What is a prologue and what purpose does it serve?

Question: What is a prologue and what purpose does it serve!?

Please help!.Can you explain what a prologue is and what purpose does it serve and also why cant they just go to the 1st chapter!.!.ASAP!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

A prologue is not mandatory to read to understand the story but if you're really interested in the story, you can read the prologue to see how the character's life started out!. Same with the epilogue!. If the actual book ends with someone dying or something, the epilogue will explain how that affected the charcter and their life!. Hope that helped!!Www@QuestionHome@Com