Both the prologue and epilogue are devices that help explain
a complicated story.
A prologue appears at the beginning of a novel, and serves
as an introduction to tell what has gone on before. An epilogue appears at the end of the novel
and tells what happened years after the story has ended.
It is not necessary to have both a prologue and an
epilogue. Many books have a prologue
with no epilogue. Others have both. However, an epilogue is seldom used without
a prologue.
The
Prologue
A prologue is an introduction that is not quite a chapter.
It is set apart from the rest of the book either in time or in viewpoint. Its purpose is to provide necessary backstory
for the novel which cannot be told in any other way.
A prologue may be used for dramatic effect. A common use of the prologue in a thriller is
to have the prologue either be in the villain’s viewpoint, or to start the
story with a murder scene or crime in progress, an evil face peering into a
window, or someone hearing the footsteps of a stalker. Then the novel begins
with the detective or main character’s viewpoint.
The
Epilogue-“And they Lived Happily Ever After…
An epilogue is a short piece tagged on to the ending that is usually not quite as long as a chapter. Its
purpose is to tell what happened long after the story has ended. Often, it will tell whether the main
characters married, had children, moved to a farm in the country.
An epilogue is not necessary unless you have a novel
that spans a long period of time or have an event such as a birth or a wedding
that is not covered by the ending.
Often, in a historical romance, the book will end with a kiss, and the
epilogue might start seven year after and tell that the couple married and had
three or four children and lived to ripe old ages. Facts the reader might want to know, but that
take place far after the ending of the story.
Use of a Prologue and Epilogue to Indicate a
Span of Time not Covered in the Novel
In Mary Higgins Clark’s I
Heard that Song Before, the prologue introduces the main character as a
little girl who overhears a cryptic conversation in a hidden chapel on the
Carrington Estates, of which her father is landscaper. The first chapter begins with the same character
as a grown woman. She returns and falls
in love with Peter Carrington, but what she overheard that night might be a
clue to the murders her new husband has been accused of. An epilogue tells the state of affairs a year
later.
Use
of a Prologue and Epilogue to Span Years
of History
In a novel that spans years or decades, a prologue might
serve the purpose of explaining events pertinent to the plot that went on
before the novel begins. For example, Robert Goddard’s historical suspense novel
Name to a Face has both a prologue
and an epilogue. The prologue begin at
an earlier time than the story takes place
Godfrey Schillingstone has discovered a mysterious secret he is about to
reveal to the world, one that will bring him great academic fame. But before he can show what his discovery, he
is murdered.
The actual first chapter begins with another character, Tim
Harding, who in modern times finds Schillingstone’s discovery has some bearing
on a mysery in the present.
Here is a sampling of books with prologues and epilogues.
Dead Souls Ian
Rankin (prologue)
The Associate Philip Margolin (prologue)
I Heard that Song Before Mary Higgins Clark (prologue and epilogue)
Name to a Face Robert Goddard (prologue and epilogue)
Cruel and Unusual
Patricia Cornwell (prologue and epilogue)
