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Originally Posted by HarryT
"Dracula" was pretty much the last mainstream novel to be written in epistolary form; they were considered rather passé by the time it was published in 1897, although I'm sure there must have been the odd one after that.
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I'm not sure what counts as mainstream, but I'd include "The Screwtape Letters" as a more recent epistolary novel.
I can't think of too many classic novels in which the background is set by writing a letter at sea, though. And it seems a little impractical - where would you mail the letter.
It's always interesting to read Trollope's bits about letter writing in his novels; Trollope used to work for the post office (in Ireland, I think) and there is occasionally a level of technical detail in them that wouldn't be out of place in a modern discussion of, say, iPads. In one instance, for example, a character who wants a letter to get somewhere sooner takes it not to the nearest post-box (because that will be picked up at time X by coach, and then taken to place Y, and won't make it to the station to be put on the mail train until the next day), but to a post-box a little farther on (because that mail will be picked up and taken directly to the station and will make it to the mail train on the same day).
In another case, he explains in great detail how a letter kept missing some people who were traveling to Switzerland...even though it was forwarded after them...which left the sender with the impression that they ignored the letter, leading to plot complications.
It's very interesting from out perspective how these people regard mail as the cutting edge of communications technology. I think there was some of this going on with epistolary novels from the 1700's, too; in addition to the advantages of the literary form, there is also the fact that people now live in a world where mail is fast and reliable enough that you can actually carry on a conversation by post.