Literary Criticism (1400-1800) | The Epistolary Novel - Further Reading

FURTHER READING

CRITICISM

Ball, Donald L. “Richardson's Statement of His Theory of Fiction.” In Samuel Richardson's Theory of Fiction. The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1971, pp. 23-30.

Clarifies the principal reasons Richardson prized the epistolary form over narrative fiction: because letters are by nature rooted in the present and because they most actively engage the attention of the reader.

Brophy, Elizabeth Bergen. “Epistolary Form: An Easy and Natural Style.” In Samuel Richardson: The Triumph of Craft. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1974, pp. 38-49.

Examines Richardson's reliance on the epistolary genre and claims that that Richardson found the form more realistic, flexible, and morally instructive than the narrative novel.

Cohan, Steven M. “Clarissa and the Individuation of Character.” ELH 43 (1976): 163-83.

Examines how Richardson uses the epistolary...

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