Epigraph (literature) 1

Epigraph (literature)Not to be confused with epitaph, epigram, or epithet.

Facsimile of the original title page forWilliam Congreve's The Way of the

World published in 1700, on which theepigraph from Horace's Satires can be

seen in the bottom quarter.

In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at thebeginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface,as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literarycanon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context.

Examples

Epigraph and dedication page, The WasteLand

• The long quotation from Dante's Inferno that prefaces T. S. Eliot's TheLove Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is part of a speech by one of the damned inDante's Hell. Linking it to the monologue which forms Eliot's poem adds acomment and a dimension to Prufrock's confession. The epigraph to Eliot'sGerontion is a quotation from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Eliot'sThe Hollow Men uses the line "Mistah Kurtz, he dead" from JosephConrad's Heart of Darkness as one of its two epigraphs.

• JRR Tolkien's epigraph describing the Twenty Rings of Power at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings includesthe verse of the One Ring (Ash Nazg Durbatulûk), which can be seen within the complete epigraph or on its own.

• The epigraph to Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov is John 12:24. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except acorn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

• The epigraphs to the preamble of Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual (La Vie mode d'emploi) and to the bookas a whole warn the reader that tricks are going to be played and that all will not be what it seems.

Epigraph (literature) 2

Epigraph, consisting of an excerpt fromthe book itself, William Morris's The

House of the Wolfings

• Jack London uses the first stanza of John Myers O'Hara's poem "Atavism"as the epigraph to The Call of the Wild.

• As an epigraph to The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway famously quotesGertrude Stein, "You are all a lost generation."

• The epigraph to E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime quotes Scott Joplin'sinstructions to those who play his music, "Do not play this piece fast. It isnever right to play Ragtime fast." This stands in contrast to the acceleratingpace of American society at the turn of the 20th century.

• A Samuel Johnson quote is used as an epigraph in Hunter S. Thompson'snovel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "He who makes a beast of himselfgets rid of the pain of being a man."

• Stephen King uses many epigraphs in his writing, usually to mark the beginning of another section in the novel.An unusual example is The Stand where he uses lyrics from certain songs to express the metaphor used in aparticular part.

• As the epigraph to The Sum of All Fears, Tom Clancy[1] quotes Winston Churchill in the context ofthermonuclear war:

Why, you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman or the most audacious soldier, putthem at a table together - what do you get? The sum of their fears.

Fictional quotationsSome authors use fictional quotations that purport to be related to the fiction of the work itself. For example, StephenKing's The Dark Half has epigraphs taken from the fictitious novels written by the protagonist; Jasper Fforde's TheEyre Affair has quotations from supposedly future works about the action of the story; John Green's The Fault in OurStars has a quotation from a fictitious novel, An Imperial Affliction, which features prominently as a part of the story.F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby opens with a poem entitled "Then Wear the Gold Hat," purportedly written byThomas Parke D'Invilliers. D'Invilliers is a character in Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise and it shouldalso be noted that, aside from its role as a tie-in to the Fitzgerald canon, the poem elucidates one of the major themesof the work. This cliché is parodied by Diana Wynne Jones in The Tough Guide To Fantasyland.Dean Koontz' The Book of Counted Sorrows began as a fictional book of poetry from which Koontz would "quote"when no suitable existing option was available; Koontz simply wrote all these epigraphs himself. Many fans, ratherthan realizing the work was Koontz' own invention, apparently believed it was a real, but rare, volume; Koontz latercollected the existing verse into an actual book.Some science fiction works (Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Frank Herbert's Dune series are examples) usequotations from an imagined future history of the period of their story. This can be seen as a way of constructingauthenticity for a work of the imagination.The film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby opens with a fictional quotation from the real historical figureEleanor Roosevelt, using the epigraph to comedic effect.

Epigraph (literature) 3

Bibliography• John Barth The Friday Book (1984) pp.xvii-xviii

External links• Epigraphic [2]: an ever-growing, searchable collection of literary epigraphs

References[1][1] Tom Clancy, The Sum of All Fears, 1991, Harper Collins Publishing, London[2] http:/ / epigraphic. tumblr. com

Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsEpigraph (literature)  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=604046278  Contributors: Abajo estaba el pez, Actarus Prince d'Euphor, AlainV, Andrea.gf, B7T, BMF81,Barbarossa359, Bensin, Beto, Brambleberry of RiverClan, Bridesmill, Charles Matthews, DarkFalls, DavidA, DougsTech, Elendil's Heir, Elonka, Eudaimonia22, Forbsey, Frencheigh, Gimboid,Graymornings, Greatgavini, Grinanbarrett181, IronGargoyle, Itsalleasy, JSquish, JackHeslop91, Jackol, Jcbarr, Jerome Charles Potts, Jjtimbrell, Johnkarp, Jon Awbrey, JorgeGG, LarRan, Lotje,Lowellian, Matthew Proctor, Mercurywoodrose, Mtmelendez, Myztikgohan, Nick UA, Nicolasdz, NitemareDragon, Oleg Alexandrov, Orgone, Paul Barlow, Rigadoun, Robinoke, Simonides,TAnthony, Tarquin, Taw22, The Stick Man, Tobias Bergemann, Wetman, Wykypydya, Xensyria, 92 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsImage:Way of the World cover (Congreve, 1700).jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Way_of_the_World_cover_(Congreve,_1700).jpg  License: Public Domain Contributors: Original uploader was Robinoke at en.wikipediaFile:TheWasteLandEpigraph.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:TheWasteLandEpigraph.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: WikiParkerFile:House of the Wolfings Title Page 1890.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:House_of_the_Wolfings_Title_Page_1890.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors:Achird, Mercurywoodrose, PKM

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