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Is it that Thillers are about trying to find something or prevent something - ie, it's more about an event or quest, whereas Crime is about a dead body and someone trying to work out who committed the murder?

Thank you, Jänet. And I am so sorry for putting you to that trouble. I am such an idiot sometimes (Sometimes? Always! )

Ooops, sorry. I've found the answer. Ought to have searched a bit more before posting the question (In case anyone is interested, it's a painting of Lady Mary herself, attributed to Jonathan Richardson.)

Can anyone tell me the artist and title of this gorgeous cover, please. http://tinyurl.com/okdvesa Sometimes the "Look Inside" feature at Amazon allows a view of the back cover, where that information would be given. But it goes to a different edition for this title.

Hope you enjoy it

It's on mine too, Marie Frankie did suggest it earlier in the thread, but thank you for passing it on too. I'd love to know what you think of it if you get to read it before me.

I have read some of his letters to children, and those are fab. So, thanks, Hayley, I will look into his diaries and such too.

Your description of the 1880s, vodkafan, completely alters my views of those times! I simply had no idea it was anything like that. In particular, Frenchmen hiding in London to avoid military service. How fascinating. Is that touched upon in any novels of the time? And just as I was thinking, how clever to rewrite Dangerous Liaisons as tweets, novels were already dealing with stories told through telegrams! Thanks for those links. I'm going to take a look now.

Well, that's kind of you, frankie. Thank you. The ability to edit here has appeared and if it wasn't for your explanation of the 10-message intro, I would have ended up sitting here wondering how I missed the "edit" button before I saw that wiki page you mention: astonishing, that huge gap in the C19th, isn't it.

This is astonishing! I was unaware they had bombs back then, let alone terrorist attacks. And mail order catalogues? How fascinating.

There must be some truth to it, I suppose, but it will be interesting to see if there was more than that.

The short answer why: yes, just that really - I like them and want more. The long answer: About 25 years ago I discovered C18th literature, read Clarissa, and was hooked both on the C18th as a time and epistolary novels as a form. (I also like collections of real letters.) Apart from simply liking them, it is a way to vicariously indulge my fantasy of having pen friends. The truth - the sad truth - is that I am the world's worst letter writer ever and wouldn't be able to carry on a correspondence. As to why 19th century, well this year I have decided to read mostly titles from the Penguin Classics and Oxford World's Classics ranges. Apart from the Brontë sisters, Great Expectations, Jane Austen and a handful of other novels from that century, I am in the dark. It's always seemed a less than inviting period of smoke-shrouded cities and towns full of wage-slaves eking out their lives for rich industrialists. Ohh, wait a minute, and I getting mixed up with the 21st century here? Anyway, I've decided to see what novels from the time are really like, and was curious to know if there were epistolary novels written then. That was a bit convoluted, wasn't it? I ought to have stuck with the short answer.

Good suggestion, but I think it's another of those where the major part is told in one huge chunk. Ideally, I want a novel told in lots of letters, rather like the examples I've given (but which are all eighteenth century), or like the Letters of Two Brides which frankie recommended. Frances Burney's books are well worth reading, aren't they? I do like those. Eighteenth century books I do know about, but am almost wholly ignorant of nineteenth century novels.

Sorry, I can't work out how to edit my earlier post, so will have to do it this way. frankie, Poor folk also looks to be just what I'm looking for. Thank you

And on the subject of Dangerous Liaisons, this is fun https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/86686/DangerousTweets.pdf

Yes, another wonderful book from the eighteenth century. But thank you for reminding me of it - that's one I will have to revisit. Letters of Two Brides looks to be absolutely perfect! (And my library appears to have two different versions of it.) Have you read it?

Thank you And I shall.

Lady Susan! I don't know why I've never gotten around to reading that. Yes, lovely suggestion. The Moonstone is already on my list, but because it's a 'sensation' novel (didn't know it was in the form of letters, diaries, and such). Thanks, Hayley. Yes, Frankenstein begins (and perhaps ends - can't recall) as letters from a brother to his sister. But the major section of it isn't quite the form I'm looking for at the moment. Ideally I want novels written entirely in the form of letters, and preferably of a non-fantastical nature.

(laughs) I might try it. The novel, that is.

Oh, I didn't know that. Thank you, Chrissy. Have you read it? Is the original novel as far from the movie versions as Frankenstein tends to be?

Hmm, I hadn't considered that. Isn't it interesting though that there are quite a few modern Epistolary Novels despite we have almost instantaneous communication now. A hankering for simpler days, perhaps?

Are there any Nineteenth Century novels written in the form of letters by multiple characters? Something like those by Samuel Richardson or Tobias Smollett, but 19th C ? Ideally I'd like titles which are readily available in paperback. Are there such novels, or had that form gone out of fashion by then?

Thank you all for your thoughts on this. Those were helpful. @ Hayley I thought more about it and realised how much I enjoyed Madame Bavary. Similarly with Thérèse Raquin last year. So I think you are right: they are worth reading, and I will go with that. @ Athena That's an important point about reading from different times and cultures. I feel I am too limited in what I have (and can) read and need to experience more diverse books. That's definitely a reason for me to carry on with reading in translation. Thank you. @ Brian You've hit on one of the things which perplex me. How does someone completely ignorant of, say, French, decide which translation is best? --- Thanks again everyone. You have helped me decide.

I read Madame Bovary over Christmas. It was the Penguin translation by Geoffrey Wall, and I enjoyed it very much. But it has left me wondering in what sense can I be said to have read Madame Bovary? I am going around in circles trying to answer that, and would appreciate other people's perspective. Not a single word I read was actually by Flaubert: really, haven't I read a novel by Geoffrey Wall? I can see that the theme, setting, characters, etc. are all Flaubert's. And I assume the translator has tried to make it as close to all that as possible, and so I can be said to have read a novel that captures the spirit or essence of the original. But yet ... Sigh. I am tempted to read some works by Zola, Balzac, Sand, etc. But is there a point if I can only read them in translation? I'm not saying there isn't! I am genuinely perplexed about the whole thing and wondering how to approach this. Am I over thinking this?