The Epistolary novel is told through letter (epistles) exchanged between different characters which flourished in the 18th century , and Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and charissa are classic epistolary novels.
As letters were very important in English society in th 18th century when literacy was high amount educated people but transport facilities were very primitive by modern-standards , it is not surprising that the novel should be heavily influenced by this form of communication in its early development.
The personal insight , self display and dramatic effectiveness of the epistolary technique are quite appealing.The characters have to be kept apart in order to write to one another which sometimes invole artificiality. The characters are somehow put in different places in a very regular basics. And when they actually meet one another , someone else has to write a letter about the encounter. Whatever the characters do , they must always have access to pen and paper and they must keep writing. It was this element of artificiality in Richardson's Pamela.
