Thinking about Authors' Notes

Epigraphs and Authors’ Notes

The Epigraph and the Author’s Note are literary conventions a novelist sometimes uses to direct or guide his (or her) reader’s understanding of the work. Quite a lot of information on these topics is available online, so my discussion will be brief. I shall begin with the Author’s Note because it’s more straightforward.

Author’s Note

The Author’s Note (AN) is just what it says it is. It’s a note or little essay in which the author speaks directly to the reader and provides information related to the writing of the novel. The same idea is used nowadays by film makers, who take advantage of the DVD format to include a “The Making of…” filmlet.

Strictly speaking, you don’t need to read the AN to understand a novel just as you don’t have to watch a “The Making of” film to know what’s going on in a movie. However, if you do read/watch the authorial/directorial explanation, your understanding and enjoyment of the book/movie will be enhanced. And just as you may want to watch the movie and form your own opinions and judgment before you listen to the director’s explanations, you may want to read the AN after you’ve read the novel.

One of my favourite ANs is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Preface to The Marble Faun. I know, I know, I tend to cite books that aren’t on the world’s best-seller lists. But if you can get hold of a copy, it’s worth reading the AN. It’s not only witty, it’s also candid. Here’s what he says about the “gentle, kind, benevolent, indulgent, and most beloved and honored Reader” that every author writes for and appeals to:

The ‘Gentle Reader,’ in the case of any individual author, is apt to be extremely short-lived; he seldom outlasts a literary fashion, and, except in very rare instances, closes his weary eyes before the writer has half-done with him. If I find him at all, it will probably be under some mossy-gravestone, inscribed with a half-obliterated name which I shall never recognize.

Perhaps it is because writers tend to feel there’s little hope of finding readers who truly understand and appreciate them that they feel the need to write ANs. This is especially the case when writers are experimenting with their craft—either venturing into a new area of discourse, trying out a new narrative technique, or writing for a new readership. So very often ANs are used by novelists to explain and justify what they’re trying to do. While they may not go so far as to analyze and interpret their novels for the reader, they do provide information such as:

· what inspired them;

· the circumstances in which they wrote;

· their sources and resources;

· their special concerns while writing the novel;

· their reasons for choosing a particular form or narrative technique.

Joseph Conrad, who admitted to having a propensity to justify his actions, was very good at supplying information like that.

Not all ANs are explanations and justifications.

Some are simple disclaimers. When authors draw inspiration from historical and contemporary events (e.g. a celebrated murder case), they usually make use of the AN to write a disclaimer to draw the line between fiction and reality, explaining which parts of the fictional account are reliant on actual facts, and which are pure fiction.

Some function like an appendix. An example is Pat Barker’s AN to her novels, The Ghost Road, Regeneration, and The Eye in the Door, in which she provides not only information about the historical figures mentioned in her novels but also includes lists of books for further reading.

Some function like epigraphs. In the AN to Green is the Colour (1993), Lloyd Fernando tells us that the novel was suggested by an episode in Misa Melayu, an 18^th century Malay literary and historical text, and provides a summary of the episode without comment. In this case, the reader has to read and interpret the source text as if it were a literary text in order to identify themes, characters, imagery etc in the novel. How the reader understands the source text will influence his/her approach to and understanding of the novel.

Next: Epigraphs