# Any fiction told through documents? Example in OP. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057 "2007-09-30T19:55:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/41 "2007-10-01T16:58:52Z")
There was a very funny SF short story, where computers completely controlled the justice system, such that an overdue library book (“Kidnapped”, by Rudyard Kipling) ended up with the person being executed, because the computer thought that a R. Kipling had been kidnapped. Consisted entirely of letters and missives being sent back and forth. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/42 "2007-10-01T17:09:38Z")
_The Conspiracy_ by John Hershey tells the story of [the Pisonian conspiracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisonian_conspiracy) against Emperor Nero through a series of letters written by the head of Nero’s security. Similarly, _Augustus_ by John Edward Williams tells the story of Augustus Caesar’s life through a series of fictional letters, memoirs, journal entries, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/43 "2007-10-01T18:07:11Z")
_Les Lettres persanes_ is a critique of French society written by Montesquieu in the form of letters, supposedly penned by a visiting Persian prince. While it’s mostly critique, there are a number of story lines that run throughout the letters. If I recall correctly, the letters were originally published serially in a newspaper, but I may be wrong. Closer to what the OP asked, I’d recommend _Up the Down Staircase_, which was already mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/44 "2007-10-01T18:14:42Z")
_Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret_ and the Adrian Mole triology are both both through diary entries. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/45 "2007-10-01T18:47:13Z")
I haven’t read the book yet, but I believe _Ella Minnow Pea_ is told through letters. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/46 "2007-10-02T08:25:00Z")
[QUOTE=Baker] The tale is based on the real life occurence of the disappearance of a British diplomat, Benjamin Bathurst. In 1809, in the courtyard of a German inn, he simply vanished. The letters purport to tell what happened to him, as he slipped into an alternate timeline. Read it, it’s online and very good. [/QUOTE] I think I remember this one, is it told from the point of view of officials in the alternate timeline? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/47 "2007-10-02T08:58:41Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Stoker’s Dracula is made up of journal entries, newspaper clippings, phonograph recordings and the like. Which upon reading the OP a little more closely isn’t quite what you’re looking for. Sorry. [/QUOTE] Why isn’t it what the OP is looking for? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/48 "2007-10-02T10:23:20Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] I think I remember this one, is it told from the point of view of officials in the alternate timeline? [/QUOTE] Yes it is. They are truly disturbed by this guy, because even though he can’t be whom he claims to be, he seems so rational and the documents he carries so authentic(better than the average forger’s work) I mean, they know that the\* real\* Benjamin Bathurst is governor of the Crown Colony of Georgia, and so on. The split in the timeline is so recent, about thirty years back, that there exist “doubles” in some cases of people mentioned in those obviously false papers. ---
**Author:** ![RumMunkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@RumMunkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RumMunkey)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/49 "2007-10-02T13:18:41Z")
Is it too “GD” of me to suggest The Bible? ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/50 "2007-10-02T14:02:35Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] _The Screwtape Letters_ by C S Lewis is a story told entirely by one side of an exchange of letters. [/QUOTE] So I’ll throw in “Letters from the Earth” by Mark Twain. Same kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/51 "2007-10-02T14:04:25Z")
[QUOTE=Sauron] Stephen King was mentioned earlier; his short story “Jerusalem’s Lot” (not the novel “Salem’s Lot”) is written as a series of letters, most of them from the protagonist to his friend Bones, that detail the strange happenings when the protagonist moves into his ancestral home. It’s very “Rats in the Walls”-like. [/QUOTE] His short story “Survivor Type” (surely the grossest thing ever written) is a journey of diary entries. ---
**Author:** ![NailBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NailBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NailBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/52 "2007-10-02T17:21:09Z")
Bugger! I was beaten to [Griffin and Sabine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin_and_Sabine). My husband encouraged me to read this when we were first dating, and I loved it. Haven’t read the other two, however. I seem to recall there was also a Vampire the Masquerade book that did this, with letters and poems and diary entries and such. Don’t remember the name of it though. ---
**Author:** ![Vimp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vimp/32/4186_2.png) [@Vimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vimp)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/53 "2007-10-02T17:25:20Z")
Heinrich Böll’s _Group Portrait With Lady_ is a fantastic story describing the experiences of ordinary Germans during WW2 by fleshing out the life of what would otherwise by thought of as a very ordinary woman by other people’s descriptions of her (and surrounding life). I reread it again recently, and it is really one of the best books I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/54 "2007-10-02T20:16:21Z")
[QUOTE=thirdwarning] One of my favorite Jane Austen books (and the one that often gets left out), _Lady Susan_. It’s entirely letters from the title character and the family members she interacts with. Sometimes wickedly amusing. [/QUOTE] Came in to mention this one. I loved how she could have the story develop so well through letters. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/55 "2007-10-02T22:28:52Z")
The Missing Piece by Antoine Bello is a fairly recent murder mystery about the world of competitive jigsaw-puzzle solving, and is told entirely through newspaper articles, press releases, emails, advertisments, and a few letters. They don’t appear in chronological order, so you need to put that together yourself (get it? like puzzle pieces?) It’s not bad, but I felt the mystery story suffered a little because the structure was so elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/56 "2007-10-03T20:04:16Z")
_The Ides of March_ by Thornton Wilder, with some possible exceptions. There is one spot that is an excerpt from an alleged comedy relevant to the immediate subject. It’s been years since I read it, so even that one may have been framed as a report to Caesar from his secret police. There may be two or three other spots that don’t strictly qualify as documents/letters/diaries. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/57 "2007-10-03T20:42:17Z")
I remember reading an episitlatory story back in elementary school, that was a series of letters between a writer of science fiction, and the editors of at least one of the pulps, perhaps more. It seemed that every story the author tried to sell was a word-for-word copy of something published back in the 1920s. Finally, in desperation, the author gathers the letters together, including his theory that maybe he’d been the victim of a time-travelling plagiarist, and tries to sell it as an epistlatory story. Only to be told that it was a word-for-word copy of another one of the guy’s stories. Can anyone ID this story beyond that for me? ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/58 "2007-10-03T21:21:27Z")
I remember that story, too, **OtakuLoki** , but the author and title escape me. For some reason I want to say I read it in Asimov’s magazine, although I’m also thinking of an anthology it might have appeared in. Unfortunately, I’m still unpacking my library, so I can’t check it out. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/59 "2007-10-03T21:43:24Z")
There’s [_Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0689852819/), by Jennifer Holm. It’s made of notes, IMs, receipts, bank statements, prescriptions, report cards, etc. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057/60 "2007-10-03T23:36:00Z")
The short story “The Screwfly Solution” by Alice (“Raccoona”) Sheldon tells the story through the letters between a wife and her husband. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-fiction-told-through-documents-example-in-op/421057.md?page=4)