Fictional tales told through letters, emails, diary entries, etc.

Please don't add non-fiction!
Following are non-fiction and will be deleted (that says nothing about their quality, only that they don't belong on this list):
84, Charing Cross Road
The Diary of a Young Girl
My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams
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858 books · 856 voters · list created July 16th, 2008 by Jessica Haider (votes) .
235 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Jessica 10922 books
1452 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
851 friends
Ancient 1406 books
100 friends
Nicholas 761 books
129 friends
Falkor 1271 books
0 friends
Jami 2601 books
58 friends
Antoine 949 books
177 friends
Alexa 839 books
8 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-31 of 31 (31 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Amy (new)

Amy You know, 84 Charring Cross Road isn't exactly fiction. And yet I voted for it. D'OH!


message 2: by Hazel (last edited Feb 19, 2010 07:26AM) (new)

Hazel Good point, 84 Charing Cross Road is a lovely piece of non-fiction.


message 3: by Kaion (new)

Kaion Was Push epistolary? Gah, my brain is swiss cheese.


message 4: by Kelly (new)

Kelly I think there may be some suggestion that Push is the result of Precious' classwork, so it could be seen as a diary in a way. It's not really in a diary format, though, so it would be pushing the definition a tad.


message 5: by Amy (new)

Amy Hazel wrote: "Good point, 84 Charing Cross Road is a lovely piece of non-fiction."

Amy wrote: "You know, 84 Charring Cross Road isn't exactly fiction. And yet I voted for it. D'OH! "

I have since deleted my vote. :D


message 6: by Stacey (new)

Stacey As a GR librarian, I can delete the title if it's okay with everyone else. Don't want to upset anyone, but yes, 84 Charing Cross Road isn't fiction. :)


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Go ahead and delete it, Stacey.


message 8: by Julia (new)

Julia Oh, I love epistolary fiction!


Debbie is on Storygraph Deleted 84 Charing Cross Road.


message 10: by Kirsten (new)

Kirsten I added a couple of books that are (fictional) diary entries or letters told verbally through a tape recording, such as the Handmaid's Tale. This medium isn't specified in the description, but I assume it counts. :)


message 11: by Elaine (new)

Elaine Wilhelm I loved Glass Castle, but I don't think it's epistolary fiction?


message 12: by ~♡annie♡~ (new)

~♡annie♡~ Anne Frank counts... even though it's not fiction...


Debbie is on Storygraph ~♡Sushi♡~ wrote: "Anne Frank counts... even though it's not fiction..."

Anne Frank should not be on this list, because the list title is "Epistolary Fiction".


Debbie is on Storygraph Deleted 84 Charing Cross Road. Again.


message 15: by Anna (new)

Anna Kļaviņa Deleted Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl b/c it's nonfiction.


message 16: by Anna (new)

Anna Kļaviņa Would Lolita count? The book is supposed to be Humbert's manuscript.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Anna wrote: "Would Lolita count? The book is supposed to be Humbert's manuscript."

Yes, but that's (to a certain extent) the case with every first person narration. IIRC, Lolita is a hindsight narration in one piece -- I don't recall it having the immediacy and "piecemeal" plot development of a diary or correspondence ...

Debbie and Anna, thanks for deleting a few nonfiction entries. (@Sushi: That BTW includes Anne Frank's diary, which is clearly NOT epistolary fiction.)


message 18: by BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) (last edited Jan 30, 2015 11:09AM) (new)

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) It's being told alright, but I don't remember Wuthering Heights (#14) as being told "through letters, emails, diary entries"? I might be wrong though, as it is an awfully long time since I've read it...


message 19: by Susan (last edited May 01, 2017 07:38PM) (new)

Susan I deleted 84 Charing Cross Road, The Element of Lavishness, and The Letters of Abelard and Heloise because they're all nonfiction.


message 20: by Mike (new)

Mike I don't think The Stranger is epistolary. I'm pretty sure Speak isn't either, but it's been a long time since I read it, it could be wrong. Permission to delete those two?


message 21: by Rosa (new)

Rosa Doesn't epistolary refer only to letters?


message 22: by Lanelle (new)

Lanelle Rosa wrote: "Doesn't epistolary refer only to letters?"

No. According to Wikipedia: "An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic 'documents' such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use."


message 23: by Jan (new)

Jan Priddy Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads You add books at the top of the list, at the tab next to "all votes."


message 25: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Removed The Remains of the Day which is told in first person, but is not epistolary.


message 26: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Booklovinglady wrote: "It's being told alright, but I don't remember Wuthering Heights (#14) as being told "through letters, emails, diary entries"? I might be wrong though, as it is an awfully long time since I've read ..."

I don't recall it being epistolary either. Also I wouldn't call "The Woman in White" epistolary. It has multiple narrators, but I don't consider that the same as epistolary. Multiple narrators doesn't automatically correspond to "diary entries."


message 27: by The other Sandy (new)

The other Sandy Lanelle wrote: "Rosa wrote: "Doesn't epistolary refer only to letters?"

No. According to Wikipedia: "An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic 'documents' such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use.""


According to the Library of Congress, epistolary fiction is: "Fiction written wholly or partially in the form of letters, telegrams, electronic mail messages, instant messages, etc. For fiction written in diary form see Diary fiction."


message 28: by Rosa (new)

Rosa Thank you.


message 29: by Agnieszka (last edited Nov 05, 2022 01:19AM) (new)

Agnieszka 1 duplicates found and removed

Deleted 84 Charing Cross Road again, added note to description, not to add non-fiction, specifically naming 84 Charing Cross Road & The Diary of a Young Girl


message 30: by Celia (new)

Celia Deleted My Dearest Friend and added title to note in description.


message 31: by Vicki (new)

Vicki #527 --84, Charing Cross Road has crept back on again.


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