In her earliest work, Jane Austen delightfully skewers the scheming ways of high society. It follows Lady Susan, a widow hell-bent on getting her daughter into an advantageous marriage—as well as securing one for herself. With narration by Laurelle Westaway, David Thorn, and Susan McCarthy, you’ll hear their affairs, desires, and annoyances with the societal roles and mores the characters are dealing with.

When Gilbert Markham meets Helen Graham, he is immediately compelled to write to his friend about her mysterious nature. After all, Helen arrived at Wildfell Hall with her son and a servant and immediately broke convention by pursuing a creative career, painting and selling her own artwork. In this dual-narration recording of Anne Brontë's classic, Alex Jennings reads Gilbert’s letters about his fascination with Helen while Jenny Agutter reveals Helen’s internal struggles through her diary entries.

The horror classic Dracula is perhaps one of the most famous epistolary works in literary history. Even if you’ve read the novel a thousand times over, you won’t want to miss this full-cast production from Audible. Letters, diary entries, and ship captain’s logs are enlivened by immersive performances from the likes of Tim Curry, Alan Cumming, and Katherine Kellgren, creating a mounting sense of dread as an unknown horror travels from Transylvania to England.

Before the movie, the musical, and the movie-musical came the groundbreaking book. In this edition of The Color Purple, author Alice Walker herself narrates the story of Celie, forced to leave her home in Georgia and marry a man she barely knows. Celie processes her struggles through letters to God. She misses her sister Nettie, who’s left for missionary work in Africa. Celie finds light in her life through the guidance of other women: Shug, a rowdy jazz singer, and Sophia, her fiercely independent daughter-in-law.

Beyond his beloved Chronicles of Narnia series, C.S. Lewis was a scholar with a sharp pen, as demonstrated in this satirical tale of Christian theology. Screwtape, a senior devil, writes a series of letters to his junior tempter Wormwood about how to undermine the teaching of God and secure the unnamed soul for damnation. Alongside directions about how to tempt "the Patient," Screwtape—voiced exquisitely by Ralph Cosham—meditates on the teachings of the Bible.

In this essential young adult novel, 15-year-old Charlie decides to write a series of letters chronicling his freshman year of high school. The letters are addressed “Dear Friend,” and though we don’t know if anyone is on the receiving end, we do know Charlie is struggling, grieving both his friend and his aunt. Though he self-identifies as a wallflower, Charlie starts to make friends and have more teenage experiences with his social circle. Noah Galvin (The Real O'Neals; Theater Camp) gives voice to Charlie’s feelings, bringing him to vividly realized life.

As one of the few people suffering from a rare condition called severe combined immunodeficiency, Maddy is stuck inside, watching the world pass her by. She writes in her diary and deals with her treatments—but when a boy named Olly moves in next door with his family, her regular routine totally falls apart and she reconsiders what it means to live fully in the world. Bahni Turpin and Robbie Daymond give voice to Maddy and Olly as they fall in love, first over email and then in person.

No matter the era in which they’re written, a 14-year-old girl’s diary will reflect some common struggles: annoying parents, problems with friends, and the ennui of boredom. Catherine is writing in the year 1290, and she has plenty of complaints about being the only daughter of her family—and all the expectations that accompany being a young woman of the time. As her father works diligently to marry her off, Catherine works just as hard to kill the interest of every suitor who crosses her path.

On opposite sides of an endless war across time and space, agents Red and Blue fall in love. Through a series of coded letters narrated by Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller, the pair initially begins their correspondence mocking each other and their failure to stop the other’s mission. But that taunting leads to flirtation, and before long, they begin to fall in love. When their commanders learn of their relationship, Red and Blue will have to use all their skills to escape retribution.

Susanna Clarke's spellbinding story, made all the more mesmerizing by Chiwetel Ejiofor’s exquisite performance, is a labyrinthine listen that you won't want to end. This award-winning novel is constructed through title character Piranesi’s daily journal entries. Piranesi wanders seemingly endless halls with no easily recognizable landmarks. One day, the Other arrives and asks him to help find the “Great and Secret Knowledge” hidden in the house.

At the dawn of the 20th century in London, Vanessa Bell is ready to take on the world as a painter. Through her diary, she documents the lives of her supremely talented siblings, including writer Virginia Woolf, and their interactions with the Bloomsbury Group (a collective of writers, artists, and intellectuals). But Virginia’s creative genius is matched by her struggles, and Vanessa has to decide if her future will be about caring for her family or pursuing her passions. This work of biographical fiction is brought to life by a full cast, enlivening characters both fictional and based on real historical figures.

After the Second World War, a writer seeks inspiration. A new possible book subject falls into Juliet Ashton’s lap when she receives a letter from a representative of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Juliet corresponds with the society’s members and learns that they started the group when German soldiers occupying Guernsey found them breaking curfew. As Juliet exchanges letters with the distinctive members, narrated by a full cast, she gets increasingly fascinated, and travels to Guernsey to find out more, thus changing her life forever.

Mazie Gordon-Phillips was a real woman who helped poor and homeless people on the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the Great Depression. A fictional diary of Mazie’s imagines what kind of motivation and inspiration she may have had. Along with interviews and accounts of who Mazie could have been, Tavia Gilbert narrates the rich history (real and imagined) of an underrecognized NYC icon.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous explores a more recent moment in history, probing the generational impact of the Vietnam War. Little Dog has a lot to get off his chest, so he writes a letter. Little Dog’s grandmother had a relationship with an American soldier in Vietnam and gave birth to his mother, Rose. They fled and later raised Little Dog in Connecticut, but life was still hard. Through his long letter, narrated by the author, Ocean Vuong, Little Dog tries to understand the lasting echo of the past, uncovering what happened to everyone he loves over the years and how he can begin to move forward.

Work email probably isn’t the best place to discuss all your deepest thoughts, but Beth and Jennifer keep up their correspondence at the newspaper they work for—even after they learn they could be monitored. The new IT worker, Lincoln, quickly finds humor and heart in their email and finds himself intrigued and increasingly allured by Beth. But a problem arises when Lincoln tries to work out how he can introduce himself to the woman he’s already fallen in love with.

When Nao’s family moves back to Tokyo from Northern California, she can’t even pretend to be happy. As her life with her parents unravels and she fails to assimilate to life in Japan, she decides to write a diary and document the life of her great-grandmother. In spending time with her great-grandmother, Nao is drawn into her fascinating family history. Years later, a woman named Ruth discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox when sorting through artifacts that washed ashore—and inside that lunchbox lies a rather compelling diary.

On the first night of their marriage, Roy and Celestial’s lives change forever. Accused of a crime he did not commit, Roy is sentenced to prison for 12 years. Roy and Celestial, performed by Sean Crisden and Eisa Davis, initially stay in touch through letters, but how do you keep a marriage intact when you can’t be together?

Frida lives in Paris and sees a future for herself as a top-tier war journalist. After requesting a book from a shop in Seattle, the letter she receives back from Kate strikes up a friendship. Kelsey Jaffer and Ines del Castillo narrate Kate and Frida’s young lives and their hopes for the future in their letters, which are a constant source of connection, growth, and joy.

When six students join a new multimedia-art master’s program at the Royal Hastings University, they’re in for more than just a few assignments. Gela Nathaniel is working to make the program as good as it can be, but the students are a constant thorn in her side. When an examiner starts looking at the students’ work to grade their final papers, he becomes convinced someone is in grave danger. He goes deeper into assignments, texts, and emails to figure it out. The full-cast narration keeps you guessing about what happened and who did it.