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Work InformationFarnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric by Ward Farnsworth (2010)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. To be an effective guide to rhetoric, this book should have been shorter, with not so many examples. As it is, I found myself reading it mainly as a quotation book--and spending lots of time looking things up in Wikipedia to see what the hell they were actually talking about. As an educated person, I find myself using these rhetorical devices from time to time, but I could have never told you their names. They are just ways that educated, thinking people write, and why we choose one way over another is hard to say. Perhaps there are some who sit down and ask themselves, "What type of rhetorical device will be most effective from the speech I'm about to give." But I'm not too sure of that. Certainly after reading this book, however, even more of these devices are likely to creep into my speech and writing. Many of the example quotes are interesting, and a few of them are funny. They come from literature, the law, and politics mostly. Lots of Lincoln, Dickens, G.K. Chesterton, Edmund Burke, Churchill, and many, many others. Especially lots of Irish politicians. The author is very well read. This isn't something you'll be able to read straight through. A few pages at a time works best. Your mileage may vary. I have been looking for something like this for many years. A text which clearly explains how rhetorical figures are used in English and provides compelling examples for each. Here's a list of just Part III: DRAMATIC DEVICES: 13. Saying things by not saying them: Praeteritio, p. 166 14. Breaking off in midstream: Aposiopesis, p. 182 15. Correcting oneself: Metanoia, p. 194 16. Rhethorical uses of the negative: Litotes, p. 204 17. Rhetorical questions: Erotema, p. 212 18. Asking questions and answering them: Hypophora Anticipating objections and meeting them: Prolepsis, p. 226 There are marvelous examples from Lincoln, Twain, Dickens, Pitt, de Quincy, Melville, Hawthorne, Churchill, Shakespeare, Burke, Chesterton, Fielding, Richardson, Adams, Scott, Johnson, Gladstone, Shelley, Shaw, Byron, Stevenson, Trollope, and the Scriptures. Moreover, the books does not have to be read in a linear fashion, one can flip through it as one pleases. I'm grateful to Mr. Farnsworth for his efforts. I only wish the book were longer.
Although the bulk of the book consists of examples, Mr. Farnsworth's interleaved commentary is valuable. He explains, for instance, polysyndeton: It is the repeated use of a conjunction, as in Mark Twain's "a German daily is the slowest and saddest and dreariest of the inventions of man." In addition, Mr. Farnsworth gives us six reasons to use it, including a certain artless effect, which "may enhance the speaker's credibility." When it comes to asyndeton—the omission of conjunctions, as in Twain's "Munich did seem the horriblest place, the most desolate place, the most unendurable place"—he offers seven such reasons. This is done with modest brevity rather than in a labored and didactic fashion.
Rhetoric is among the most ancient academic disciplines, and we all use it every day whether expertly or not. This book is a lively set of lessons on the subject. It is about rhetorical figures: practical ways of applying old and powerful principles--repetition and variety, suspense and relief, concealment and surprise, the creation of expectations and then the satisfaction or frustration of them--to the composition of a simple sentence or a complete paragraph. --from publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)808.042Literature By Topic Rhetoric and anthologies Rhetoric and anthologies Handbooks for writers EnglishLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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I think this work might be dull for someone without a particular interest in the topic. Even so, I found it frequently entertaining because of the many great example quotations. Farnsworth uses quotes from Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Thomas Paine, Herman Melville, The King James Bible, William Shakespeare, Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton, and many others. I enjoyed many of these, both as an example of the use of a particular figure of speech and in general.
Here are two examples:
1. For Litotes:
She was not quite what you call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot. Mark Twain
2. For Prolepsis:
"Although the fate of Poland stares them in the face, there are thoughtless dilettanti or purblind worldlings who sometimes ask us: "What is it that Britain and France are fighting for?" To this I answer: "If we left off fighting you would soon find out." Winston Churchill ( )