literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, an epigraph is a phrase,

quotation A quotation is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written. In oral speech, it is the representation of an utterance (i.e. of something that a speaker actually said) that is introduced by ...

, or

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

that is set at the beginning of a document, monograph or section thereof. The epigraph may serve as a preface to the work; as a summary; as a counter-example; or as a link from the work to a wider

literary canon The term canon derives from the Greek (), meaning "rule", and thence via Latin and Old French into English. The concept in English usage is very broad: in a general sense it refers to being one (adjectival) or a group (noun) of official, authent ...

, with the purpose of either inviting comparison or enlisting a conventional context. A book may have an overall

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

that is part of the

front matter Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though ...

, or one for each chapter.

Examples

* As the epigraph to '' The Sum of All Fears'',

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...

quotes

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

in the context of

thermonuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear wa ...

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

* The long quotation from

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

's ''

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

'' that prefaces T. S. Eliot's "

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first publishe ...

" is part of a speech by one of the damned in Dante's Hell. * The epigraph to

E. L. Doctorow Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known for his works of historical fiction. He wrote twelve novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama. They included ...

's ''

Ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

'' quotes Scott Joplin's instructions to those who play his music, "Do not play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast." *The epigraph to

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

's ''

The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...

'' is John 12:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." *The epigraph to Eliot's ''Gerontion'' is a quotation from

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604, according to available records. It was published in the ''First Folio'' of 1623. The play's plot features its ...

''. *Eliot's "

The Hollow Men "The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post–World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles (which Eliot despised: compare "Ge ...

" uses the line "Mistah Kurtz, he dead" from

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

's ''

Heart of Darkness ''Heart of Darkness'' (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgian company in the African interior. The novel ...

'' as one of its two epigraphs. * As an epigraph to ''

The Sun Also Rises ''The Sun Also Rises'' is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the b ...

'',

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

quotes

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

, "You are all a lost generation." * The epigraph to

Theodore Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern p ...

's '' Altneuland'' is "If you will it, it is no dream..." which became a slogan of the Zionist movement. *

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (; 25 August 17679 Thermidor, Year II 8 July 1794, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the Fr ...

's line "Nobody can rule guiltlessly" appears before chapter one in

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler, (, ; ; hu, Kösztler Artúr; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was a Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler join ...

's 1940 anti-totalitarian novel ''

Darkness at Noon ''Darkness at Noon'' (german: link=no, Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by Hungarian-born novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best known work, it is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried f ...

''. * A

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

quotation serves as an epigraph in Hunter S. Thompson's novel ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'': "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." *

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

uses many epigraphs in his writing, usually to mark the beginning of another section in a novel. An unusual example is ''

The Stand ''The Stand'' is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few survivin ...

'' wherein he uses lyrics from certain songs to express the metaphor used in a particular part. House of the Wolfings Title Page 1890

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

uses the first stanza of John Myers O'Hara's poem "Atavism" as the epigraph to ''

The Call of the Wild ''The Call of the Wild'' is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named ...

''. * The epigraphs to the preamble of

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Hol ...

'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. TheWasteLandEpigraph

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...

's novels frequently begin with epigraphs relating to the themes explored. For example, '' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' opens with two: a quotation from Aeschylus's tragedy '' The Libation Bearers'' and a quotation from

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

. * Quotation from

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

's ''The State'' on the title page of every issue of '' The Bohemian Review'', a magazine endorsing independence of Czechs and Slovaks to Austria-Hungary in 1917–1918 (

example Example may refer to: * '' exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, ex ...

Fictional quotations

Some writers use as epigraphs fictional quotations that purport to be related to the fiction of the work itself. Examples include:

In films

* The film '' Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'' opens with a fictional quotation attributed to

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

for comedic effect.

In literature

* Some science fiction works, such as

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

's ''

Foundation Trilogy The ''Foundation'' series is a science fiction book series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories in 1942–50, and subsequently in three collections in 1951–53, for thirty years the series was ...

'', Frank Herbert's ''

Dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

'' series, and Jack McKinney's ''

Robotech ''Robotech'' is a science fiction franchise that began with an 85-episode anime television series produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production and first released in the United States in 1985. The show was adapted from ...

'' novelizations use quotations from an imagined future history of the period of their story. * Fantasy literature may also include epigraphs. For example, Ursula K. Le Guin's ''

Earthsea ''The Earthsea Cycle'', also known as ''Earthsea'', is a series of high fantasy books written by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Beginning with ''A Wizard of Earthsea'' (1968), ''The Tombs of Atuan'', (1970) and ''The Farthest Shore'' ( ...

'' series includes epigraphs supposedly quoted from the epic poetry of the Earthsea archipelago. * The first and last books of

Diane Duane Diane Duane (born May 18, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author, long based in Ireland. Her works include the ''Young Wizards'' young adult fantasy series and the '' Rihannsu'' Star Trek novels. Biography Born in New York ...

's '' Rihannsu'' series of ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'' novels pair quotations from ''

Lays of Ancient Rome ''Lays of Ancient Rome'' is an 1842 collection of narrative poems, or lays, by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Four of these recount heroic episodes from early Roman history with strong dramatic and tragic themes, giving the collection its name. M ...

'' with imagined epigraphs from

Romulan The Romulans () are an extraterrestrial race in the American science fiction franchise '' Star Trek''. They first appeared in the series '' Star Trek'' (1966–1969). They have appeared in most subsequent ''Star Trek'' releases, including '' The ...

literature. *

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

's ''

The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...

'' opens with a poem entitled "Then Wear the Gold Hat," purportedly written by Thomas Parke D'Invilliers. D'Invilliers is a character in Fitzgerald's first novel, ''

This Side of Paradise ''This Side of Paradise'' is the debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive ...

''. **This cliché is parodied by

Diana Wynne Jones Diana Wynne Jones (16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011) was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually d ...

in '' The Tough Guide To Fantasyland''. *

Jasper Fforde Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) is an English novelist, whose first novel, '' The Eyre Affair'', was published in 2001. He is known mainly for his '' Thursday Next'' novels, but has published two books in the loosely connected '' Nursery Cr ...

's ''

The Eyre Affair ''The Eyre Affair'' is the debut novel by English author Jasper Fforde, published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001. It takes place in an alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Char ...

'' has quotations from supposedly future works about the action of the story. *

John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including '' The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is ...

's ''

The Fault in Our Stars ''The Fault in Our Stars'' is a novel by John Green. It is his fourth solo novel, and sixth novel overall. It was published on January 10, 2012. The title is inspired by Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's play ''Julius Caesar'', in which the noble ...

'' has a quotation from a fictitious novel, ''An Imperial Affliction'', which features prominently as a part of the story. *

's ''

The Dark Half ''The Dark Half'' is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1989. ''Publishers Weekly'' listed ''The Dark Half'' as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's ''Clear and Present Danger''. The novel was adapt ...

'' has epigraphs taken from the fictitious novels written by the protagonist. *

Dean Koontz Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as Thriller (genre), suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror fiction, horror, fantasy, science fiction, Mystery fiction, mystery, and satir ...

's '' 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, rather than realizing the work was Koontz' own invention, apparently believed it was a real, but rare, volume; Koontz later collected the existing verse into an actual book. * The ''Ring Verse'' at the beginning of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' describes the

Rings of Power The Rings of Power are magical artefacts in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, most prominently in his high fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings''. The One Ring first appeared as a plot device, a magic ring in Tolkien's children's fantasy n ...

, the central plot device of the novel. * Akame Majyo's ''Time, Anthology'' begins each chapter with an excerpt from a fictional grimoire. * Brandon Sanderson, in his ''

Mistborn ''Mistborn'' is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson and published by Tor Books. The first trilogy, published between 2006 and 2008, consists of ''The Final Empire'', ''The Well of Ascension'', and ''Th ...

'' and ''

Stormlight Archive ''The Stormlight Archive'' is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson, planned to consist of ten novels. As of 2022, the series comprises four published novels and two novellas. The first novel, ''The Way of ...

'' series uses various epigraphs including letters between various gods, so-called "death rattles" and quotes from the villain's diary.

References

Bibliography

External links

Epigraphic
an ever-growing, searchable collection of literary epigraphs
Epigraph
at Literary Devices {{Authority control Literature Book design Quotations sv:Motto

Examples

Fictional quotations

In films

In literature

See also

References

Bibliography

External links