Thanks for learning the in-artime podcast. For more details about in-artime and for our terms of use

please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy the program.

Hello, today we'll be discussing epistuale fiction, that is fiction in the form of letters. From its appearance in the 17th century with writers like Afra Ben,

it reaches heyday in the 18th century with Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, and it inspired impassioned followers such as Dennis Diderot,

who described reading Richardson's novels like this, but in the space of a few hours I'd been through a host of situations which the longest life

can scarcely provide in its whole course. I'd heard the genuine language of the passions. I'd seen the secret springs of self-interest and self-love

operating in a hundred different ways. I'd become privy to a multitude of incidents I now felt I had gained in experience.

End quote, the serious novel had arrived. This sense of the read, againing a privilege peek into the psychology of the protagonist,

was a key device of the epistory form and essential to the later development of the novel. Its emphasis on moral instruction also

propelled a genre into literary respectability. These novels were publishing sensation, like Clough, Rousseau, Gerta, Montesquieu, and Mary Wilson Kraft took up the

start using it to convey their ideas on morality and society. So why were letter writing novels and letter writing so

important to 18th century authors? How did this style aid the development of the novel and why did epistro, and why did epistro

literature fall out of favor? Joining me to discuss all this are John Mullin, Professor of English at University College London,

Karen O'Brien, Professor of English at Warwick University, and Brian Hammond, Professor of Modern English

at University at Nottingham University. John Mullin, how would you define epistro literature?

Well, epistory books are books which are composed entirely of letters and in the case of novels. That means that the characters in the stories are also the writers of the story.

And one of the fascinating things, which I'm sure we'll discuss about epistolary novels, is that they don't have an author in there

organizing things for you and telling you what's happening. And the business of writing and the business of taking part in the narrative become the same thing.

Now, I mean epistolary literature is not just novels because in the 18th century letters, fictional letters are useful,

sorts of books, books of philosophy, travel writing, even satirical poetry is written in the forms of letters.

And there's something kind of extremely congenial about letters for sort of polite 18th century readers and writers.

So, combination of their informality and yet their propriety, which appeals a great deal to a culture where you're supposed to be polite and yet obeyed and informal.

...