Facsimile of the original title page for William Congreve's The Way of the World published in 1700, on which the epigraph can be seen in the bottom quarter. William Congreve ( 24 January 1670 &ndash 19 January 1729) was an English Playwright and Poet. The Way of the World is a play written by British Playwright William Congreve.

In literature, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter For the Wikipedia quotation templates see:CategoryQuotation templates. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context. The long quotation from Dante's Inferno that prefaces T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is part of a speech by one of the damned animals in Dante's Hell. The Divine Comedy Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock is the 1915 poem that marked the start of T Linking it to the monologue which forms Eliot's poem adds a comment and a dimension to Prufrock's confession. The epigraph to Eliot's Gerontion is a quotation from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. William Shakespeare ( baptised Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604

The epigraphs to the preamble of Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual (La Vie mode d'emploi) and to the book as a whole warn the reader that tricks are going to be played and that all will not be what it seems. Georges Perec ( 7 March 1936 &ndash 3 March 1982) was a highly-regarded French Life A User's Manual (the original title is La Vie mode d'emploi) is Georges Perec 's most famous Novel, published in 1978

The epigraph to E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime quotes Scott Joplin's instructions to those who play his music, "Do not play this piece fast. Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (born January 6, 1931, New York New York) is an American Author whose critically acclaimed and award winning fiction Ragtime (alternately spelled Rag-time) is an American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918 Scott Joplin (between June 1867 and January 1868 &ndash April 1 1917 was an American musician and Composer of Ragtime music It is never right to play Ragtime fast. " This stands in contrast to the accelerating pace of American society at the turn of the 20th century.

Some authors use fictional quotations that purport to be related to the fiction of the work itself. For example, Stephen King's Misery has epigraphs taken from the fictitious novels written by the protagonist; Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair has quotations from supposedly future works about the action of the story. Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American Author, Screenwriter, Musician, Columnist, Misery is a Horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1987. Plot summary Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series Jasper Fforde (born in London on 11 January, 1961) is an English Novelist. The Eyre Affair, published in 2001, is the first novel published by Jasper Fforde. Some science fiction authors (Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and Frank Herbert's Dune series are examples) are fond of using quotations from an imagined future history of the period of their story. Isaac Asimov (c January 2 1920 &ndash April 6 1992 ˈaɪzək ˈæzɪmʌv originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as, was a Russian The Foundation Series is an epic Science fiction series written over a span of forty-four years by Isaac Asimov. Franklin Patrick Herbert Jr ( October 8 1920 &ndash February 11 1986) was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American The Dune universe, or Duniverse, is the political, scientific, and social fictional setting of author Frank This can be seen as a way of claiming authenticity for a work of the imagination.

See also

• Prologue

Bibliography

• John Barth The Friday Book (1984) pp. Prologue ( Greek πρόλογος prologos, from προ~ pro~ - fore~, and lógos word) or prolog, is a prefatory John Simmons Barth (born May 27 1930 is an American novelist and short-story writer known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work xvii-xviii