"Why Epistolaries?"

A friend of mine recently asked:  "why epistolaries?  they remind me of stodgy old books from the 1700's." He wasn't criticizing my choice of story telling devices because he's mean or dismissive, epistolary stories just aren't what he prefers to read (he likes grand, sweeping, world changing epics which tend to be told in the third person point of view).  I, on the other hand, like "stodgy old books" though I prefer the ones from the 1800's and I also really enjoy epistolary novels, so the idea of writing an epistolary set in an imagined version of the 1800's appeals to me.

To be fair to my friend, most books aren't written in the epistolary style, probably because most stories don't lend themselves to being told that way.  I mean, you could tell the story in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan or Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin as a series of letters and journal entries, but they would be much longer and significantly more cumbersome--and any story that's already more than 1000 pages before it's half way done doesn't need to be any longer or more cumbersome.  Also, consider the stories in the Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne McCaffery which simply could not have been told in an epistolary style without completely changing the stories into something entirely different.  Given that the entire culture of Pern relies on oral histories and literacy is rare rather than universal, to change those underlying facts would alter the setting in unpredictable ways.

In contrast, there are stories that simply could not be told in any other way.  Well, I suppose The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows could have been told in a non-epistolary style, but it would have lost a certain degree of intimacy and charm that made it engaging.  Of course, there's also Sorcery and Cecelia or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C. Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer, which wasn't originally a novel so much as a game between friends.  That book really could not have been written in any way besides the epistolary style.

None of which actually explains why I'm writing in the epistolary style.  To be honest, when I first considered telling this story it had very little resemblance to what it is now.  Originally, it was set in the modern day, Claire and Adele didn't exist, and the whole thing was just a bit of a side character's background that may or may not have ever come up.  At first, I thought that it would be sufficient that I knew the character's story and if it came up in conversation or flash back as part of someone else's story then that would be enough.  The more I thought about it though, the more I felt like this character's story really needed to be told.  But the more I tried to write it, the more that I felt like it didn't quite feel right.  So I put it aside for a while and let it stew in the back of my consciousness.  Which is probably where it would have stayed until the end of my days, except that a friend of mine got me involved in an epistolary game set in an alternate fantasy Europe and something clicked in my head.  It involved an entire revision of what I had previously considered to be firmly established conditions and the creation of new characters who could serve as a supporting cast.  Thinking about it now, while I could tell the story in some other style, I don't think it would be as effective.

Besides, then I would have to give up Adele and Claire, and I've grown sort of attached to them too.