Is Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein an epistolary novel?

Answer 1

Robert Walton's journals at the beginning and end of the book can be described as epistolary; however Frankenstein's tale to Robert is arguably not epistolary what so ever. An epistolary novel is based on letters or diaristic entries: for example, many sea novels take the course through the ship's log or special diary written by a member of the crew.

Answer 2

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. The word epistolary comes from the Latin word epistola, meaning a letter. Note that in the Christian Bible, the later books were letters, or "epistles", written by the apostles to various congregations.

The epistolary form can add greater realism to a story, because it mimics the workings of real life. It is thus able to demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the device of an omniscient narrator.

Mary Shelley employs the epistolary form in her novel Frankenstein (1818). Shelley uses the letters as one of a variety of framing devices, as the story is presented through the letters of a sea captain and scientific explorer attempting to reach the north pole who encounters Victor Frankenstein and records the dying man's narrative and confessions.