The aim of the project is to investigate the history of the epistolary novel in Sweden, its specific characteristics, and the importance of contemporary epistolary theory as for the rise of the Swedish novel. The study starts off with an overview of the early Swedish epistolary fiction and its relation to the conventions of letter writing of the time. At the same time the letter and its social and cultural importance during the 18th and the early 19th century is discussed. The main part of the study consists of analysis of the narrative technique and its thematic effects in different types of Swedish epistolary novels from 1770 to 1870. The specific characteristics of the Swedish epistolary novel is analysed, showing how it expresses a new view of life and humanity that may be due to those changes taking place in the European societies during this period. The study treats well-known authors, e.g. Carl Jonas Love Almqvist and Fredrika Bremer, as well as previously unstudied text by less known writers such as Hans Bergeström, Per Adolf Granberg, Wilhelmina Ståhlberg, Christina Charlotta Berger, Fredrika Wilhelmina Carstein and Marie Sophie Schwartz. Finally the specific characteristics of the Swedish epistolary novel in relation to the French, English and German epistolary fiction of the time are discussed.