Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition (Initial Situation): A Foreword (or Two) in Your Ear
The Black Prince has a slightly unusual set-up for its exposition, since the novel's narrator and protagonist is also presented to us as the author of the novel itself. Bradley Pearson's foreword to The Black Prince gives us quite a lot of the background information that we need to know about him and about the story he plans to tell us, and it even gives us hints about the story's conclusion.
Rising Action (Conflict, Complication): All He Wants Is to Sell Seashells by the Seashore
Okay, so Bradley Pearson doesn't actually want to sell seashells by the seashore, but he does want to escape to the northern seaside cottage that he's rented for the summer. There, he'll finally have the peace, quiet, and solitude that he needs to write a truly great novel. Or so he thinks.
There's just one problem. Other people keep showing up and distracting him from his plans to leave the city, and, no matter how hard he tries, Bradley just can't seem to get away.
Climax (Crisis, Turning Point): Head Over Heels
There are a couple of major crises in Bradley Pearson's life, but the one that really gets the ball rolling is the moment when Bradley gets knocked head-over-heels in love with Julian Baffin.
This love astounds Bradley and changes the course of his actions completely, and it's the catalyst for the other major crises and climaxes that follow, like the death of his sister, the death of Arnold Baffin, and Bradley's own trial for the murder of Arnold Baffin.
Falling Action: Crime and Punishment
Bradley's love affair with Julian Baffin blazes brightly and then fizzles out so quickly that it can hardly even be called a flash in the pan. As it begins to smoke and die, Bradley experiences a steady stream of ups and downs as the novel barrels towards its conclusion.
Even though being accused of Arnold Baffin's murder seems more like a major crisis than an element of the falling action, it's just one more stepping stone on the way to the final resolution of Bradley's story.
Resolution (Denouement): The Pearson Redemption
Once Bradley Pearson hits prison, the high-intensity aspect of The Black Prince's plotline draws to a close, and Bradley enters into the most contemplative and artistically gratifying period of his life. Bradley's postscript tells us that life in prison has helped him to become a wiser and happier man than he ever was—and all because it provided the fertile ground for his life-changing relationship with his "dear friend" and editor, P. Loxias.
As the popular English philosopher Mick Jagger teaches us, although you can't always get what you want, if you try, sometimes you just might find you get what you need.