I love epistolary novels!!! My favorite one is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. I like the letters (or other communications) to be humorous or at least light but not 100%. (I wrote that before you mentioned it. I HIGHLY recommend it needless to say)
Wonderful video! Fall is such a great time to read epistolary. Dangerous Liaisons is epistolary as is The Twelve Days of Christmas by Quentin Blake. Blake's book is very short and very funny.
I love how letters and journal entries get you inside the characters' heads in a different way. I tend to get more interested or invested in the story.
Dear Miriam ….a good epistolary novel from the eighteenth century -that is not a chunker like Clarissa- is The Sylph by Georgiana Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire. She wrote it in her twenties about a young woman who marries a Duke and all the ensuing drama that came with it. Also another epistolary novel titled Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster is really good too. I heard about that one from the girl who has the ‘Infinite Text’ channel. I really enjoyed this topic and your recommendations.
I've read Clarissa. I read it over a year by the letter dates. It was still A LOT some days. It could definitely use an abridged edition 😅 but looking back i love the storyline even tho it can be rather infuriating as well as sad. I've read the Potatoe Peel Pie and it's really good. I think you'll like it. I still need to get to Evelina. I own it. Yes The Martian! I listened on audio and was on the edge of my seat! I'll see if i can think of others you haven't mentioned.
Daddy Long Legs is about an orphan girl in the early 1900s whose college education is paid for by a mysterious benefactor. She writes letters to him describing her adventures at school. I loved this- it feels like a classic with a lot of humor. I would also say that A Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware is epistolary in nature- a mystery/thriller but the letters and emails at the beginning and ending of the book are key to the story. Bring me a unicorn is the early journals of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. There are five volumes of her journals published chronicling her whole life, but the first book describing her time at college, travels with her ambassador father, and meeting Charles Lindbergh is my favorite. Happy reading!
Epistolary is one of my favorite types of books! Love them, and a lot of these that you mentioned are my absolute favorites. I'm planning to read Dracula for Victober.
I love epistolary novels, too! They just feel so personal. I love how you shared such a variety of genres in this post, too- adding some to my own tbr. thanks!
The Last Christmas in Paris (the book and audiobook) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are some of my favorites! I also really enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road.
I read The Woman in White this year and it was wonderful! I have Address Unknown on my TBR and want to read a few move you've recommended. Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Miriam. I really enjoyed this video on these types of books which reminds me of P&P although I know it’s not epistolary. I love a letter and being a letter and journal writer myself, I’m totally drawn to this type of book. My interest is piqued now to read Dracula as not usually my genre either but might enjoy it written in this format and because you loved it so much😊 A really great selection of books which I am happy to add to my tbr. 📚 Again, a great idea for a video!
Once I finish reading all of Gaskell's novels, I plan on reading her letters- yep, will take a long time, but I'm sure we'll love it. I started my year with a reread of 84 Charing Cross Road a couple of times and it was such a great way to start my reading year. You'll love The Guernsey Literary one! It's your kind of book!!
Oh I should probably finish her novels before starting the letters too! There may be spoilers, I didn’t think of that. I really hope I do love the Guernsey book!!
This is an excellent list! I have read several you listed. I loved the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Martian and Born of Gilded Mountains. I currently have Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries checked out from the library so I hope to get to that. And now, thanks to you, I have several other books on my TBR. 😊
Thank you for the book recommendations today! I read Screwtape Letters this year and it was so interesting. My husband is reading it now. Really makes you think!
I looooved Lady Susan! 😆I need to reread The Tenant of WH! I want to listen to The Woman in White later this autumn! 🍂 Not sure if I’ll get to it this month. I enjoy epistolary novels, but I never can pronounce it! 🤣
Read 84 Charring Cross Road and The Last Christmas in Paris in the last year and both were just delightful! Many of the others in your video I have in my TBR and am excited to read them also.
I'm really looking forward to 84 Charing Cross Road!! I also hope the author duo write more epistolary novels together - Last Christmas in Paris captured my heart!!
Thank you I really enjoyed that!! Another good one like that is Armadale by Wilkie Collins! It is sooo entertaining to be in everybody's head in their letters!! I will try much of your suggestions!! That was so enjoyable I'm subscribing!
I want to get back into reading epistolary novels. I was fond of diary entry-style books when I was little, and I do miss that format. However, I probably have epistolary childrens' book series to blame for me going around hoping my friends would read my diary which I tried too hard to make as entertaining as possible.
I've had Evelina on my TBR for years, but didn't know it was epistolary....Thanks!.....it's getting moved up as a must-read in 2025. Address Unknown is so powerful and can be read in one sitting. I also love 84, Charing Cross Road and read it every New Year's to inspire a new year of reading.
You make excellent choices! I am looking forward to Marmee. Please, delve into The Screwtape Letters. It is a superior work. If you ever get a chance to see the stage version , take the opportunity and go. Also, I highly recommend Flowers For Algernon. One last thing. I am a woman in my 60s, and I found Letters From Father Christmas so delightful! I find it refreshing to see an intelligent, young woman making such uplifting videos.
Some great titles! I haven't read Flowers for Algernon since high school. I loved it back then but would like to reread it to see how the disability representation has held up! Marmee sounds delightful.
I may be the person you were remembering in connection with Flowers for Algernon. I said I thought it stood a chance of becoming one of those rare science fiction selections, along with Frankenstein, that you came to value, and that its "epistolary" convention of telling the story through Charlie's progress reports / journal was a stroke of genius. I do wish the description you read hadn't given away as much of the story arc as it did. It's why I never read back covers.
Yes! It's so frustrating when summaries give away too much. The good thing is I have a terrible memory so by the time I read the book I will have forgotten most of what it's about! 😅
I hope you enjoy it!! I will say the first half is slow-paced and could have been condensed, but the slow-burn is amazing!! And the second half is just so so so good. It's definitely a favourite classic gothic novel!!
I’ve been realizing more and more that I enjoy epistolary novels. Adding several of these recommendations to my tbr. The two epistolary novels I’ve read this year that I gave 5 stars were ‘The Things We Didn’t Say’ by Amy Lynn Green and ‘Authentically Izzy’ by Pepper Basham.
I’m taking a break from it right now, but The History of Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson is all letters, just like Clarissa and Pamela-so all three of his novels are told in letters. It’s loooooong! But as I work through it slowly, I am enjoying it! It’s just one of those novels I’m determined to read at least once, since so many well-known Victorian novelists loved it!
Ooo thanks for the recommendation! Sometimes I just want to read a really really (unnecessarily) long classic! I don't know exactly why lol... I'm really looking forward to trying Samuel Richardson!! I think I'll start with Clarissa but really take my time with it!
The best epistolary book I ever read (and back in the 80’s) was “A Woman of Independent Means” by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey. Never hear it mentioned but I still remember it! Also “Address Unknown” is not to be missed!!
Good video! I personally don't like epistolary novels because it feels like overuse of a cool writing technique. If there are letters scattered throughout, i love it. I just prefer a good balance😊
I don’t typically reach for this style of storytelling, the two books I think of that I did like….i LOVED Screwtape Letters, and liked 84 Charing Cross Road
I am not a huge fan of epistolary novels. I like the flow of a story better than reading letters. However, I loved Daddy Long Legs. It was such a fun read. And I loved Last Christmas in Paris. It would not have been the same in regular story form. So I can make exceptions... 😂😂
Oh friend, I know the feeling!!! I've been soooo busy with work and I try to read as much as I can, I'm also so behind watching other booktube videos!! My "watch later" playlist is soooo long.
Clarissa is... Long. Too long. I think I read from an abridged version in my master's program, and that was 800 pages. It's very early novel, with very clear moral lessons.
I think what I love so much is that you get the same anticipation for a new letter that you get when you're waiting for your own mail. I also love Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster Anne of Windy Poplars is semi-epistolary, of course. Ella Minnow Pea is a great epistolary novel as well. Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngston
Yes agreed!! I really enjoyed the semi-epistolary nature of Anne of Windy Poplars! Completely forgot about that one. I have to read Daddy Long-Legs!! Thanks for the other recommendations!
I love epistolary novels!!! My favorite one is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. I like the letters (or other communications) to be humorous or at least light but not 100%. (I wrote that before you mentioned it. I HIGHLY recommend it needless to say)
I’m so excited to read it!!
Wonderful video! Fall is such a great time to read epistolary.
Dangerous Liaisons is epistolary as is The Twelve Days of Christmas by Quentin Blake. Blake's book is very short and very funny.
It truly is! 🍂 oooo thanks so much for the recommendations!!
I love how letters and journal entries get you inside the characters' heads in a different way. I tend to get more interested or invested in the story.
Me too!
Dear Miriam ….a good epistolary novel from the eighteenth century -that is not a chunker like Clarissa- is The Sylph by Georgiana Cavendish Duchess of Devonshire. She wrote it in her twenties about a young woman who marries a Duke and all the ensuing drama that came with it. Also another epistolary novel titled Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster is really good too. I heard about that one from the girl who has the ‘Infinite Text’ channel. I really enjoyed this topic and your recommendations.
I've never heard of these books! Thank you so much for recommending!
I've read Clarissa. I read it over a year by the letter dates. It was still A LOT some days. It could definitely use an abridged edition 😅 but looking back i love the storyline even tho it can be rather infuriating as well as sad.
I've read the Potatoe Peel Pie and it's really good. I think you'll like it.
I still need to get to Evelina. I own it.
Yes The Martian! I listened on audio and was on the edge of my seat!
I'll see if i can think of others you haven't mentioned.
I remember watching your reading updates for Clarisa on goodreads! 😄
You and Elizabeth B are convincing me to keep going in Emma M Lion! 😂♥️
@@amyofhearthridge 😆😆 they get better!
Daddy Long Legs is about an orphan girl in the early 1900s whose college education is paid for by a mysterious benefactor. She writes letters to him describing her adventures at school. I loved this- it feels like a classic with a lot of humor. I would also say that A Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware is epistolary in nature- a mystery/thriller but the letters and emails at the beginning and ending of the book are key to the story. Bring me a unicorn is the early journals of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. There are five volumes of her journals published chronicling her whole life, but the first book describing her time at college, travels with her ambassador father, and meeting Charles Lindbergh is my favorite. Happy reading!
Thanks for the recommendations! Bring Me a Unicorn sounds lovely!
Epistolary is one of my favorite types of books! Love them, and a lot of these that you mentioned are my absolute favorites. I'm planning to read Dracula for Victober.
I hope you enjoy it!! I felt such a connection to the characters even though I'm not a fan of vampire stories lol.
Great recommendations! I also love epistolary novels and these are some of my favorite too!
I love epistolary novels, too! They just feel so personal. I love how you shared such a variety of genres in this post, too- adding some to my own tbr. thanks!
Your hair is so gorgeous, friend!!
Thank you!! It was damp when I filmed but once it fully dried it turned into a mop 😂
The Last Christmas in Paris (the book and audiobook) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are some of my favorites! I also really enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road.
I love reading epistolary novels and compilation of letters. It's such a unique glimpse into a story or history. Thanks for sharing this list!
I read The Woman in White this year and it was wonderful! I have Address Unknown on my TBR and want to read a few move you've recommended. Thanks for sharing!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 😊 I’m hoping to read Address Unknown in the next couple months!
Hi Miriam. I really enjoyed this video on these types of books which reminds me of P&P although I know it’s not epistolary. I love a letter and being a letter and journal writer myself, I’m totally drawn to this type of book. My interest is piqued now to read Dracula as not usually my genre either but might enjoy it written in this format and because you loved it so much😊 A really great selection of books which I am happy to add to my tbr. 📚 Again, a great idea for a video!
Thanks so much for watching 🥰
Once I finish reading all of Gaskell's novels, I plan on reading her letters- yep, will take a long time, but I'm sure we'll love it. I started my year with a reread of 84 Charing Cross Road a couple of times and it was such a great way to start my reading year. You'll love The Guernsey Literary one! It's your kind of book!!
Oh I should probably finish her novels before starting the letters too! There may be spoilers, I didn’t think of that. I really hope I do love the Guernsey book!!
This is an excellent list! I have read several you listed. I loved the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, The Martian and Born of Gilded Mountains.
I currently have Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries checked out from the library so I hope to get to that.
And now, thanks to you, I have several other books on my TBR. 😊
Thanks so much for watching and commenting!🤗🤗
Wonderful recommendations thank you! 🫶🏻
I like the Emma M Lion series.. I am jealous of your Gaskell letters book - seems a very noteworthy book to me :)
Thank you for these recommendations! I have recently discovered how much I enjoy epistolary novels. These sound great.
Thanks so much for watching🤗
I'm enjoying Clarissa right now. Its epistolary form provides all the features you describe.
Yessss i love epistolary!!🎉🎉🎉 yes i feel i get to know inside their head better.
Yess!
Oh, Pamela by Richardson is epistolary (also 17th century).
Ooo yes I forgot about that one thanks!
Our Yellow Tape Letters by Caitlin Miller is such a fantastic epistolary novel. I highly recommend it. Thank you for the recommendations!
I just read the summary on Goodreads - it sounds so good!! Thanks for the recommendation!
@@miriamelizabethreads I hope you love it! ☺️
Thank you for the book recommendations today! I read Screwtape Letters this year and it was so interesting. My husband is reading it now. Really makes you think!
I’m looking forward to it!
Oh my wordddd I'm intrigued by the Elizabeth Gaskell letters!!
I looooved Lady Susan! 😆I need to reread The Tenant of WH! I want to listen to The Woman in White later this autumn! 🍂 Not sure if I’ll get to it this month. I enjoy epistolary novels, but I never can pronounce it! 🤣
@@amyofhearthridge it’s a weird word that’s for sure 😂
The Screwtape letters is one of my very faves! So intriguing and thought provoking
I'm looking forward to it!
Read 84 Charring Cross Road and The Last Christmas in Paris in the last year and both were just delightful! Many of the others in your video I have in my TBR and am excited to read them also.
I'm really looking forward to 84 Charing Cross Road!! I also hope the author duo write more epistolary novels together - Last Christmas in Paris captured my heart!!
Thank you I really enjoyed that!! Another good one like that is Armadale by Wilkie Collins! It is sooo entertaining to be in everybody's head in their letters!! I will try much of your suggestions!! That was so enjoyable I'm subscribing!
I didn't know Armadale is epistolary!! I have a copy and am hoping to read it next year. Thank you so much for watching and subscribing! ☺
I want to get back into reading epistolary novels. I was fond of diary entry-style books when I was little, and I do miss that format. However, I probably have epistolary childrens' book series to blame for me going around hoping my friends would read my diary which I tried too hard to make as entertaining as possible.
I've had Evelina on my TBR for years, but didn't know it was epistolary....Thanks!.....it's getting moved up as a must-read in 2025. Address Unknown is so powerful and can be read in one sitting. I also love 84, Charing Cross Road and read it every New Year's to inspire a new year of reading.
I love that you read 84 Charing Cross Road every New Year! :) I hope you enjoy Evelina!
I adore epistolary novels! So many good ones on this list and a few I've added to my tbr 😊
Thanks so much for watching and commenting! 🤗
You make excellent choices! I am looking forward to Marmee. Please, delve into The Screwtape Letters. It is a superior work. If you ever get a chance to see the stage version , take the opportunity and go. Also, I highly recommend Flowers For Algernon. One last thing. I am a woman in my 60s, and I found Letters From Father Christmas so delightful! I find it refreshing to see an intelligent, young woman making such uplifting videos.
Thank you so kindly for watching and commenting! It means a lot! 🤗
Some great titles! I haven't read Flowers for Algernon since high school. I loved it back then but would like to reread it to see how the disability representation has held up! Marmee sounds delightful.
I may be the person you were remembering in connection with Flowers for Algernon. I said I thought it stood a chance of becoming one of those rare science fiction selections, along with Frankenstein, that you came to value, and that its "epistolary" convention of telling the story through Charlie's progress reports / journal was a stroke of genius. I do wish the description you read hadn't given away as much of the story arc as it did. It's why I never read back covers.
Yes! It's so frustrating when summaries give away too much. The good thing is I have a terrible memory so by the time I read the book I will have forgotten most of what it's about! 😅
Woman in White is on my October Pile of Possibilities! I have never read it and now I am looking forward to it even more.
I hope you enjoy it!! I will say the first half is slow-paced and could have been condensed, but the slow-burn is amazing!! And the second half is just so so so good. It's definitely a favourite classic gothic novel!!
@miriamelizabethreads I hope so to. I am eager to start it, but first Dracula.
I’ve been realizing more and more that I enjoy epistolary novels. Adding several of these recommendations to my tbr.
The two epistolary novels I’ve read this year that I gave 5 stars were ‘The Things We Didn’t Say’ by Amy Lynn Green and ‘Authentically Izzy’ by Pepper Basham.
Things we Didn't Say has been on my radar for a while but I never knew it was epistolary! Thank you so much for the recommendations!
I’m taking a break from it right now, but The History of Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson is all letters, just like Clarissa and Pamela-so all three of his novels are told in letters. It’s loooooong! But as I work through it slowly, I am enjoying it! It’s just one of those novels I’m determined to read at least once, since so many well-known Victorian novelists loved it!
Ooo thanks for the recommendation! Sometimes I just want to read a really really (unnecessarily) long classic! I don't know exactly why lol... I'm really looking forward to trying Samuel Richardson!! I think I'll start with Clarissa but really take my time with it!
Guernsey is told completely in letters and was a pure delight.
The best epistolary book I ever read (and back in the 80’s) was “A Woman of Independent Means” by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey. Never hear it mentioned but
I still remember it! Also “Address Unknown” is not to be missed!!
Thank you for the recommendation!!
Screwtape is so good! I guess it's considered fantasy because it's about the spiritual world?
Good video! I personally don't like epistolary novels because it feels like overuse of a cool writing technique. If there are letters scattered throughout, i love it. I just prefer a good balance😊
Makes sense! Thanks for watching and commenting 🤗
I don’t typically reach for this style of storytelling, the two books I think of that I did like….i LOVED Screwtape Letters, and liked 84 Charing Cross Road
Letters from Father Christmas!!!
It’s so beautiful! 🥰
If you love Dracula, I highly recommend the historian. Its fabulous. All told in letters.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I am not a huge fan of epistolary novels. I like the flow of a story better than reading letters. However, I loved Daddy Long Legs. It was such a fun read. And I loved Last Christmas in Paris. It would not have been the same in regular story form. So I can make exceptions... 😂😂
About Last Christmas in Paris - agreed!!
The Skymar series by Pepper Basham is great but not pure epistolary in nature.
Sir Charles Grandison is even longer than Clarissa!! 😆 By several hundred pages!!
😅😅😅
Marmee is great!! Except for the one bedroom scene! It’s like she wants to torture us with our fictional parents doing it!!
Epistolary novels are more intimate, personal between the communicating characters.
Agreed! I feel such a special closeness to the characters when reading their letters or journal entries.
I'm so behind watching all my fav book tubers. I got a new position at work and I'm behind watching. UGH
Oh friend, I know the feeling!!! I've been soooo busy with work and I try to read as much as I can, I'm also so behind watching other booktube videos!! My "watch later" playlist is soooo long.
Clarissa is... Long. Too long. I think I read from an abridged version in my master's program, and that was 800 pages. It's very early novel, with very clear moral lessons.
I’m deffffinitely going to read it very slowly 😆
I think what I love so much is that you get the same anticipation for a new letter that you get when you're waiting for your own mail.
I also love Daddy Long-Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster
Anne of Windy Poplars is semi-epistolary, of course.
Ella Minnow Pea is a great epistolary novel as well.
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngston
Yes agreed!! I really enjoyed the semi-epistolary nature of Anne of Windy Poplars! Completely forgot about that one. I have to read Daddy Long-Legs!! Thanks for the other recommendations!