[In the following excerpt from a work originally published in 1933, Singer examines the popularity of the epistolary genre in France, Italy, and Germany, countries whose works he says most critics neglect because of the prominence of Samuel Richardson and other English authors.]

The casting of narrative works of fiction, which we have designated novels, into epistolary form, was a practice by no means limited to the land which gave the greatest examples of the art any more than it was to the century which produced its most distinguished proponents and in which the mode reached its highest peak of development and achievement. Novels were written in this form by French, Italian, American, German, Russian, and other authors. In Brian W. Downs' book on Samuel Richardson, there is included a chapter on “The Consequences of Richardson,”¹ wherein Mr. Downs has included a list of novels in letter form in various other literatures in Europe. He has, however, omitted America from his census, and has treated epistolary fiction in Italy rather slightingly. It may be argued, of course, that the use of this form was not a “consequence” of Richardson, or that Richardson did not introduce into Italy the novel in letters, although admittedly he made it fashionable there. But when one considers the epistolary epidemic, as it may be termed, and sees the germinal poste restante marked “England” and knows further than that that Richardson connotes the word “epistolary” in England, one can well feel that he is not jumping to conclusions rashly in ascribing to Richardson the impulse giving strength to the novel in letters and its imitators in England and outside England.

If one were anxious to investigate the subject of the epistolary novel in France completely, the compass of a volume would be necessary. Aside from those works listed by Mr. Downs in his aforementioned chapter, M. Philippe Van Tieghem's edition of La Nouvelle Héloise; ou Lettres de deux Amants habitans d'une petite Ville au pieds des Alps, of Rousseau (first exposed for sale in 1761 in Paris), contains the best list collected in one spot convenient to the finger tips.

In 1751, three years after its appearance in England, Clarissa appeared in French as Lettres Angloises ou Histoire de Clarissa Harlove. In 1755-56 we may note the appearance in French of Nouvelle Lettres Angloises ou Histoire de Chevalier Grandisson. These translations are both attributed to Abbé Prévost, the author of Manon Lescaut. As early, however, as 1742, there is noted a work which shows that Pamela had already made its mark upon the French literary consciousness, for Antipamela; or Mémoires de M.D.—appeared at this time, published in London. In 1743, Anti-Pamela; or, Feign'd Innocence Detected: In a Series of Syrena's Adventures, possibly by Mrs. Haywood (opines Mr. Downs) was translated into French. The translation of Pamela itself appeared in 1742, but this is a book less to the fancy of the French than are Richardson's two later novels. From this date on, through the eighteenth century, as in England, France having looked upon the epistolary mode and having liked it, its popularity was assured. Many imitations of Pamela, aside from those already noted, appeared in French. Mme. de Beaumont, who has been previously mentioned for her epistolary fiction, was a Frenchwoman prolific in her imitations of Richardson. Francois-Thomas de Baculard d'Arnaud was another such author. Diderot's La Réligieuse is one of the most outstanding instances of Richardson imitation and was published in 1760, almost twenty years after the appearance of Pamela. Laclos' Liaisons Dangereuses (translated into English as Dangerous Connections) was another.

The true Richardson of France was, however, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. La Nouvelle Héloise (1761), is, like others of his works, in letters. This work in particular may be compared with those of Richardson because it, too, had a long train of imitators. Of great interest, however, is Rousseau's version of the Portuguese Letters in a volume called, Letters of An Italian Nun and an English Gentleman (1781), a series of sentimental and pathetic letters which are extremely well written, graceful in phrasing, and of an insistent sadness. The influence of these on English sentiment was great.

Among the many works which were composed in imitation of the Nouvelle Héloise, M. van Tieghem has listed: La Philosophe par Amour; ou, Lettres de deux Amants Passionnés et vertueux (1765); Henriette de Wolmar; ou, la Mere jalouse de sa Fille, pour servir de suite à la Nouvelle Héloise (1768); Le Nouvel Abailard; ou, Lettres de deux Amants qui ne se sont jamais vus (1778), by Réstif de la Bretonne; Sophie; ou, Lettres de deux Amies recueillies et publiées par un citoyen de Genève (1779); Lettres de deux Amants habitants de Lyons, publiées par M. Léonard (1783); La Dernière Héloise; ou, Lettres de Junie Salisbury recueillies et publiées par M. Dauphin, citoyen de Verdun (1784); and Amours ou Lettres d'Alexis et Justine (1786).

It is not to be thought, however, that the epistolary impulse in France was entirely dependent upon Richardson. As early as 1607-1619 Honoré d'Urfé's L'Histoire d'Astrée, was a model for epistolary correspondence in France in the seventeenth century. It was of such tremendous influence that its use in the eighteenth century as a representative gem of the epistolary art is not to be wondered at. Then, too, there were Lettres Persanes (1721), by Charles Louis de Sécondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, full of a graceful humor, a piquancy of phrasing and a perspicacity of observation that render them particularly lively. If Oliver Goldsmith could copy this work forty years later in his Citizen of the World, surely its widespread use at home need not be thought surprising. The intermixture of the serious with the light vein in these letters keeps them delightful. They are, moreover, valuable as an informative treatment of the manners and customs of Europe as these might be seen through the eyes of two Asiatics. John Davidson, the English poet, made a sympathetic translation of them late in the nineteenth century. Directly in imitation of these are the letters of the French patriot, Jean Paul Marat, Lettres Polonaises, written about 1770. In these letters, a young Polish prince traveling through the countries of Europe incognito, writes his extended criticisms of the manners and customs, especially of the social conditions, of the countries through which he has traveled, and sends them chiefly to a friend and to a brother. The letters are, of course, an excuse for Marat to air his opinions of the existing social order.

Not entirely in the same vein, but created by the same impulse as were the Lettres Persanes were those two epistolary works which formed a background in France to the development of sentimental fiction in the epistolary form, Alcoforado's Lettres Portugaises (1669), and Mme. de Graffigny's Lettres Peruviennes (1747), both of great popularity.

When the influence of Richardson on the French epistolary novel is being argued, it must be remembered that there is a high possibility of the existence of an original French epistolary influence on Richardson. Marivaux's two major works of fiction, La Vie de Marianne (1731-41), completed after Marivaux's death by Mme. Riccoboni, and Le Paysan Parvenu (1735-36), are both in letter form. It was this author, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, who endeavored to bring back his countrymen to nature, as has already been mentioned (p. 75). In like manner, Samuel Richardson made strong endeavor to turn the tide of fiction into the channels of realism, of everyday occurrences and everyday lives. He succeeded undoubtedly beyond the dreams of Marivaux, and the works of the latter author are, by comparison with those of the English writer, fanciful and light. Yet there are resemblances to be noticed between the attempted realism of Marivaux and the successful realism of Richardson, resemblances that suggest the possibility of Richardson's having somewhat followed the lead of the Frenchman. Marianne is, however, episodic. The Richardson book it most suggests, Clarissa, is, on the other hand, a history in which the events of the heroine's life follow each other in an uninterrupted succession. Here is one of the chief differences between Richardson and Marivaux. There is no doubt that Richardson had before him the example of Marivaux's novels in the epistolary form. That he was led to couch his own works in that form because of the example of Marivaux is, on the other hand, doubtful, if not entirely incredible.

Even before Marivaux, however, and following in the trail of the Lettres Portugaises rather than in that of Marivaux's early work, are such series of love letters as Lettres de la Marquise de M——— au Comte de P——— (1732) and Lettres Athéniennes (1732), both the work of Claude Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon (Crébillon fils). The latter work may be placed beside Landor's tale of classic love in letters, Pericles and Aspasia. In the French work the letters are exchanged between Alcibiades and Aspasia.

To almost the same period of years as the two important epistolary works of Marivaux belong the epistolary works of Madame de Tencin, Le Comte de Comminge (1735) and Malheurs de L'Amour (1747), two sprightly novels written with a moral purpose but not a great deal of dignity. Already considered as French epistolary authors whose work was translated into English are Mme. Riccoboni and Mme. Elie de Beaumont. The former is the author of Lettres de Julie Catesby (1759), and the latter the author of Lettres du Marquis de Roselle (1764), both written in the epistolary form. It might be noted that Mesdames Tencin, Riccoboni, and de Beaumont, along with Mme. de Charrière, author of Lettres neuchateloises (1784), and Caliste; ou Lettres écrites de Lausanne (1786), and Mme. de Souza, who wrote Adèle de Senanges (1794), form a sort of epistolary school of sensibility which extends over a period of some sixty years and is comparable to the similar school of sensibility already considered in the English epistolary novel of the eighteenth century. These French books are, upon the whole, although the works of Mme. Riccoboni and Mme. de Beaumont are thoroughly pleasant, rather pedestrian and uninspired creations, sometimes relieved by a flow of graceful and exquisite writing, but usually overladen with sentiment and sensibility.

Voltaire is the author of an epistolary work in Les Lettres d'Amabed, traduites par l'Abbé Tamponet, a piece that may be considered minor in every respect. This was published in 1769. Dependent upon the work of Marivaux for its title and its moral indignation is Le Paysan Perverti; ou, les Dangers de la ville—histoire récente mise au jour d'après les véritables lettres des personages, by Réstif de la Bretonne (already mentioned for his imitation of Rousseau), published in 1775. …

Turning to epistolary expression in Italy, we find that Pamela appeared in translation in 1744-46, and the heroine of the novel had her story made famous in that country by Goldoni's Pamela Fanciulla (or Pamela Nubile) (1750). Goldoni followed this play with Pamela Maritata (1750). Clarissa was translated, in novel form, in 1783-86; Grandison in 1784-89. Thus we find that the epistolary novel reached Italy, from England, save in the case of Pamela, rather later than it had France, where Richardson's novels were completely translated by the close of the fifties. In Germany, too, the fifties saw Richardson completely translated. But in Italy the drama was at this time more popular than the novel, and so it was that Pamela became a stage rather than a page heroine. Incidentally, these plays of Goldoni were translated into English and published in London in 1756. Chiari, in 1759, also published a Pamela Maritata, and his novel Francese in Italia he based on Clarissa.² One finds here not so much the definitely moralistic tone that was so peculiarly Richardson's; but the impulse of the epistle came from him. Of course Rousseau was, in France, a nearer neighbor to Italy, and Goethe's Werther was also very popular with the Italians, but since all go back to Richardson as the fountainhead we may say of Chiari that he, too, does. Mr. Downs has taken from Arturo Graf the statement that Richardson, though he did not introduce the epistolary form into Italy, made it popular there.³ This is unquestionably a good phrase, but one that seems upon the whole a trifle vague, for the translation of Pamela dates 1744-46; Chiari's Francese in Italia dates 1762. Richardson was there eighteen years before Pietro Chiari! And in Chiari's La Viaggiatrice there is a very clear influence of Pamela. It is in epistolary form as are three of his other novels: La filosofessa italiana; La Cantatrice per disgrazia; and La Donna che non si trova (1762), which is in imitation of La Nouvelle Héloise. As a matter of fact, Albergati had had it in mind to imitate this Rousseau work in an epistolary novel but did not do it, and published instead the Lettere Capricciose piacevoli e varie in collaboration with Zacchiroli, Compopioni, and Bertalozzi. Thus, if Richardson did not “introduce” the epistolary form into Italy, but merely made it “fashionable,” then to Chiari must be given the honor of introducing it. But since Richardson was most often his model, we may conclude that the introduction was at least under the influence of Richardson if that author was not himself the immediate impulse. Of course, Richardson did not introduce epistolary fiction into England, but he made it popular there.

Earlier too, of course, than Chiari are certain other works. It has been claimed for Italy that the origins of the epistolary novel are Italian. Europe knew the epistolary novels of Montesquieu, Richardson, Rousseau, and Goethe. But in 1569 there was already an epistolary novel in Italy, the Lettere Amorose of Aloise Pasqualigo, which is the basis for this distinguished claim. In 1684 we have Marana's L'Esploratore turco e le diliu relazioni segrete alla Porte Ottomana (Paris). This has been thought to be of French origin, but Natali refutes this conclusively.⁴ It is, like Montesquieu's Lettres Persanes, a survey of politics and society. It was very popular and appeared in English in the first decade of the eighteenth century. In almost direct imitation of the early work by Marana is Lo Spione Italiano; ossia corrispondenza segrete e familiare fra il Marchese di Licciocara e il Conte Pifiela, tutti e due viaggiatori incogniti per i diverse corti d'Europa (1782).

It is, in the final analysis, however, Pietro Chiari who is the leading proponent of the epistolary form in Italy, as has already been intimated. Certainly this is indisputably true of his place in the eighteenth century, if it is not equally true of his place in all Italian literature. It is interesting to note that the general machinery of his epistolary novels is, indeed, very much like that of the sentimental moralistic novel in letters in England. The same extravagances, the same plethora of gallant intrigues, surprises, duels, flights, and of the course, tears, are employed in these novels almost as plentifully as they were in England's epistolary works of fiction. I have already indicated that the novel was not the most important form in Italy in the literature of the eighteenth century. It was not, indeed, until the appearance of Le Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis in 1799-1802 that the novel became a truly popular form in that country. In other words, Chiari was persistently writing in a form that was not entirely popular during the period in which he wrote. By 1757 he had begun his career as a writer of the picaresque tale with the Storia di Luigi Manderine, based on a French original. Thus Concari sums up this really important writer:

Non credo che giovi di saperne oltre di codesti romanzi di venture fondati in capricciose combinazioni accozzate senza logica ne arte; il fin qui detto da un idea dei propisiti dell' autore, che pure scrive per dilettare e istriure, e non ha ne rettitudine ne moralita, se non pervana ostentazione nelle massime e nei discorsi.⁵

Yet this is the man who did so much in Italy to keep the novel alive! …

Of the work which saw the light in Italy in this form, it may be said that there is only one of lasting importance, and that is Ugo Foscolo's Lettere Ultime di Jacopo Ortis. The other novels in epistolary form are more or less transitory in tissue and general worth. But when one remembers that a country which had very little fiction in novel form which was its own before 1830 gave birth to a goodly dozen of epistolary novels, the virulence of this trans-European epidemic can be estimated.

The same general statement may be made of German literature, in which there is to be found, among the several existing epistolary novels, but one that is of true worth and importance. This is, of course, Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a novel in letters which first appeared in 1774. Since it was preceded by the epistolary works of Samuel Richardson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it is a safe and natural assumption to suppose that Goethe derived at least the suggestion for the form of his work from the novels in letters of Richardson and Rousseau. Goethe followed the path of Rousseau in the spirit that he established in his work and succeeded in setting up a new mode of thought in German social relations and in literature. In that the book encouraged sentimental youths to commit suicide, it achieved a sort of notoriety as well as fame; yet its intrinsic value is a high one. The philosophy, the sentimentality, and the social ethics of the book are derived from Rousseau. On the other hand, the style in which the letters are written; their naturalness; their faithfulness to character (especially in the case of the letters which Werther writes, full as they are of philosophic ramblings and sentimental self-pityings); their attempted simple presentation of bourgeois life, are all more closely allied to the work of Richardson than to that of Rousseau.

The book itself is important as a literary work as well as an epistolary one. In this novel, says Wilhelm Scherer, Goethe “protested against a society, which did not understand how to use the brilliant talents of an impetuous young man; he protested against established inequality, against the pride of the nobility … ; he protested against prevailing morality, that did not even look upon suicide with compassion; he protested against conventional pedantry of style and against aesthetic rules … ; and he protested against the established speech, which the author employed, as a matter of fact, not only with freedom, but even arbitrarily.”⁶ Whatever else may be said of the book, it must stand undoubtedly as one of the most remarkable and influential of epistolary novels in literature and one as important in its effects as the epistolary novels of Richardson and the Nouvelle Héloise of Rousseau.

Notes

1. Richardson, London, New York, 1928, p. 218.

2. Arturo Graf, L'Anglo-Mania e L'Influsso Inglese in Italia nel secolo XVIII, Torino, 1911.

3. Graf, op. cit., p. 282; Downs, op. cit., p. 233.

4. Il Settecento. In Storia Letteraria D'Italia. Scritta da una Società di Professori, Milan, 1929.

5. “I do not think it is necessary to enquire any further into such romances of adventure revolving about whimsical combination, thrown together without either logic or art. What has been said thus far gives an idea of the purposes of the author who writes to delight and to instruct, and yet does not possess either righteousness or morality, except to display them in his maxims and discourses.” T. Concari, Il Settecento. In Storia Letteraria D'Italia. Scritta da una Società di Professori, Milan, N. D., p. 398.

6. Wilhelm Scherer, Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur, Berlin, 1883, p. 500.