epistolary novel

American  

noun

1. a novel written in the form of a series of letters.

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Example Sentences

Barth also challenged literary conventions in his 1979 epistolary novel “Letters,” in which characters from his first six novels wrote to each other, and he inserted himself as a character as well.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 2, 2024

Laclos' epistolary novel spins a web of decadent self-involvement and class warfare through the exchange of letters between the Marquise de Merteuil, a wealthy widow, and her former lover Vicomte de Valmont.

From Salon • Nov. 6, 2022

Based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-winning epistolary novel, Celie’s Dickensian journey of suffering and redemption is enlivened by an exuberant, bluesy score by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

From Washington Post • Aug. 25, 2022

If “Clarissa” is an epistolary novel, then so, really, is “The Post Card” — and then half of “Tristram Shandy” is speculative philosophy.

From New York Times • Jan. 20, 2022

Although technically it may be called an epistolary novel, its author is no Richardson in marshalling the strategies of the epistolary technique.

From Olinda's Adventures: or the Amours of a Young Lady by Anonymous