Research Catalog

Title

The elements of eloquence : secrets of the perfect turn of phrase / Mark Forsyth.

Author

Forsyth, Mark

Publication

• New York : Berkley Books, 2014.
• ©2013

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 239 pages; 20 cm

Summary

From classic poetry to pop lyrics, from Charles Dickens to Dolly Parton, even from Jesus to James Bond, Mark Forsyth explains the secrets that make a phrase--such as "O Captain! My Captain!" or "To be or not to be"--memorable. In his inimitably entertaining and wonderfully witty style, he takes apart famous phrases and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare or quip like Oscar Wilde. Whether you're aiming to achieve literary immortality or just hoping to deliver the perfect one-liner, The Elements of Eloquence proves that you don't need to have anything important to say--you simply need to say it well. In an age unhealthily obsessed with the power of substance, this is a book that highlights the importance of style.

Subjects

• Instructional and educational works
• Literature
• English language > Style

Genre/Form

Instructional and educational works.

Note

• Originally published: London : Icon Books, 2013.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (page 237).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Preface: On cooking blindfolded -- Alliteration -- Polyptoton -- Antithesis -- Merism -- The blazon (a merism too far) -- Synaesthesia -- Aposiopesis -- Hyperbaton -- Anadiplosis -- Periodic sentences -- Hypotaxis and parataxis (and polysndeton and asyndeton) -- Diacope -- Rhetorical questions -- Hendiadys -- Epistrophe -- Tricolon -- Epizeuxis -- Syllepsis -- Isocolon -- Enallage -- A divagation concerning versification -- Zeugma -- Paradox -- Chiasmus -- Assonance -- The fourteenth rule -- Catachresis -- Liotes -- Metonymy and synecdoche -- Transferred epithets -- Pleonasm -- Epanalepsis -- Personification -- Hyperbole -- Adynaton -- Prolepsis -- Congeries -- Scesis Onomaton -- Anaphora -- Peroration -- Epilogue concerning terminology.

ISBN

• 9780425276181 (pbk.)
• 042527618X

LCCN

^^2015410727

OCLC

• 889886474
• SCSB-11997793

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library