Parts / Chapters

I don't have any books I can pull out to check but I am 99% sure that they generally continue with chapter numbers. Though really, it's your book so do whatever you want.

I've seen them continue.

I would continue with the chapter numbers. I believe I've seen it done this way. It has probably been done the other way, too.

I continue.

Usually, the chapter numbers continue. I've read many books that are divided into "Book I," "Book II," "Book III," and so forth, and the chapter numbers are always sequential, without restarting. I think it would be very confusing to have a Chapter One in the middle of the book. The only time I would say this might work is if that section of the novel features a different MC and takes place in a different time and/or place. Even then, it would still throw me off.

I continue, and that's also how my editors had me do it, so I think it is therefore acceptable. Ultimately though it's your stylistic choice, if you want to make a statement going back to chapter one, I say go for it .

Chiming in with everyone else, I would continue. Also something to think about is that some books with separate 'books' don't number their chapters, though that might be confusing.

I look at my copy--the Signet translation--of The Brothers Karamazov and find that the volume is divided into four "parts". Each "part" consists of two or more "books." Each "book" is divided into chapters. The "parts" and "books" are sequentially numbered (1-4 and 1-12). The chapters in each book are numbered starting with one. Thus, "The Alarm" is chapter 2 of book IX in Part Three while "At His Father's" is chapter 2 of Book IV of Part Two.

But this does seem a bit confusing, I think. To put it mildly.

ElizabethJMW said:

At the beginning of a new Part do you start at Chapter One again or continue on with the chapter numbers? For example, if Part One ended with Chapter Five would Part Two start with Chapter Six or Chapter One? It's really bugging me that I can't remember and have no books on hand in this format to reference.

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It doesn't matter how you do it, but a publisher may prefer one style over another, however you submit it.

I continue the numbering, but I've seen it done both ways.

I recently read a book that had parts but the chapters weren't named (chapter 1, 2, ect)

ElizabethJMW said:

At the beginning of a new Part do you start at Chapter One again or continue on with the chapter numbers? For example, if Part One ended with Chapter Five would Part Two start with Chapter Six or Chapter One? It's really bugging me that I can't remember and have no books on hand in this format to reference.

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I'm reading Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity right now, and it's broken up in "books." I just started reading book 3, chapter 23. So, to answer your question, and following a sucessful writer like Ludlum, continue with the chapter numbers.