. ...

See also: literature, false document. Open Directory Project: Literature World Literature Electronic Text Archives Magazines and E-zines Online Writing Writers Resources Libraries, Digital Cataloguing, Metadata Distance Learning Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Classicism in Literature The Universal Library, by Carnegie Mellon University Project Gutenberg Online Library Abacci - Project Gutenberg texts matched with Amazon... A false document is a literary technique that attempts to create in the reader (viewer, audience, etc) a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected suspension of disbelief. ...