Chapter 1. Discovery

Terry Pratchett wrote thirty-two Discworld books with­out chap­ters. “I just never got into the habit of chap­ters.” His plots zip along and don’t suf­fer for the lack of for­mal breaks, but it is a no­tice­ably unique trait among mod­ern nov­els.

Terry Pratchett’s thirty-third Discworld book does have chap­ters. But again he breaks with his peers. After two pro­logues (The Nine-Thousand-Year Prologue and the One-Month Prologue), here’s how the first chap­ter starts:

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Chapter 1: The Angel

☞ In which our hero ex­pe­ri­ences Hope, the great­est gift ❄ The ba­con sand­wich of re­gret ❄ Somber re­flec­tions on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from the hang­man ❄ Famous last words ❄ Our hero dies ❄ Angels, con­ver­sa­tions about ❄ Inadvisability of mis­placed of­fers re­gard­ing broom­sticks ❄ An un­ex­pected ride ❄ A world free of hon­est men ❄ A man on the hop ❄ There is al­ways a choice

The ef­fect here is old-timey and in­ter­est-piquing. I’ve since found this tech­nique used in other mod­ern books, usu­ally also to amus­ing ef­fect. In older works where spoil­ers are not a con­cern, I’ve seen them used to ori­ent the reader.

Chapter 2. Names

But what are these bul­let-pointed chap­ter sum­maries called? I fig­ured there was a more spe­cific term than “summary” or “synopsis”.

Epigraphs

Webster’s 1913 says an epi­graph is, “A ci­ta­tion…placed at the be­gin­ning of a work or of its sep­a­rate di­vi­sions.” This is close, but the Going Postal sum­maries don’t come from an­other work (not even an­other fic­tional work, like in Dune).

Bridgeheads

While brows­ing “The Standard Ebooks Manual of Style” (as one does), I found the term “bridgehead”:

Bridgeheads are sec­tions in a chap­ter header that give an ab­stract or sum­mary of the fol­low­ing chap­ter. They may be in prose or in a short list with clauses sep­a­rated by em dashes.

And for an ex­am­ple, the guide lists the bridge­head for Three Men in a Boat, which the sec­ond book in which I found this tech­nique. Case solved?

As far as I can tell, “bridgehead” in the sense of chap­ter head­ings was coined for hy­per­text. My guess is Standard Ebooks got the term from ei­ther DocBook or The DAISY Consortium.

A term that ex­isted when these books were writ­ten would be prefer­able…

Arguments

I asked this ques­tion on Literature Stack Exchange back in 2017. DukeZhou sug­gested these are ex­am­ples of “arguments”. The Loeb Classical Library in­cludes an ar­gu­ment be­fore each Greek drama: a one or two-page sum­mary of the play to help new read­ers fol­low the nar­ra­tive (ex­am­ple).

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says an ar­gu­ment can be, “An ab­stract or sum­mary of a book, or the heads of the sub­jects”. Wikipedia pro­vides the ex­am­ple of the book sum­maries Milton wrote for the sec­ond edi­tion of Paradise Lost:

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Book 1

This first Book pro­poses, first in brief, the whole Subject, Mans dis­obe­di­ence, and the loss there­upon of Paradise wherein he was plac’t: Then touches the prime cause of his fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who re­volt­ing from God, and draw­ing to his side many Legions of Angels, was by the com­mand of God dri­ven out of Heaven with all his Crew into the great Deep.

When writ­ing about “spoilers” be­ing a mod­ern con­cept, Kelly Cumbee men­tioned that Orlando Furioso opens each book with an ar­gu­ment. (That post im­pelled me to fin­ish this piece, which sat as a draft for years!)

Argument is the right an­swer, but I do wish there were a term for ar­gu­ments in lists in­stead of para­graphs. I pro­pose to call them “bulleted ar­gu­ments”.

Chapter 3. Bulleted Argument Examples

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Chapter I

Childhood in Tennessee — Runs away — New Orleans — Fights — Is shot — To Galveston — Nacogdoches — The Reverend Green — Judge Holden — An af­fray — Toadvine — Burning of the ho­tel — Escape.

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Chapter II.

Night: The Flock: An Interior: Another Interior.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Chapter 1: The Angel

☞ In which our hero ex­pe­ri­ences Hope, the great­est gift ❄ The ba­con sand­wich of re­gret ❄ Somber re­flec­tions on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from the hang­man ❄ Famous last words ❄ Our hero dies ❄ Angels, con­ver­sa­tions about ❄ Inadvisability of mis­placed of­fers re­gard­ing broom­sticks ❄ An un­ex­pected ride ❄ A world free of hon­est men ❄ A man on the hop ❄ There is al­ways a choice

The Iliad by Homer (William Cullen Bryant trans­la­tion)

Book I: The Contention of Achilles and Agamemnon

The visit of Chryses, Priest of Apollo, to Agamemnon, ask­ing the ran­som of his daugh­ter⁠—Re­fusal of Agamemnon⁠—A pesti­lence sent by Apollo upon the Greek army⁠—A Council called by Achilles⁠—The cause of the pesti­lence de­clared by the Seer Calchas⁠—Dispute be­tween Agamemnon and Achilles, which ends with the tak­ing away of Briseis from Achilles⁠—The daugh­ter of Chryses re­stored to him⁠—Visit of Thetis to Jupiter, who promises to avenge Achilles⁠—Mutual chid­ing of Jupiter and Juno.

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Chapter 1

☞ Waiting in dark­ness ❄ A bar­gain sealed ❄ The hang­ing man ❄ Golem with a blue dress on ❄ Crime and pun­ish­ment ❄ A chance to make real money ❄ The chain of gold­ish ❄ No un­kind­ness to bears ❄ Mr. Bent keeps time

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

Chapter I

Three in­valids⁠ — Sufferings of George and Harris⁠—A vic­tim to one hun­dred and seven fa­tal mal­adies⁠—Use­ful pre­scrip­tions⁠—Cure for liver com­plaint in chil­dren⁠—We agree that we are over­worked, and need rest⁠—A week on the rolling deep?⁠—George sug­gests the River⁠—Montmorency lodges an ob­jec­tion⁠—Orig­i­nal mo­tion car­ried by ma­jor­ity of three to one.

Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome

Chapter I

Three men need change — Anecdote show­ing evil re­sult of de­cep­tion — Moral cow­ardice of George — Harris has ideas — Yarn of the Ancient Mariner and the Inexperience Yachtsman — A hearty crew — Danger of sail­ing when the wind is off the land — Impossibility of sail­ing when the wind is off the sea — The ar­gu­men­ta­tive­ness of Ethelbertha — The damp­ness of the river — Harris sug­gests a bi­cy­cle tour — George thinks of the wind — Harris sug­gests the Black Forest — George thinks of the hills — Plan adopted by Harris for as­cent of hills — Interruption by Mrs Harris

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

Chapter 1

A Search Party—Wartime Headgear—The Problem of Nepotism—Royal Headgear—The Bishop’s Bird Stump Is Missing—Jumble Sales—A Clue To Its Whereabouts—Astronomical Observations—Dogs—A Cat—Man’s Best Friend—An Abrupt Departure