I mean books with chapters woven into the novel that serve no purpose in advancing the narrative but offer context about the story being related. Some people even say you could skip these chapters and still “get” the book.
I’m referring to novels like ***Moby Dick***, ***Les Miserables***, and ***War and Peace***. Are there others?
by mac_the_man
2 Comments
*Moby Dick* is the classic example – those cetology chapters felt like homework but honestly they kinda added to the obsessive vibe Melville was going for
*The Stand* by Stephen King has those random character backstory chapters that you could probably skip without missing the main plot
Grab a copy of The Grapes of Wrath because Steinbeck does this perfectly with those intercalary chapters. He spends every other chapter just painting the vibes of the Dust Bowl and the general misery of the era while the main plot takes a breather. You could technically skip them and follow the family, but you would lose all the grit that makes the book a masterpiece. Its basically world building before it had a fancy name.