Main Critical Text
Singer, Godfrey Frank. The Epistolary Novel: Its Origin, Development, Decline, and Residuary Influence, U of Pennsylvania P, 1933.
In this critical text Singer attempts to chronologically record the history and development of the epistolary novels. He attempts to not only show how the novel in epistolary form came into being but also how this desire to present novels in epistolary form continues to be a popular literary format in modern times (the book was published in 1933 so I use modern loosely). The text highlights Samuel Richardson's role in the epistolary form's popularity. In fact, a lot of the text revolves around Richardson to which the author responds writing, "if there seems to be too much Richardson here, it can only be said that this man's work is the greatest, in exclusively epistolary form" (216). Since Richardson's texts tend to be extremely long, this critical text is also used to supplement information on Richardson's work to accompany the excerpts which will be used. In this way I hope to be able to include more of a variety which would functionally fit into the timeframe of an average course without sacrificing any details on Richardson and his role in the development of the epistolary form. Because this work's goal aligns perfectly with the goal of this course, this text serves as the main framework for the course. Multiple chapters will be explored in order to assist students in their journey through epistolary texts of different eras. Other secondary works will be used to continue the conversation of epistolary novels past 1933.