How Do You Feel About Prologues & Epilogues? (8/4/24)

[Marc]

What are your feeling about prologues? And epilogues? Do you always read them? Do you have a gut reaction when you see a book has them? Does length of them matter (prior to reading them)? Do you think of them the same or entirely differently?

[Ginny]

I have just finished Lives of Girls and Women, and the epilogue was fascinating. It provided background for the entire novel (and yes, it is a novel), illuminating the main character, and making outcome of the last story, Baptism, believable. In general, I like them. In a good novel, they will be outside the main story, perhaps answering questions, setting the stage, or providing a sense of completion.

[Hugh]

It depends on the author and the nature of the book. I am definitely not a fan of the kind of epilogue or final chapter that goes through the cast character by character summarising their futures, but a short epilogue that changes ones perspective can be very effective, as can framing devices that explain the narrator's knowledge or place in the main story.

[Whitney]

I had no idea people skipped prologues or epilogues. If they are unnecessary, why would the author have included them?

[Hester]

I just see them as part of the work , wrapping round it for a reason the author feels is vital . For me a good prologue can hang in my mind as I'm reading in a way a first chapter doesn't , like a refrain ....We had a novel epilogue (of sorts) with Graeme Macrae Burnet recently that was playful and added to the conceit ..

[Robert]

I like it when a prologue features the main character in a situation and the reader works toward it rather than an introduction to an event which will appear in the book.

I hate epilogues that work as a ‘where are they now’ roll call sort of thing.

[Franky]

I read part of an epilogue or prologue to see if it seems to have relevance or is important enough to read for the understanding of the novel. If it seems unnecessary, I skip it. I think I'm more of a fan of introductions/afterwards, though, because these give a general overview and context for the book written.

[Marc]

Whitney wrote: "I had no idea people skipped prologues or epilogues. If they are unnecessary, why would the author have included them?"

Ha! I'm almost hard-wired to be incapable of skipping them. I tend to bristle if they get too long but don't have strong feelings about them, in general. Like many of you, I dislike the wrap-it-in-a-bow summary-type epilogues. Now that I think about it, I'd say I'm more open to prologues than I am to epilogues.

[Whitney]

Marc wrote: "Whitney wrote: "I had no idea people skipped prologues or epilogues. If they are unnecessary, why would the author have included them?"

Ha! I'm almost hard-wired to be incapable of skipping them. ..."

Coincidentally, I just watched the conversation with Adjei-Brenyah that you posted in the Chain-Gang All-Stars. He asked the people who skipped prologues if they started listening to songs 47 seconds in.