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The Elements Of Eloquence: How To Turn The Perfect English Phrase (2013)

by Mark Forsyth(Favorite Author)

4.33 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1848316216 (ISBN13: 9781848316218)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Icon Books

review 1: Did you know there’s a word for unnecessary words in a sentence (pleonasm)? Mark Forsyth knows the words that classify the structures of famous phrases. From alliteration to epistrophe to zeugma, he explains the figures of rhetoric that make speeches, stories, and poems memorable. His writing is fun and entertaining. Even the suggested reading list contains one of the best puns I’ve seen in a while. He capped a description of one writer by saying he “built huge rococo sentences filled with trapdoors and secret passages and little subordinate clauses dancing around.” It’s worth reading even if you are not a writer for his sheer enjoyment of words.
review 2: I have long been fascinated by the mysteries of rhetoric, that ancient liberal art which seems, ... moreof late, to have fallen out of fashion. This book was a thoroughly absorbing introduction to one aspect of it, rhetorical figures. As always the author combines information with humour, often in unexpected ways. illustrated throughout with examples ge various figures are easily explained to the point you will see them popping up everwhere. I can't recommend enough if you are interested in language and its use. less

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