Bellman wrote a total of 82 Fredman's Epistles, starting in 1768.
The overall theme of the Epistles is, on the surface, drinking, and its effects, but the Epistles are very far from being drinking songs.
Instead, they are a diverse collection of songs, often telling stories.
They are sometimes romantically pastoral, sometimes serious, even mournful, but always dramatic, full of life.
Together, they "paint in words and music a canvas of their age".
They are populated by a lengthy cast of characters, and set firmly in Bellman's time and place, eighteenth century Stockholm, but are simultaneously decorated, for romantic or humorous effect, in Rococo style.
As a result, listeners are confronted with both striking realism and classical imagery.
Within these general themes, the Epistles follow no discernible pattern, and do not join together to tell any single story.
Their tunes, too, are borrowed from a variety of sources, often French.
The words that are fitted to the tunes are often in parodic contrast to their original themes, very likely achieving humorous effects on their eighteenth-century audiences.
Fredman's Epistles are thus not easy to categorise, and the critic Johan Henric Kellgren stated that Bellman's songs "had no model and can have no successors".

Bellman was a skilful and entertaining performer of his songs, accompanying himself on the cittern, putting on different voices, and imitating the sounds made by a crowd of people.
He is unusual, even unique, among major poets in that almost all of his work was "conceived to music".
His achievement has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hogarth.
Bellman, however, was no great playwright, nor a major classical composer.
His biographer, Paul Britten Austin, suggests that the comparison with Hogarth is closer to the mark.
Bellman had a gift for using elegant classical references in comic contrast to the sordid realities of drinking and prostitution.
The way he does this, at once regretting and celebrating these excesses in song, achieves something of what Hogarth achieved in engravings and paint.
The art historian Axel Romdahl describes Bellman's sensibility as if he had been a painter: "An unusual swiftness of apprehension, both optical and aural, must have distinguished him."
Britten Austin agrees with this, noting that "When [Bellman's] words and music have faded into silence it is the visual image which remains."
Jan Sjåvik comments in the Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature and Theater that "Bellman's achievement consists in taking this humble and unrecognized literary form [the drinking song] and raising it to a genre that became impossible to ignore, while in the process creating songs and characters that have become an indispensable part of Sweden's literary and cultural heritage."
Bellman wrote a total of 82 Fredman's Epistles, starting in 1768. The overall theme of the Epistles is, on the surface, drinking, and its effects, but the Epistles are very far from being drinking songs. Instead, they are a diverse collection of songs, often telling stories. They are sometimes romantically pastoral, sometimes serious, even mournful, but always dramatic, full of life. Together, they "paint in words and music a canvas of their age". They are populated by a lengthy cast of characters, and set firmly in Bellman's time and place, eighteenth century Stockholm, but are simultaneously decorated, for romantic or humorous effect, in Rococo style. As a result, listeners are confronted with both striking realism and classical imagery. Within these general themes, the Epistles follow no discernible pattern, and do not join together to tell any single story. Their tunes, too, are borrowed from a variety of sources, often French. The words that are fitted to the tunes are often in parodic contrast to their original themes, very likely achieving humorous effects on their eighteenth-century audiences. Fredman's Epistles are thus not easy to categorise, and the critic Johan Henric Kellgren stated that Bellman's songs "had no model and can have no successors".
Bellman was a skilful and entertaining performer of his songs, accompanying himself on the cittern, putting on different voices, and imitating the sounds made by a crowd of people. He is unusual, even unique, among major poets in that almost all of his work was "conceived to music". His achievement has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hogarth. Bellman, however, was no great playwright, nor a major classical composer. His biographer, Paul Britten Austin, suggests that the comparison with Hogarth is closer to the mark. Bellman had a gift for using elegant classical references in comic contrast to the sordid realities of drinking and prostitution. The way he does this, at once regretting and celebrating these excesses in song, achieves something of what Hogarth achieved in engravings and paint. The art historian Axel Romdahl describes Bellman's sensibility as if he had been a painter: "An unusual swiftness of apprehension, both optical and aural, must have distinguished him." Britten Austin agrees with this, noting that "When [Bellman's] words and music have faded into silence it is the visual image which remains." Jan Sjåvik comments in the Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature and Theater that "Bellman's achievement consists in taking this humble and unrecognized literary form [the drinking song] and raising it to a genre that became impossible to ignore, while in the process creating songs and characters that have become an indispensable part of Sweden's literary and cultural heritage."
Fredmans epistlar