英国小说家萨缪尔·理查森的作品是书信体小说的杰出代表,文章以他的三部小说为例讨论了书信体小说的局限性。由于书信体的特殊写作形式,使得作者难以清晰地表述其创作意图,读者在解读小说中的人物和事件时也常常陷入困境,而且导致了小说缺乏完整的故事情节。这些缺陷是书信体小说固有的,一味地去避免也会降低小说的艺术性。 The work of British novelist Samuel Richardson is an outstanding representative of epistolary novel, which discusses the limitations of epistolary novel with his three novels as an example. Due to the special form of epistolary writing, it is difficult for the author to express his creative intent clearly. The reader often gets into trouble in the interpretation of the characters and events in the novel, and leads to the lack of complete storyline in the novel. These defects are inherent in epistolary novel, blindly to avoid will also reduce the artistry of the novel.