# Your thoughts on having a prologue and epilogue for a novel

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-having-a-prologue-and-epilogue-for-a-novel/778319>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 27, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-having-a-prologue-and-epilogue-for-a-novel/778319 "2017-01-27T16:48:13Z")\
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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-having-a-prologue-and-epilogue-for-a-novel/778319/20 "2017-01-27T22:49:06Z")

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I’ve expressed my dislike of prologues before, in such old threads as [Writers, Readers: What do you feel is the purpose of a prologue?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=451164) and [Book worms: How far before you realize the book that you are reading is crap?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=539273)

> [@Writers, Readers: What do you feel is the purpose of a prologue?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-readers-what-do-you-feel-is-the-purpose-of-a-prologue/433247/10):
>
> I admit to having a strong prejudice against prologues in works of fiction. Often they’re evidence of authorial self-indulgence or laziness. Often they’re a piece of Writing (with a capital W) that doesn’t fit in the story but the author can’t bear to leave it out. They constitute an obstacle to getting into the story.
> 
> I don’t want a shadow over the rest of the narrative, and I don’t want cutesy hints of what’s to come way before it actually does or I care about anybody involved. I want to find things out when the P.O.V. characters do.  
> …  
> I like being immersed in the world of the story, not briefly dunked in one world, then pulled out and whisked away to a different one.

I don’t really have a strong feeling one way or the other about epilogues.

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