The first things you read when you open a book are...what?

November 29, 2006 2:32 PM

I'm writing a book. What's the difference between a prologue, a foreword, an introduction, and a preface?
posted by soulbarn to Writing & Language (12 answers total)

I think foreword and preface are pretty much the same as each other: An introductory passage by the author.

Introduction is the same as the above two, but not necessarily written by the author.

A prologue is usually a part of the book itself that explains "the story so far". In a novel, it is a narrative that leads into or sets up the story. It may be either in the same voice as the narration, or another voice. For instance, if the story is a recounting of something that has already happened (flashback), the prologue may be written from "present time" of the book, and the voice explains where he ended up, then as he begins to recount how he got there, the story begins.
posted by Doohickie at 2:45 PM on November 29, 2006

Googling for "prologue foreword introduction preface" reveals this link, entitled "The difference between a preface, foreword, and introduction."
posted by wemayfreeze at 2:49 PM on November 29, 2006

Another explanation here.

"A foreword is a substantial introduction or statement about a book by someone other than the author of the book. ... A preface could be described as a book’s profile. ... The introduction should be more closely connected to the book than any other component in the front matter."
posted by mattbucher at 2:53 PM on November 29, 2006

I'm going to disagree with the Honourable Mr. Doohickie.

An introduction is part of the main text; it explains the ideas behind a work, gives an idea of "why we care about this", and perhaps sketches out the development to follow.

A foreword and preface I usually think of as interchangeable, although I always assocate "foreword" with a different author and "preface" with something written by the same author. In both cases, it is independent of the main body of the text.

I do agree with him on the concept of a prologue, though.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:53 PM on November 29, 2006

From the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., regarding front matter (1.48-1.54):

"A foreword is usually a statement by someone other than the author, sometimes an eminent person whose name may be carried on the title page.... The author's own statement is called a preface....Material normally contained in an author's preface includes reasons for undertaking the work, method of research (if this has some bearing of readers' understanding of the text), acknowledgments [unless they are long, in which case they are separate], and sometimes permisssions granted for the use of previously published material.... Most introductions belong not in the front matter but at the beginning of the text, paginated with arabic numerals. Material about the book -- its origins, for example -- rather than about the subject matter should be included in the preface or the acknowledgments."

A prologue is the equivalent to the preface or introduction to a literary work.
posted by scody at 2:56 PM on November 29, 2006

And, pulling up the Chicago Manual of Style:

A foreword is usually a statement by someone other than the author, sometimes an eminent person whose name may be carried on the title page: “With a Foreword by John Quincy.” The author’s own statement about the work is usually called a preface."

...

Material normally contained in an author’s preface includes reasons for undertaking the work, method of research (if this has some bearing on readers’ understanding of the text), acknowledgments, and sometimes permissions granted for the use of previously published material.

...

Most introductions belong not in the front matter but at the beginning of the text, paginated with arabic numerals (see 1.60). Material about the book—its origins, for example—rather than about the subject matter should be included in the preface or in the acknowledgments (see 1.49–52).

posted by Johnny Assay at 2:57 PM on November 29, 2006

Ah, crap.
posted by Johnny Assay at 2:58 PM on November 29, 2006

gah, hit "post" too soon!

So, in other words, the preface and the foreword are about the book; what distinguishes them is mainly who writes them (i.e., the author or someone else). The introduction, by contrast, is about the subject matter of the book.
posted by scody at 3:00 PM on November 29, 2006

jinx, Johnny!
posted by scody at 3:01 PM on November 29, 2006

Ann Landers writes*: Don't forget epigraph!
*I crack myself up.
posted by rob511 at 3:06 PM on November 29, 2006

I'm going to disagree with the Honourable Mr. Doohickie.

Dammit, Johnny, if I screwed up, just flame me!!!

Everyone else does!
posted by Doohickie at 7:24 PM on November 29, 2006

H.W.Fowler in his usual entertaining way points out that "F(oreword) is a word invented in the 19th C as a saxonism by anti-latinists, and caught up as a VOGUE word by the people who love a new name for an old thing. P(reface) has a 500 year history behind it in English, and, far from being antiquated, is still the name for the thing. . . (forweword is) the particular kind of preface that is supplied by some distinguished person for a book written by someone who feels the need of a sponsor"
posted by Neiltupper at 7:40 PM on November 29, 2006