Editing Epistolary novel (section)

==Early works==
[[File:Behn Love-Letters 1684.jpg|alt=Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister. London, Printed, and to be sold by Randal Taylor, near Stationers' Hall. MDCLXXXIV.|thumb|upright|Title page of [[Aphra Behn]]'s early epistolary novel, ''[[Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister]]'' (1684)]]

There are two theories on the genesis of the epistolary novel: The first claims that the genre originated from novels with inserted letters, in which the portion containing the third-person narrative in between the letters was gradually reduced.<ref>E.Th. Voss. ''Erzählprobleme des Briefromans, dargestellt an vier Beispielen des 18. Jahrhunderts.'' Bonn, 1960.</ref> The other theory claims that the epistolary novel arose from [[Miscellany|miscellanies]] of letters and poetry: some of the letters were tied together into a (mostly amorous) plot.<ref>B.A. Bray. ''L'art de la lettre amoureuse: des manuels aux romans (1550–1700).'' La Haye/Paris, 1967</ref> There is evidence to support both claims. The first truly epistolary novel, the Spanish "Prison of Love" (''Cárcel de amor'') ({{Circa|1485}}) by [[Diego de San Pedro]], belongs to a tradition of novels in which a large number of inserted letters already dominated the narrative. Other well-known examples of early epistolary novels are closely related to the tradition of letter-books and miscellanies of letters. Within the successive editions of [[Edmé Boursault]]'s ''Letters of Respect, Gratitude and Love'' (''Lettres de respect, d'obligation et d'amour'') (1669), a group of letters written to a girl named Babet were expanded and became more and more distinct from the other letters, until it formed a small epistolary novel entitled ''Letters to Babet'' (''Lettres à Babet''). The immensely famous ''[[Letters of a Portuguese Nun]]'' (''Lettres portugaises'') (1669) generally attributed to [[Gabriel-Joseph de La Vergne, comte de Guilleragues]], though a small minority still regard [[Marianna Alcoforado]] as the author, is claimed to be intended to be part of a miscellany of Guilleragues prose and poetry.<ref>G. de [[Guilleragues]]. ''Lettres portugaises, Valentins et autres oeuvres.'' Paris, 1962</ref> The founder of the epistolary novel in English is said by many to be [[James Howell]] (1594–1666) with [[Epistolae Ho-Elianae|"Familiar Letters"]] (1645–50), who writes of prison, foreign adventure, and the love of women.

Perhaps first work to fully utilize the potential of an epistolary novel was ''[[Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister]]''. This work was published anonymously in three volumes (1684, 1685, and 1687), and has been attributed to [[Aphra Behn]] though its authorship remains disputed in the 21st century.<ref name="Orr2013">{{cite journal|last1=Orr|first1=Leah|title=Attribution Problems in the Fiction of Aphra Behn|journal=The Modern Language Review|date=January 2013|volume=108|issue=1|pages=40–51|doi=10.5699/modelangrevi.108.1.0030|s2cid=164127170 }}</ref> The novel shows the genre's results of changing perspectives: individual points were presented by the individual characters, and the central voice of the author and moral evaluation disappeared (at least in the first volume; further volumes introduced a narrator). The author furthermore explored a realm of intrigue with complex scenarios such as letters that fall into the wrong hands, faked letters, or letters withheld by protagonists.

===18th century to modern era===
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 (novel)|Pamela]]'' (1740) and ''[[Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady|Clarissa]]'' (1749). [[John Cleland]]'s early erotic novel ''[[Fanny Hill]]'' (1748) is written as a series of letters from the titular character to an unnamed recipient. In France, there was ''[[Lettres persanes]]'' (1721) by [[Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]], followed by ''[[Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse]]'' (1761) by [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]], and [[Pierre Choderlos de Laclos|Choderlos de 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 ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'' (''Die Leiden des jungen Werther'') (1774) and [[Friedrich Hölderlin]]'s ''[[Hyperion (Hölderlin)|Hyperion]]''. The first Canadian novel, ''[[The History of Emily Montague]]'' (1769) by [[Frances Brooke]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Treasures of the Library: The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke, 1769 |url=https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/About/Treasures/RareBooks/TheHistoryofEmilyMontaguebyFrancesBrooke1769 |location=Ottawa, Canada |publisher=Library of Parliament |access-date=2020-02-29}}</ref> and twenty years later the first American novel, ''[[The Power of Sympathy]]'' (1789) by [[William Hill Brown]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Piepenbring |first=Dan |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/01/21/the-first-american-novel/ |title=The First American Novel |date=2015-01-21 |work=The Paris Review |access-date=2020-02-29 |language=en}}</ref> were both written in epistolary form.

Starting in the 18th century, the epistolary form was subject to much ridicule, resulting in a number of savage [[Burlesque (literature)|burlesque]]s. 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 unlikely of circumstances. [[Oliver Goldsmith]] used the form to satirical effect in ''[[The Citizen of the World]]'', subtitled "Letters from a Chinese Philosopher Residing in London to his Friends in the East" (1760–61). So did the diarist [[Frances Burney|Fanny Burney]] in a successful comic first novel, ''[[Evelina]]'' (1788).

The epistolary novel slowly became less popular after 18th century. Although [[Jane Austen]] tried the epistolary in juvenile writings and her [[novella]] ''[[Lady Susan]]'' (1794), she abandoned this structure for her later work. It is thought that her lost novel ''First Impressions'', which was redrafted to become ''[[Pride and Prejudice (novel)|Pride and Prejudice]]'', may have been epistolary: ''Pride and Prejudice'' contains an unusual number of letters quoted in full and some play a critical role in the plot.

The epistolary form nonetheless saw continued use, surviving in exceptions or in fragments in nineteenth-century novels. In [[Honoré de Balzac]]'s novel ''[[Mémoires de deux jeunes mariées|Letters of Two Brides]]'', two women who became friends during their education at a convent correspond over a 17-year period, exchanging letters describing their lives. [[Mary Shelley]] employs the epistolary form in her novel ''[[Frankenstein]]'' (1818). Shelley uses the letters as one of a variety of framing devices, as the story is presented through the letters of a sea captain and scientific explorer attempting to reach the north pole who encounters Victor Frankenstein and records the dying man's narrative and confessions. Published in 1848, [[Anne Brontë]]'s novel ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'' is framed as a retrospective letter from one of the main heroes to his friend and brother-in-law with the diary of the eponymous tenant inside it. In the late 19th century, [[Bram Stoker]] released one of the most widely recognized and successful novels in the epistolary form to date, ''[[Dracula]]''. Printed in 1897, the novel is compiled entirely of letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, doctor's notes, ship's logs, and the like.

The biographic stylings of the [[Sherlock Holmes]] adventures by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] have led to the tradition of a "[[Sherlockian game]]" among the [[Sherlock Holmes fandom]], where fans discuss the supposed writings of [[Dr. Watson]] as though they were a genuine account of a real detective for whom Doyle only acted as a [[literary agent]].