Epistolary Fiction
A Novel Affair

Epistolary Novels List

Black and white cover of Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa with the text Clarissa; or the History of a Young Lady comprehending the most important concerns of private life and particularly showing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children in relation to marriage. By Mr. Samuel Richardson. In eight volumes.
Cover of Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

This is a list of books consulted for this project. It is not a comprehensive list.

Ancient Texts

  • Ephesian Tale by Xenophon
  • Story of Apollonius King of Tyre by anonymous
  • The Wonders Beyond Thule by Antonius Diogenes
  • Babyloniaka by Iamblichus
  • Chaereas and Callirhoe by Chariton
  • Leucippe and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius
  • Ethiopian Story by Heliodorus
  • The works of Ovid

1400-1500

  • Cárcel de Amor (Prison of Love) by Diego de San Pedro [1485]

1500-1600

  • Proceso de Cartas de Amores (The Process of Love Letters) by Juan de Segura [1548]

1600-1700

  • Familiar Letters by James Howell [1650]
  • Les Lettres Portugaises (Portuguese Letters) by Gabriel-Joseph de Lavergne [1669]
  • Lettres de Respect, d’obligation et d’amour (Letters of Respect, Gratitude, and Love) by Edmé Boursault [1669]
  • Love Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister by Aphra Behn [1687]

1700-1800

  • Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters) by Montesquieu [1721]
  • Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson [1740]
  • Lettres d’une Péruvienne (Letters from a Peruvian Woman) by Françoise de Graffigny [1747]
  • Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson [1748]
  • The History of Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson [1753]
  • Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse (Julie, or the New Heloise) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1761]
  • The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooks [1769]
  • The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett [771]
  • Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (The Sorrows of a Young Werther) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1774]
  • Evelina by Fanny Burney [1778]
  • Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos [1782]
  • Letters of Mrs. Henley by Isabelle de Charriere  [1784]
  • The Emigrants by Gilbert Imlay [1793]
  • Aline et Valcour; ou la Roman philosophique (Aline and Valcour) by Marquis de Sade [1795]
  • Hyperion oder Der Eremit in Griechenland (Hyperion) by Friedrich Hölderlin [1797]

1800-1900

  • Delphine by Anne Louise Germaine de Staël [1802]
  • Leonora by Maria Edgeworth [1806]
  • Adolphe by Benjamin Constant [1816]
  • Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky [1846]
  • The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë [1848]
  • The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins [1860]
  • The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins [1868]
  • Lady Susan by Jane Austen [1871]
  • The Black Robe by Wilkie Collins [1881]
  • Fra Rusaaret by Peter Nansen [1892]
  • A Debutante in New York Society by Rachel Buchanan [1888]
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker [1897]
  • The Etchingham Letters by Frederick Pollard and Mrs. Fuller Maitland [1899]

1900-2000

  • The Visits of Elizabeth by Elinor Glyn [1900]
  • Sylvana’s Letters to an Unknown Friend by Eleanor Vere Boyle [1900]
  • An Englishwoman’s Love Letters by Laurence Housman [1900]
  • A Parish of Two by H.G. McVickar and Percy Collins [1903]
  • Letters Home by William Dean Howells [1903]
  • The Kempton-Wace Letters by Jack London and Anna Strunsky [1903]
  • Listener’s Lure by E. Lucas [1906]
  • Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster [1912]
  • You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner [1915]
  • Dear Enemy by Jean Webster [1915]
  • Zoo, or Letters Not about Love by Victor Shklovsky [1922]
  • Givi Shaduri by Mikheil Javakhishvili [1928]
  • The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace [1930]
  • Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery [1936]
  • The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis [1942]
  • Les Mantes Religieuses (The Praying Mantis) by Hubert Monteilhet [1960]
  • Le Retour des Cendres (Return from Ashes) by Hubert Monteilhet [1961]
  • Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman [1964]
  • Herzog by Saul Bellow [1964]
  • Der Fieberkopf (The Feverhead) by Wolfgang Bauer [1967]
  • Ada by Vladimir Nabokov [1969]
  • 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff [1970]
  • Letters of Insurgents by Fredy Perlman [1976]
  • Carrie by Stephen King [1976]
  • The Fan by Bob Randall [1977]
  • A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey [1978]
  • Letters by John Barth [1979]
  • Une Si Longue Lettre (So a Long Letter) by Mariama Bâ [1981]
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker [1982]
  • Black Box by Amos Oz [1986]
  • Sorcery & Cecelia; or the Enchanted Chocolate Potby Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer [1988]
  • Home Thoughts by Tim Parks [1988]
  • Fair and Tender Ladies by Gary Shteyngart [1988]
  • The Trick of It by Michael Frayn [1989]
  • Letters from the Inside by John Marsden [1991]
  • Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence and Trilogy by Nick Bantock [1991]
  • Nothing but the Truth: A Documentary Novel by Avi [1992]
  • Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse [1992]
  • Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull [1997]
  • Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger [1998]
  • Ender’s Shadow Saga by Orson Scott Card [1998]
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky [1999]
  • Inconceivable by Ben Elton [1999]

2000-2015

  • P.S. He’s Mine by Rosie Rushton and Nina Schindler [2000]
  • House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski [2000]
  • Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty [2000]
  • e by Matt Beaumont [2000]
  • Tarzan’s Tonsillitis by Alfredo Bryce-Echenique [2001]
  • Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn [2001]
  • Mr. Mee: A Novel by Andrew Crumey [2002]
  • We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver [2003]
  • The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty [2003]
  • The My Dearest Letters by Rodger Morrison [2003]
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon [2003]
  • Where Rainbows End (Love, Rosie) by Cecelia Ahern [2004]
  • The Internet Girls Trilogy by Lauren Myracle [2004]
  • Ibid: A Life by Mark Dunn [2004]
  • Gilead by Marilynne Robinson [2004]
  • Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot [2004]
  • Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger [2004]
  • Who Moved My Blackberry? by Lucy Kellaway [2005]
  • The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova [2005]
  • El Corazón de Voltaire (Voltaire’s Heart) by Luis López Nieves [2005]
  • The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie (The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie) by Jaclyn Moriarty [2006]
  • The Mislaid Magician: or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer [2006]
  • Gut gegen Nordwind (Love Virtually) by Daniel Glattauer [2006]
  • Eleven by David Llewellyn [2006]
  • Bloodline by Kate Cary [2006]
  • The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland [2007]
  • The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga [2008]
  • The Letters by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger [2008]
  • The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer [2008]
  • From A to X: A Story in Letters by John Berger [2008]
  • Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball [2008]
  • Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher [2009]
  • Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart [2010]
  • Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler [2011]
  • Attachments by Rainbow Rowell [2011]
  • The Antagonist by Lynn Coady [2011]
  • Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple [2012]
  • September Ends by Hunter S. Jones [2012]
  • Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein [2012]
  • Aeternum Ray by Tracy R. Atkins [2012]
  • Texts from Bennett by Mac Lethal [2013]
  • Roomies by Sara Zarr [2013]
  • Permission by S.D. Chrostowska [2013]
  • Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay [2013]
  • God is an Astronaut by Alyson Foster [2013]
  • The Closeness that Separates Us by Katie Hall [2013]
  • Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira [2014]
  • Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole [2014]
  • Every Blade of Grass: A Novel by Thomas Wharton [2014]
  • Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher [2014]
  • Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar [2014]
  • Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas Dodson [2015]

Epistolary Fiction