There's been some discussion on Proglues in the past, mainly of the 'do you love or hate them?' variety.
I like Prologues and always read them. But I've come across a couple of novels lately with Prologues which, when read, turn out to be backgrounds or settings which are unrelated to the story itself. Now to me, these are Forewords, not Prologues, since the latter should form some part of the storyline.
Anyone else feel the same way?
Hello Jonathan,
Yes, I do agree with you. I must admit, the area for me is slightly confusing. So for example, is there a difference between an introduction and a prologue and when is it appropriate to use either instead of diving in to chapter 1.
I always imagine a foreword would be used to give some information which is not part of the novel but which makes it easier to understand some of the events to follow perhaps giving some of the context without being part of it. However, I have read some novels where the foreword seems to be unrelated to the novel in any way.
I tend to think of the prologue as a way to start before getting in to Chapter 1 perhapse a way to get some information in that would need to be known but does not easily fit in an early chapter.