Have you ever found an old box of letters in an attic or stumbled upon a dusty journal at a flea market? There is something incredibly intimate about reading words meant for someone else’s eyes. It feels like whispering secrets across time. Historical fiction authors know this feeling well, and they often use letters and diaries to pull readers straight into the past. Instead of just telling us what happened in 1920 or 1865, they let us read the characters' own thoughts, scribbled in the moment. This storytelling technique, sometimes called the "epistolary" style, does more than just move the plot forward—it creates emotional resonance and authenticity. Many acclaimed novels, such as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and The Color Purple by Alice Walker, use letters and diaries to immerse readers deeply in their historical settings.

Creating a Sense of Authenticity

One of the biggest challenges in writing historical fiction is making the past feel real. An author can describe the clothes people wore or the food they ate, but capturing the voice of the past is much harder. This is where letters and diaries shine, and why they are so effective in books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Set during and after World War II, the novel is told entirely through correspondence between the characters. Their distinct writing styles, references to rationing, and first-hand accounts of wartime life make the historical period come alive in a way that exposition simply cannot.

Another classic example is 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which uses real letters exchanged between an American writer and a London bookseller from 1949 onward. The tone, language, and specific worries of the era—like shortages and postwar recovery—are woven seamlessly into every letter, grounding the reader in the time and place.

Deepening Character Development

While standard narration often tells us what a character does or says, a diary tells us what they are afraid to say out loud. Consider The Color Purple by Alice Walker, which is structured as a series of letters from Celie to God and to her sister, Nettie. Through this private correspondence, Celie reveals her deepest fears, hopes, and gradual growth from an oppressed young woman to someone who finds her own voice and strength. The diary and letter entries expose vulnerabilities and create a personal connection that third-person narration could not achieve.

In Dracula by Bram Stoker, the story unfolds through journal entries, letters, newspaper articles, and ship logs of various characters. This multifaceted point of view allows readers to access private thoughts, anxieties, and personalities, layering the suspense and making the terror more immediate as each character struggles to understand what is happening around them.

Bridging the Gap Between Past and Present

History can sometimes feel distant and abstract, but stories like The Diary of Anne Frank, though technically nonfiction, have inspired countless historical novels to use journals as emotional lifelines. In fiction, The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old by Hendrik Groen employs diary entries to reveal not only day-to-day details of life in a care home but also universal emotions of hope, loneliness, and the human drive for dignity.

Atonement by Ian McEwan, while not fully epistolary, powerfully weaves in letters and other documents to show how misunderstandings and miscommunications can change lives—bridging generations and showing how the past continues to affect the present.

Uncovering Hidden Voices

History books are often written by the winners—usually powerful men. But historical fiction often seeks to tell the stories of those who were silenced or overlooked, such as women, servants, or minorities. Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole tells the story of a Scottish poet and an American fan through their correspondence before, during, and after World War I, giving voices to those often absent from historical record. The epistolary format exposes everyday struggles, aspirations, and love that might have otherwise gone untold.

In Possession by A.S. Byatt, letters and diary entries span two centuries, uncovering not only romantic secrets between poets in the Victorian era but also the investigative journey of modern scholars. These documents become tools for unearthing long-buried stories, showing that history is alive in the voices we rediscover.

Pacing and Suspense

Beyond emotion and character, letters and diaries are excellent tools for pacing a story. Dracula builds tension with diary entries and urgent letters that let the reader experience danger in real time. Likewise, Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce relies on the protagonist's letters to a wartime advice column, allowing us to track her growing courage and the ever-mounting risks of her world as World War II intensifies.

Authors often use alternating timelines connected by old letters or journals, as in The Lake House by Kate Morton, where a present-day detective unravels the mysteries of a family’s past through a collection of found documents. The suspense is amplified by discoveries and the realization that gaps or lost letters might hold the answers to the novel’s central mystery.

Letters and diaries are far more than just props in historical fiction. They are the heartbeat of the genre, as seen in novels like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 84, Charing Cross Road, The Color Purple, and Dracula. These personal documents allow us to step directly into the shoes of people who lived centuries ago, experiencing history as their private, often unfiltered truths. Authors use them to deliver the voices, secrets, pain, and joy of their characters—reminding us that while customs and fashions change, the heart seldom does. So the next time you pick up a historical novel, pay close attention to those letters and diary entries—they are often where the truest parts of the story hide.